Paganini - Violin Concerto No. 2 'la Campanella'

When Niccolo Paganini wrote his 2nd violin concerto, he took a different route than his 1st Violin Concerto. The first is full of fiery, virtuoso doings for the violin and was written as a vehicle to show off Paganini's playing ability. In the 2nd, he concentrates more on the melodic and lyric aspects and puts a lid on some of the virtuoso pyrotechnics - but not completely. Paganini knew how to dazzle an audience, whether it was the lightning fast movement of his bow and fingers, to the achingly beautiful melodies he wrote.

I. Allegro maestoso - The first movement begins with the strings playing a B minor chord in tremolos, with two major themes being stated by the orchestra before the entrance of the soloist. The orchestra plays a somewhat larger role than in the first concerto, and has some sections where it carries the structure and development of the music without the soloist. The composer in Paganini strove for more cohesive music making, rather than it being all about the soloist.

II. Adagio -  Paganini made his first visit to Vienna in the first of his concert tours of central Europe in 1828. His reputation had made the rounds before his arrival, and being just as great a showman as musician, he helped fan the flames of expectation by making the social rounds before the first concert. When the evening of the concert came, the hall was not completely full, as Paganini charged what many thought was too high for a ticket. But the concert was a rounding success, and Franz Schubert had the opportunity to attend one of his concerts, and is said to have remarked, I have heard an angel sing. Perhaps this adagio movement was what Schubert spoke of.  The orchestra sets the mood for the soloist in the opening of this movement. The solo violin sings an aria that shows Paganini's fondness for Italian opera.

III. Rondo à la clochette - The cohesiveness of the violin and orchestra in the first movement and the violin's singing of the operatic aria in the second are all well and good, but it is this last movement that caused the riotous success of the concerto. Paganini takes every opportunity to showcase his abilities in violin technique, some of which he developed himself. And he was very secretive about his music. His concertos were not published until after his death, at concerts he distributed the orchestral parts only at the last minute and showed no one the solo part. Clochette is French for 'little bell', and indeed a little bell is heard throughout the movement, with the soloist imitating it with harmonics on occasion. The movement was such a success that it spawned all kinds of transcriptions and popular arrangements of it. Franz Liszt used it in his interpretive set of six Paganini compositions, Grandes Études de Paganini.

Paganini - Violin Concerto No. 1

 Niccolo Paganini wrote his first violin concerto in 1817-1818 and the solo part shows that his dazzling technique was already in evidence. The audiences marveled at his technique and the new effects of violin playing he had developed.

Paganini was very secretive about his 'tricks of the trade' and didn't include the part for solo violin with the score. When he would play the concerto, only the orchestral parts would be given to the appropriate players and there was many times no rehearsal of the work. One of the tricks he used in the concerto was that the orchestra parts were written in E-flat major while his solo part was written in D major with his solo violin mistuned a semitone higher so that he was actually playing in E-flat. All of that is pretty confusing for the average listener, but in simple terms this trick allowed Paganini to play effects in E-flat that he couldn't with an ordinary tuning and it also helped the violin to be in a greater tonal contrast with the orchestra.

The concerto shows the influence of Italian Opera of Paganini's time, specifically Rossini's operas and especially the Bel Canto style of singing in them. Paganini was accused of being less than a serious musician by some in his day for his tricks and going out of his way to please the crowd, but the seriousness of his intentions with this first concerto shows that he was, above everything else, a very skilled and passionate musician. 

I. Allegro maestoso - The concerto begins with the orchestra calling the listener to attention with loud chords, and then the themes are presented in the usual form of an exposition in sonata form. The orchestra plays for a relatively long time before the soloist enters, and the first theme is a rhythmic one that is highlighted by drums, brass and cymbals.  The soloist enters and takes up the themes and expands upon them considerably in form and ornament, while also adding new material.  There is another section for orchestra alone, which leads to the soloist joining the orchestra in loud chords as the beginning of the movement. The second theme is given a melancholy variation in the development section in a minor key, with many examples of the soloist playing alone using some of the techniques of violin playing that Paganini had devised and made famous.  The recapitulation has the soloist displaying the themes with more technical wizardry until a cadenza is played. After more razzle-dazzle from the soloist in the cadenza, the orchestra returns and closes out the movement with the themes that opened it.

II. Adagio espressivo - the second movement shows the depth of feeling and how dramatic Paganini could be in his music. The orchestra plays a prelude for the entrance of the soloist, who plays an uncomplicated tune to pizzicato and bassoon accompaniment.  It is like listening to a mini-dramatic opera, with not any flashes and trickery of technique (at least not obvious ones). Paganini makes the violin sing like an opera singer.  The movement reaches a climax, and then the soloist returns to the long aria it is playing, with the orchestra giving a discreet accompaniment. The music grows in loudness as the music dwells in a major key for a section. This doesn’t last very long before the music turns to the minor again.  The brass plays loud chords that slowly grow quiet while the soloist gives ad answers to it. But at the very last, the music ends in a major key.

III. Rondo - Allegro spiritoso - The fireworks come back in the rondo finale as Paganini's bow ricochets off the violin strings as the soloist plays the theme. The theme is repeated to set it in the ear before new material is introduced. The first episode showcases the soloist in the higher register of the instrument in chords in harmonics. The movement is filled with impressive techniques as the rondo theme is played between episodes of new material. A short cadenza is played, and then soloist and orchestra approach the loud ending. 

Paganini - Variations On 'I Palpiti', Opus 13

Long before recorded sound, arias from operas were the hit songs of their day. All through the 19th century, composers and performers extracted the most popular arias and subjected them to arrangements, sets  of variations and paraphrases (as Franz Liszt called them) for performance. Music publishers were fond of these arrangements as they made money on them by selling to professionals as well as accomplished amateurs.

The famed virtuoso violinist Niccolò Paganini wrote sets of variations on opera tunes and was most likely the only violinist that could play them at the time. Paganini used many of his own compositions and sets of variations for concerts and recitals that took Europe by storm in the early 19th century. Many of these were never published during his lifetime, as he guarded his music that revealed the means of his astounding technique from any would-be rivals.

The Variations On I Palpiti are based on an aria from the 1813 opera Tancredi by Gioachino Rossini. The opera was Rossini's first large success, and the aria Di tanti palpiti (Heartbeats) was one of his most popular tunes of his career.

Rossini

Paganini uses the technique of retuning the open strings of the violin (scordatura) in this piece. It was one of his tricks that lead to more brilliance in his instrument as well as making some of the passages more feasible. The regular violin tuning of G-D-A-E was changed to A-flat, E-flat, B-flat and F.
There are 3 sections to the work:

I. Introduzione: Larghetto cantabile - The piano part is written in B-flat major while the violin part is written in A major due to the scordatura tuning. This section has the violin singing in a highly decorated introduction.

II.Recitativo, con grande espressione - The music turns to B-flat minor as Paganini shows his own operatic flair in a short section where the piano plays tremolos as the violin sings a recitative.

III. Andantino - After a short transition, Rossini's theme is played. The repeat of the theme is conservatively decorated as Paganini saves the fireworks for the 3 variations on it that follow.

Variation 1 - All manner of triple and double stops, runs, and articulations rush forth in a variation that also includes some runs in harmonics, stopped notes high in the stratosphere and parts where Paganini directs the soloist to play the same note on two strings at once.

Variation 2 -Un poco piu lento - The harmonics of the preceding variation are expanded as much of this variation is played in single stopped as well as double stopped harmonics, an incredibly difficult thing to do for the soloist.

Variation 3 - Quasi presto - The final variation has an increase in tempo as double stops lead to runs played pizzicato in the left hand that alternate with bowed notes as well.  A last statement of the theme brings the work to a brilliant close.

This work has been edited in years gone by when changes in the original composer's music was not only tolerated but expected. The edition by Fritz Kreisler is often played instead of the original and has many changes in both the piano and violin parts. The recording linked below is of Paganini's original score, and save for a few bars of violin chords that begin the work with the piano, the work is complete in its original form.

Paganini - Le Streghe

One of the first musical superstars, Niccolò Paganini not only was influential in advancing the art and technique of playing the violin, his compositions inspired other composers as well. While most of Paganini's compositions were written to showcase his enormous technical abilities, they also showed his lyrical and dramatic side.  Composers from the progressive Liszt to the more traditional Brahms (and many others) took inspiration from his music that combined brilliant technique with flashes of expressive musicality.

Although news of his tremendous abilities spread, Paganini didn't begin touring outside of his native Italy until1828. He toured all of Europe and Britain until 1834 when he retired from the concert platform due to poor health. Paganini died in Nice, France in 1840 but his last request to be buried in his birthplace of Genoa, Italy was refused by the Catholic church because he had refused the last rites and was thought to have been in league with the devil because of his musical abilities. His body laid in the hospital at Nice for a time, was sent to Genoa but was not allowed to be buried.  The body was finally laid to rest in Parma in 1876.

The rumors of Paganini being in league with the devil began early on. One of Paganini's early compositions helped create the rumor, Le Streghe or in English, The Witches. The composition is for solo violin and orchestra and is based on a tune that Paganini heard in a performance of a ballet in Milan in 1813. The ballet, Le nozze di Benevento was a revision of an earlier ballet written in 1803 with music by Franz Xaver Süssmayr, a composer most well known for having finished Mozart's Requiem. The tune announces the entrance of the witches in the ballet, hence the name given the piece by Paganini.

After an introduction by the orchestra, a tune is played by the soloist with a light accompaniment, a short cadenza for the soloist leads to Süssmayr's theme which is followed by three variations. The first variation has double and triple stops, the second variation pizzacatos, harmonics and wide leaps, a section in a minor key in octaves, and the third variation played on the G-string combined with double stopped harmonics.  The coda of the piece has Paganini round off the piece with yet more fireworks for the violin.


 

Paganini - Violin Concerto No. 3 In E Major

Paganini began making his reputation as early as 1813 before he toured Europe. His reputation was made in tours of his native country of Italy.  His First Violin Concerto was the only one of his own that he performed until he made serious plans to tour Europe in the 1820's.  He rapidly composed two more violin concertos for his planned tour, Number Two in B minor and Number Three in E Major.

Paganini began his European tour in Vienna in 1828 and performed these three concertos to great acclaim. Paganini would distribute the orchestral parts of the concertos only at the last minute and always played his solo part from memory. In those days before copyright, music was constantly being 'pirated' by music publishers with the composer getting nothing in return for their work. Paganini amassed a large fortune from his concert tours, not least of all because he was so secretive with his music.

All three of these concertos follow the same general plan of three movements, as do contemporary works of the genre.  These concertos are Italianate in style, like the music of Paganini's countrymen Rossini and Donizetti. The middle slow movements of the concertos are like short operatic scenes for violin and orchestra, while the first and last movements are more involved.  As Paganini was the violin virtuoso of his age, the solo violin parts ask for a brilliant technique that covers all aspects of violin playing. They are still demanding works to play nearly 200 years after their composition, so it's no wonder that Paganini caused such a furor with his playing of them. The music world had never seen or heard the likes of Paganini before.

Violin Concerto No. Three begins with an introduction for orchestra, as do the first two concertos.  The orchestra then proceeds with the exposition of the first movement. Paganini's orchestration is colorful, straightforward and competent, but with a difference in timbre perhaps caused by Paganini using the guitar as his preferred instrument for composing. Berlioz also played the guitar, and his orchestrations have a slightly different sound also. The violin enters and immediately takes center stage as the orchestra takes its role as accompaniment.  The solo violin expands on the themes earlier stated by the orchestra until a place for a cadenza is reached, after which the orchestra brings the movement to a close.

The 2nd movement is a sweet aria for violin and pizzicato strings with the woodwinds adding pastel colors.

The 3rd movement is a Rondo in the tempo of a polonaise, a Polish dance.  The violin dialogues with the orchestra in different episodes between repeats of the main theme. Paganini uses left-hand pizzicati, flying bow work, double stops, harmonics, the whole gamut of  pyrotechnics for the violin until the work comes to a close.

Paganini - Violin Concerto No. 5

Say the name Paganini to a modern music lover and the first impression would most likely be of a virtuoso violinist dazzling the the early 19th century audiences with his 'tricks of the trade'. To be sure, Paganini was a great showman who did barnyard imitations on his violin and other things to please the crowd. But he was much more than a showman. He was also consummate musician in the best sense of the term.  With no technical barriers to hinder his musical expression, he could give wing to his musical imagination and touch the hearts of such outstanding musicians as Schumann, Chopin and Schubert.  The slow movements of his violin concertos were less about the fireworks and more about the passionate musician Paganini could be. His tone could be heart-rending, and he could play as if he were an angel.

Many composers used the piano as an aid to composition in one way or the other. Paganini was not proficient on the piano. The instrument he used as a compositional aid was the guitar. This no doubt shows in his handling of the orchestra. And after all, his primary motive was to showcase the violin with a accompaniment that was as non-instrusive as possible.

The 5th Violin Concerto was written towards the end of his career, and only the solo part exists. The orchestral parts have been reconstructed from the solo part and are a very fair representation of how the concerto could have sounded. The reconstruction was done in 1959 by Frederico Mompellio and follows Paganini's style very well.

Like most of Paganini's concertos, the 5th is very operatic in nature. The first movement is the longest of all three, and it is written in the sonata form mold so prevalent in first movements of the era. After a drum roll and a few chords to get our attention,  the movement begins with a long orchestral introduction of the primary themes, with the first being borrowed from some of his other compositions.  The oboe is entrusted with a theme of its own later in the introduction and the orchestra repeats it which leads to the repeating of the primary theme. There is a rousing cadence and the theme is taken over by the violin. The music shifts back and for the from major to minor keys, and of course the violin is the 'star' of the concerto.   The violin plays with a simpler passion in the second movement as it decorates the music while subduing the technical fireworks.  The finale is a Paganini rondo as much as any he ever wrote as the tune keeps returning, is decorated, is spattered out with remarkable virtuosity in places and is gently stated in others. It is the perfect vehicle to show a violinist's technique and musicality. That is exactly what Paganini wrote it to do.

Paganini - Violin Concerto No. 4

The modern day equivalent of the mania that Paganini (and Liszt) experienced would be the attention rock stars receive. Paganini was a brilliant violinist that almost single-handedly  transformed violin technique, but he was also a great showman.  The clothes he wore on stage, the 'tricks' he did with the violin such as imitating barn yard animals, and the mystique brought about by the legend that he gained his playing skills by trading his soul to the devil, all added to the general clamor and hysteria of audiences that heard him.

But there was more to the man than a brilliant violinist and charismatic stage presence. He was a very good composer with a gift for melody. Both Berlioz and Rossini admired his compositions. But Paganini's attitude toward his music did not do much for its popularity. Paganini didn't publish any of his violin concertos in his lifetime. He guarded his compositions closely, only letting the orchestra see the music the day of the concert at rehearsal and the performance, then he would at the end of the concert gather up all the parts and take them with him. He basically wrote the concertos for his use and his use only.

In an age that saw music as a very current event, Paganini constantly needed something different for his concerts. Paganini's orchestra can sometimes seem like nothing more than an accompaniment, but after all, they were written to showcase his violin playing.  Also, Paganini was not a piano player as so many other composers were. He could play the violin, viola and the guitar. Berlioz also played the guitar, and this no doubt influenced Paganini as it did Berlioz. Composer/pianists tend to favor harmonies as laid out on the keyboard while composer/guitar players would favor harmonies spread further apart because of the nature of the instrument. The guitar is also capable of a great deal of tone color depending on which string is used to play a given note.

The 4th Violin concerto begins with the usual orchestral exposition of the main themes of the movement. The opening theme is dramatic and grabs our attention. The second theme is more lyrical and light, and Italian in mood. The violin enters, and the fireworks begin and go throughout the movement. The second movement is a quasi-opera in its drama. The third movement has the violin utter the first theme to the accompaniment of a triangle. The orchestra dances, the violin joins in the dance and takes a few steps of its own before the concerto's brilliant ending.

To anyone familiar with Paganini's First and Second Violin Concertos,  some similarities are obvious.  But the reason audiences came to his concerts was to hear the greatest violinist of the age. Paganini knew what the crowd wanted, and he gave it to them. If it was in a form already familiar to them, all the better to be able to concentrate on his playing.

Paganini- Caprice No.24 For Solo Violin

Nicolò Paganini (1782 - 1840) was an Italian violinist, guitarist and composer. Paganini was perhaps one of the greatest violinists that ever lived. He expanded violin technique far beyond what was thought possible in his time. His influence was not only brought to bear on technique, but his compositions inspired many other composers.

Paganini studied under many violin teachers but his progress was so swift that he outgrew them. He held a few minor court posts before he went on concert tour of Italy.  He continued touring Italy until he gave a concert in Milan, Italy in 1813 where he drew a lot of attention, not only from his playing but his womanizing and gambling also.  He gained in notoriety so much that he began touring Europe in 1828 to wild acclaim. He continued tours of Europe and England until he quit concertizing in 1834 due to poor health.

He was a rare combination of genuine artist and showman as he would do animal imitations with his violin, play an entire piece on one string, and other stunts that pleased the crowds and made some think he was a charlatan. But he was a serious musician and composer as his compositions show. Paganini's prowess with the violin was so great that there were rumors that he had made a pact with the devil to be able to play so magnificently. This rumor persisted even after his death, in nice, France as he was denied a Catholic burial because of his being in league with the devil.  After four years and an appeal to the Pope, the body was allowed to be shipped to Genoa, Italy but it still was not buried until 1876 in Parma, Italy26 years after his death.

His 24 Caprices For Solo Violin , Opus One, were written between 1802 and 1817. They were published in 1819.

Each one of the 24 exploits a specific technical issue, so they are actually etudes for the violin.  Except the Caprice #24. This caprice throws a myriad of technical problems at the player as a summing up of all that has gone before with the other twenty three. It is a set of variations on an original theme that has inspired many other musicians to write their own set of variations on it, including Brahms, Rachmaninoff, Schumann, Liszt and many others. His compositions remain a paragon of violin technique and musicality even after so many years past his death.

Paganini's Caprice #24 For Solo Violin: