Paganini's life was not only full of legends, but also his almost unprecedented violin skills, which added a lot of mythology; the twenty-four capriccios he wrote for unaccompanied violin were among the most famous at that time. It was even believed that no one could play it except Paganini.
Paganini was not yet twenty years old when he composed the twenty-four Caprices. At that time, he was already famous throughout Europe. His miraculous performance on stage, music full of romantic passion and strong energy, combined with his magical, mysterious, skinny face, and devilish typhoon make him a must-see for concert tickets in any city. They are often sold out in an instant, making it hard to get a ticket. Wherever he went, there was a sensation, forming a Paganini surge that swept across Europe.
On the one hand, Paganini traveled around the world to perform, and on the other hand, he continued to create many works that used many unique and new techniques he invented to show off his skills for himself to perform in concerts. , the effect of shocking everyone with his skills is maintained because of the constant emergence of new techniques.
The emergence of Paganini gave the violin extraordinary vitality. The performance of the violin was completely transformed, exuding a charming brilliance, and brought about the trend of pursuing superb skills; the performance of various musical instruments Everyone was stimulated to seek breakthroughs in technique. Liszt was attracted by Paganini's superb performance when he was young, and he wanted to become the "Paganini of the piano". From this, the piano became more popular in the future. The realization of Liszt's wish made him a radiant instrument capable of playing brilliant colors.
Paganini’s superb violin playing skills were unbelievable to those who witnessed his performance. Coupled with his devilish appearance on stage, his performance was related to the devil. Rumors continued to spread. The most widely circulated one is that he sold his soul to the devil in exchange for extraordinary playing skills.
In fact, Paganini himself had spread some rumors intentionally or unintentionally to mythologize his performance. For example, he once told a story: When he was imprisoned, the strings on his violin were broken one by one, and finally only one was left. In this way, he figured out how to play with only one string. tips.
Although Paganini claimed that most of his extraordinary skills were self-taught, in fact, he had studied with several violin teachers. His father, a store owner, was his first teacher. He discovered very early that his son, who was born in Genoa on October 27, 1782, had unusual musical talent. When Paganini was only four years old, he learned violin, guitar, and guitar under his father's guidance. Mandolin; at the age of nine, he performed Pleyel's concerto in public for the first time.
Paganini was also very talented in composition. He wrote his maiden work Violin Sonata (now lost) at the age of eleven. However, what allowed his compositional talent to mature was the development of his composition at the time. MARCHESE DI NEGRO, a nobleman who loved music, had a lot to do with it. Thanks to Negron's assistance, Paganini was able to reach a wide audience through a series of concerts arranged by Negron; more importantly, with Negron's introduction, Paganini was able to live up to his standards at the time. He made friends with a group of famous musicians, which greatly expanded his understanding of music history and literature, and added significant capital for him to enter the world of music creation.
Paganini was inspired to compose the twenty-four capriccios because he first saw Pinto Locatelli (PIETRO LOCATELLE) in the music library of Negro. 's Caprice sheet music.
Locatelli's twenty-four capriccios were written in 1733, but what Paganini wrote was completely different. Each piece of music creation has a distinct musical image, and several of them are particularly famous and are therefore considered With different titles, such as the sixth song "MYSTICAL", the ninth song "THE HUNT", the eleventh song "ROMANCE AND TARANTELLA" (ROMANCE AND TARANTELLA), the tenth song Three "Devil's Laughter", No. 14 "MARCH", No. 20 "PASTORALLE", No. 21 "SERENADE", No. 23 "MILITARY" ).
Paganini created a large number of works throughout his life. The famous composer Schumann, who was engaged in music criticism, considered him to be the best composer in Italy at that time. However, Paganini was afraid that his extraordinary skills would be mastered by others. He not only insisted on not letting anyone be present when practicing piano to increase his personal mystery, but also published only a few works. The four capriccios were published as work number 1 thirty years after their publication, becoming the earliest published works during his lifetime; and it was not until nine years after his death that he published four more capriccios. Numbered music includes sonatas for violin and guitar, opus 2 and 3, and quartets for violin, viola and cello, opus 4 and 5.
Paganini’s twenty-four capriccios brought a lot of creative inspiration to composers of his generation. Famous ones such as Brahms, Schumann, and Liszt all wrote them Some of the music has been arranged as piano music with piano accompaniment. Among them, the most popular fourteen pieces are written in the form of theme plus variations. The theme of this piece has inspired many composers. Brahms borrowed the theme to write "Variations on a Theme of Paganini". Lachman Nilov used it to write the "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" and Liszt compiled the sixth piece as the first piece of the "Paganini Etudes".
However, for violinists, these twenty-four capriccios were a nightmare, and violinists at that time regarded them as a daunting prospect. The difficult techniques used in this work, such as double overtones, two-tone playing, left-hand pizzicato, and leaping staccato, are even said to be shunned by the devil. In fact, until the first half of the 20th century, although there were many great violinists, no one had publicly performed all 24 Paganini Caprices, and no one had dared to record them all! Masters such as FRITZ KREISLER, JASCHA HEIFETZ, NATHAN MILSTEIN, and DAVID OISTRATTI often played only three or four of them, and only Franska ZINO FRANCESCATTI and YEHUDI MENUHIN often perform or record, reaching half of the twenty-four pieces.