From the ARCHIVE

Violinist and Paganini expert Julius Siber gives some biographical notes on the ‘demon violinist’ to mark the 150th anniversary of his birth

FROM THE STRAD

NOVEMBER 1932

VOL.43 NO.511

Though barely ninety years have elapsed since the death of Paganini, he has already become somewhat of a legendary figure. It is, in any event, a fact that he was one of the most remarkable and mysterious personalities of all times. Even in death he was fated to find no rest. His body was buried and re-buried no less than nine times. When he died, in 1840, the Bishop of Nice forbade consecrated burial, because no baptism certificate could be found. The Pope permitted the burial, but shortly afterwards it was again prohibited, the body was placed in a vault, then in a hospital, next it was buried near the sea, then again in Parma. It will now again, perhaps, be interred a tenth time, as Mussolini contemplates having the body conveyed to Genoa, his birth-place.

Occultists have always believed that Paganini, owing to his unbridled ambition, had grown to be a sort of moral vampire, who even to-day (for he was too greatly attached to the realities of life), restless and drooping, seeks restoration by imbibing the vital forces of the living. Mysteries such as this, and others, were very early woven around his figure. In 1829 a Tyrolese paper already wrote that the progenitor of Paganini could not be an ordinary human being, but must have been an “incubus,” a male demon.

A current view is that Paganini was very tall. That is an error. The poet Matthiesson saw the violinist when about to enter a chaise in order to visit Goethe, and he describes him as a little man who only produced the impression of being taller than he was owing to his extreme leanness and his long trailing cloak.

A remarkable fact which is not generally known is that Paganini was far from possessing that certainty and confidence in his own playing, from the first to the last stroke of the bow, which is attributed to him. The great Virtuoso possessed the most perfect technique ever attained by a violinist, and yet each time he began to play he was not sure of himself, he was possessed by stage fright to an incredible extent, and the first bars which he played clearly betrayed his utter nervousness.

It is very unlikely that Paganini was ever in prison, as is alleged. A Pole, Duranowski by name, who was condemned to imprisonment for life for murder, bore an uncanny resemblance to Paganini. Besides this, he was a very fine violinist. For this reason Paganini, with or without evil intention, was frequently confused with the murderer in question. Perhaps the rumour of his imprisonment was not displeasing to him at a time when he still needed a little indirect advertising (which was already practised in those days), later on, however, it became very painful to him and he denied it categorically.

NATIONAL MUSIC MUSEUM