Info:
Duration: 73’ 13”
Narrated by Christopher Nupen
Featuring:
John Williams
Gidon Kremer
Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana (conducted by Lawrence Foster
Niccolo Paganini created perhaps the most elaborate and enduring legend of all instrumental soloists in the history of Western music but as so often with legends, the excitement and the chatter obscured the true figure both of the man and of the artist.
In this film, Allegro Films looks at the legend and the strange man who created it all with his dazzling combination of technical brilliance, supreme showmanship, Italian melody and unbridled manipulative skill; a man whose extraordinary personality unsettled even the most sophisticated and educated of minds and provoked wildly contradictory opinions.
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Paganini exploited all of it and used the legend to make himself not only the most talked about performer of his time, but also the wealthiest by a long, long way. In time this provoked envy and resentment and, finally, a pitiable isolation. But through all of it he served his gift with commitment and dedication. Despite his enduring ill health he drove himself forward with an energy that astonished almost all who came into contact with him, and as only a man with an unshakeable faith in his destiny could possibly do. Along the way, he wrote a great range of original and memorable music, changed violin playing decisively and created the age of the romantic virtuoso. By the end, however, his unbending quest for gold and for glory had robbed him slowly of almost everything else.
Paganini died in Nice on the 27th May 1840 in the company of his only son Achilles, who had become his constant companion, his aide and translator and his greatest solace in his isolation and illness. He was 57 years old.
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