Magic Fiddlers!
The violinist Niccolo Paganini was an amazing man with legendary capabilities as a fiddler. All sorts of stories emerged during his life in the 1700’s about his incredible musicianship.
Paganini was also a composer. He wrote mostly music that he could perform on his own, or together with one or two other musicians.
Paganini’s Caprices for solo violin are extremely challenging for any violinist, because they require total mastery of the instrument. In addition, this music has been adapted by composers who followed Paganini. Rachmaninoff composed his Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini for piano and Orchestra which rightfully became very famous.
The violinist Nathan Milstein composed a piece that he called “Paganiniana”, in which he took the original Paganini manuscript and created a set of additional variations on one of the Paganini themes.
Here is Nathan Milstein, playing his own composition:
And now, for comparison, let’s see what Hilary Hahn does with the same piece:
Terrific, Huh?
Tags: Paganini, Nathan Milstein, Hilary Hahn