Star.
London, England, 1831-05-11 00:00:00

TAGANTNT.

Prom the Foreign Quarterly Review.
In estimating the labour which it must have cost a performer like
l'aganini to have arrived at such transcendent excellence, people are
often apt to err in their ailcisiatinns as to the actual extant of time and
practice which has been devoted to its acquisition. That the perfect
;tense's-dee of the nteehoniete of the instrument which his performance
exhibits, and his almost incredible skill and dexterity in its manage.
ne-nr, must necessarily have been the result of severe discipline, Is
beyond all question ; but more, much more, in every case of this kind,
is to be ascribed to the system upon which that discipline has pen-
etedvi, and to the genies and enthusiasm of the artist. The miracu-
lous powers of Peennini in the opinion of his auditors were not to be
accounted for in the ordinary way. To them, it was plain that they,
must have sprung from a life of a much more settled and secluded
east than that of an itinerant Italian musical professor. It was
equally clear, from his wild, haggard, and mysterious looks, that he
was no ordinary personage, and bad seen no common vicissitudes.
The vaults of a dungeon, accordingly, were the local habitation which
public rumour, in its love of the marvellous, seemed unanimously to
assign to him. a* the only place where " the mighty magic" of his
how could possibly have been acquired. Then, as to the delinquency
which led to his incarceration, there were various accounts. Some '
imputed it to his having been a captain of banditti ; others, only a car-
!tuna° ; some to his having killed a man in a duel: but the more cur-
rent and generally received story was, that he had stabbed or poisoned
his wife, or, as some said, his mistress ; although, as fame had
aseribed to him no fewer than four mistresses, it was never clearly
made out which of his seraglio it was who had fallen the victim
of his vengeance. The story not improbably might have arisen
from his having been confounded with a contemporary violin.
player, of the name of Duranovrski, a Pole, to whom in person
he bore some resemblance, and who, for some offence or other
having beer. imprisoned at Milan, during the leisure which his capti-
vity afforded had contrived greatly to improve himself in his art; and
when once it was embodied into shape, the fiction naturally enough
might have obtained the more credence, from the fact that two of his
moat distinguished predecessors, Tartini and Lolly, bad attained to the
great mastery which they possessed over their instrument during a pe-
riod of solitude, the one within the walls of a cloister, the other in.the
privacy and retirement of a remote country village. At all events, the
rumours were universally circulated and believed, and the innocent and
much injured Paganini had for many years unconsciously stood forth in
the eyes of the world as a violator of the laws, and even a convicted
murderer, not improbably, to a certain extent, reaping the golden fruits
of that • bad eminence;' for public performers, as we too often pee,
who have once lost their good name,' so far from finding themselves,
in the words of /ago, poor indeed.' generally discover that they have
only become objects of greater interest and attraction. How long he
lied lived in the eujoyment of this supposed infamy, and all the be-
nefits accruing from it, we really cannot pretend to say ; but he seems
never to have been made fully aware of the formidable position in which
he stood until he had reached Vienna, when the That; iced Geseitc, in
reviewing his first concert, dropped some pretty broad hints as to the
rumoured misdeeds of his earlier life. Whereupon he resolved at once
publicly to proclaim his innocence, and put down the calumny; for
which purpose, on the 10th of April, 1828, there was inserted in the
leading Vienna journals a manifesto, in Italian as well as Getman, sub.
scribed by him, declaring that all these widely circulated rumours were
false; that at no time, and under no Government whatever, had he ever
offended against the laws, or been put under coercion ; and that he bad
always demeened himself as became a peaceable and inoffensive member
of society ; for the truth of which he referred to the magistracies of the
different states under whose protection he had till then lived in the pub.
lic exercise of his profession.
" That such fictions should have got wind. is not at all to be won.
tiered at ; for, besides the circumetances which we have above noticed,
the romantic gaiety of his disposition, and his love of gallantry in his
younger days, were constantly prompting him to seek ativentutes and
arnusemer.t by assuming different ditguises and characters. Indeed,
the pleasure which he felt in making his andience stare and gape with
astonishment was not always confined to the concert-room ; it would
teem that he would sometimes draw a long bow of another description,
and enliven the conversation by retailing humorous anedotes of his own
invention. His masquerading propensities frequently found vent in
travelling, and among strangers where he was lust known ; and we are
mid that, upon one occasion, finding himself seated nig-a-via in a dili-
gence with a very rich but not a very bright fellow-passenger, he con-
trived to dispel the tedium of the journey by passing himself oW for a
certain well-known brigand, whose name at that time spread consterna.
Lion and alarm throughout all Romagna—an announcement which, as
it was any thing but belied by his personal appearance, produced an
effect upon his companion of which, perhaps, we tray form some idea
by figuring to ourselves a condemned criminal on his way to execution.
"His whimsicalities, his love of fun, and many other points of his
character, are sometimes curiously exemplified in his fantasies. He
imitates in perfection the whistling and chirrupping of birds, the tink-
ling and tolling of bells, and almost every variety of tone which ad-
mits of being produced ; and in his performance of Le Streghe (The
Witches,) a favourite interlude of his, where the tremulous voices of the
old women are given with a truly singular and laughable effect, his via
emits finds peculiar scope.
" His command of the back-string of the instrument has always
been an especial theme of worder and admiration, anti, in the opinion
of some, could only be accounted for by resorting to the theory of the
dungeon, and the supposition that his other strings being warn out,
and not having it in his power to supply their places, he had been
forced from necessity to take refuge in the string in question—a no-
tion very like that of a person who would aesert, that, for an opera
dancer to learn to stand on one lee the true way would be to have but
one leg to stand upon. We shall give Pagnitini's explanation of this
mystery in his own words.
" At Lucca, I had always to direct the opera when the reigning
family visited the theatre; I played three times a week at the Court,
and every fortnight superintended the arrangement of a grand concert
for the Court parties, which, however, the reigning princess, Rhea
Bacciocbi Princess of Lucca and Piombino, Napoleon's favourite sis.
ter, was not always present at, or did not hear to the close, ns the
harmonic tones of my violin were apt to grate her nerves, but there
never felled to he present another much esteemed lady who, while I
bad long admired her, bore (at least so I imagined) a reciprocal feel.
ing towards me. Our passion gradually increased, and as it was ot-
eeimaiy to keep it concealed, the footing on which we stood with each
other, became in consequence the more interesting. One t'sy I mo-
n-bed to surprise her, with a musical jeu d'esprit, which should have
refetence to our mutual attachment. I accordingly announced for
performance a comic novelty, to which I gave the name of Live
Scene." All were curiously impatient to ':now what this should turn
out eo he, when at last I appeared with my violin, from which I
had taken rB' the two middle strings, leaving only the E and the G
.tring. Ily the first of these I proposed to represent the lady. by the
other the gentleman, and I proceeded to play a port of dialogue, in
which I attempted to delineate the capricious quarrels aped reconcilia-
elens of lovers ; at one time scolding each other, at another sighing and
makire tender advances, renewing their professions of love and esteem,
and finally winding up die scene in the utmost good burnout and de.
light. Having at last brought them into a state of the most perfect
harmony, the united pair lead off a pas de deux, concluding with a bril.
dent finale. The mu-ical scene went off with much eclat. The lady,
who understood the whole perfectly, rewarded me with her gracious
looks, the Princess was all kindness, overwhelmed me with applause,
and, after complimenting me upon what I had been able to effect upon
the two strings, expressed a wish to hear what I could execute upon one
string. I immediately assented, the idea caught my fancy ; and as the
F.mperor's birth-day took glace a few weeks afterwards, I composed my
Sonata Napoleon' for the 0 string, and performed it upon that day
le•fore the court with so much approbation, that a cantata of • internee,
following immediately after it upon the same evening, ma completely
extinguished. and produced no effect whatever. This is the first and
true cause of my partiality for the C string and as they were always
desirity to hear more of it, one day taught another, until at last my
proficient/ in this department was completely eetablisbed.
" We know no one who has been more. =city misrepresented than
the subject of this notice. In reality a person of the gentlest and most
inoffensive habits, he is any thing rather than the &velem ruffian he
has been described. In his demeanour he is modest and un;:sanming,
in his (lisp sitien liberal and generous to a fault. Like most artists, ar-
dent a.ul eilluisiastic in his temperament, and in his actions very much
a creature of impulse, lie is full of all that unaffected simplicity which
we almost invariably find associated with true genius. Helen an only
son, by a Signora Antonia Bianchi, a singer from Palermo, with whose
he lived fur several years until the summer of 1828, when he ens unties
the necessity of separating from her in consequence of the extreme vio-
lence of her temper, and in this little boy all his affections are concen-
trated. He is a very precocious child, and already indicates soon signs
of musical talent. Being of a delicate frame of health, Paganini never
can hear to trust him out of his sight. "If I were to lose hint," says
he, " I would be lost myself; it is quite impossible that I can ever se-
parate myself from hint ; when I awake in the night, he is my lint
thought." Accordingly, ever since he parted front his mother, he has
himself enacted the part of a child's nurse ; and that our readers may
form some idea of the manner in which he acquits himself in this new
capacity, and of the character of the young Paganini, we shall here insert
a description with which we are furnished by a friend of his who hap-
pened to call upon him at his lodgings at Prague, in 1828, in order to
take him out to dinner. We may mention that the youth goes by the
classical cognomen of Achilles Lyrus Alexander.
" • Evety thing was lying in its usual disorder; here one violin,
there another, one snuff-box on the bed. another under one of the boy's
play things. Music, money, caps, letters, watches and boots, were
scattered about in the utmost confusion. The chairs, tables, and even
the bed had all been removed from their proper places. In the midst of
the chaos sat Paganini. his black silk nightcap coveting his still blacker
hair, q yellow handkerchief carelessly tied round his neck, and a cho-
oolate-eoloured jacket hanging loose upon his shoulders. On his
in' es he held Achillino, his little son of four years of age, at that
time in very bad humour becanse he bad to allow his hands to be
wattled. •

" His affectionate forbearance is truly astonishing. Let** boy be
e er so .rutwlcstEne, he never gets angry, bat merely tutus round and

obesevis to twee meant, 4 The poor child is wearied, I do not know
what I shall do, I am already quite worn out with playing with him.
I have been fighting with him all the morning, I have carried him
about, made him chocolate, I do not know what more to do:—
It was enough to make one die of laughing, to see Paganini is his
slippers fighting with his little son, who reached to about his hose i
sometimes the little Aebillino would get into a rage, draw his tablet
upon his father, who would retreat into a corner of the room, and call
out Enough, enough lam wounded already i• but the little fel-
low would never leave of until be had had his gigantic adversary tot-
tering and prosttate on the bed.
In the discharge of his filial duties, Paganini has always shown
himself to be quite as exempluy as in that of ►is parental. The wealth
which he hu amassed has been partly applied to provide for the corn.,
torts of his aged mother, and not unfrequendy dispensed in acts of
bounty towards his more necessitous relations and Mends. Having
now traversed Getmany, Paris, and London, will complete his profes-
sional tour, after which he intends to revisit Ida native city, and to see
his mother once more."