He was one of the most celebrated violin virtuosi of his time and has left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique. His several compositions have served as an inspiration for many prominent composers to date. His father was a trader but not a successful one. At the age of 5, Niccolo started learning the mandolin from his father. After that, he moved to the violin by the age of seven. His exceptional musical skills were quickly recognized and earned him numerous scholarships for violin lessons.
The young Paganini learned under several local violinists, including Giovanni Servetto and Giacomo Costa. But very soon he became better than them. Paganini then traveled to Parma with his father to seek further guidance from Alessandro Rolla. Mobbed in the street and rumored to have a deal with the devil to achieve the heights of his virtuoso performances, he ultimately became considered the greatest violinist of all time.
Paganini's father was in the shipping business, but he also played the mandolin and began teaching his son the violin at an early age. Paganini's mother had high hopes of her son becoming a famous violist.
When Paganini had exhausted his father's abilities, he was sent to the best tutors in Genoa, primarily in the theater, where he learned harmony and counterpoint.
His first recorded public performance was at a church on May 26, , when the boy was not yet 12 years old. So, the boy moved on to Alexandro Rolla in Parma, who was so impressed with the prodigy that he felt the wisest course for him was composition.
After an intensive course of study, Paganini returned to Genoa and began composing and performing, primarily in churches. He also set his own schedule of rigorous training, sometimes 15 hours a day, practicing his own compositions, which were often quite complicated, even for himself.
By , Paganini, who was used to touring with his father by this time, went to Lucca to perform at the Festival of Santa Croce. Paganini died of larynx cancer on 27 May, in Nice, France. Before his death, he turned away a priest offering him last rites, the final prayers Catholics receive at the end of their lives. A week later, Paganini died without receiving the last rites and his local church refused to bury his body on consecrated ground — even though he was a member of the Order of the Golden Spur.
Over the next four years, his corpse would be transported on an extraordinary tour of Europe. His embalmed body was left on his deathbed in Nice for two months, before it was transferred to the cellar of the house, where it remained for over a year. After his local church refused to bury him, his body was later taken to an abandoned leper house, before being moved to a cement vat in an olive oil factory and later to a private house near Nice.
See more Paganini News. Discover Music. Paganini's career was checkered: gambling, love affairs, rumors of his being in league with the devil, and rumors of imprisonment, which he frequently denied in letters to the press. In love with a Tuscan noblewoman, he retired to her palace, where he became completely absorbed in the guitar from to On returning to the violin he performed a love duet by using two strings of the violin and then surpassed this by playing a piece for the G string alone.
In Paganini appeared in a "contest" in Milan with Charles Philippe Lafont and later remarked, "Lafont probably surpassed me in tone but the applause which followed my efforts convinced me that I did not suffer by comparison.
Similar triumphs followed in Paris and London. In he invited Hector Berlioz to write a piece for him for the viola; Harold en Italie was the result. Paganini played frequent concerts for the relief of indigent artists.
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