(Nik’-ko-lo Pa-ga-ne’-ne) 1782–1840 Italian violinist and composer The foremost virtuoso in the history of the violin, Paganini contributed significantly to the development of the instrument’s technique and drew Romantic composers, especially Liszt, to the potential of instrumental virtuosity in expanding expressive range and impact. Paganini first studied with his father, who made him practise long hours, and ...
technical innovation and virtuoso display, they were very much sons of their age. Nineteenth-Century Developments For various reasons – among them the pervasive influence of the ‘demon fiddler’ Nicolò Paganini (1782–1840) and the growing interest in orchestral and operatic music – the piano music of the nineteenth century is full of figures with repeated notes in imitation of the violin ...
1820s his composition pupils included the young Liszt. Recommended Recording: Leonora, soloists, Bavarian Radio SO (cond) Peter Maag (Decca) Introduction | Early Romantic | Classical Personalities | Nicolò Paganini | Early Romantic | Classical ...
every facet of piano technique, and many of his most difficult works stem from this impulse, including the fearsomely difficult first versions of the Transcendental Studies and the Paganini Studies. However, a more lasting and profound inspiration was drawn from Beethoven. Liszt’s approach to form, to a declamatory melodic style and use of dramatic instrumental recitative, ...
(Jo-van’-ne Bat-tes’-ta Ve-ot’-te) 1755–1824 Italian violinist and composer The most influential violinist between Giuseppe Tartini (1692–1770) and Paganini, Viotti is considered the founder of modern violin playing. He studied with Gaetano Pugnani and played in the royal chapel orchestra at Turin for five years (in the back desk of the first violins), before going on tour with his teacher. Viotti moved ...
1988. At the peak of his abilities, Becker was known as a shredder with exceptional technique who demonstrated his mastery at clinics. He studied the works of violinist Nicolò Paganini, arranging the composer’s Fifth Caprice, and performing it in an instructional guitar video. Becker’s compositions feature high-speed scalar and arpeggio passages. At 20, Becker replaced Steve Vai ...
Paris in 1831, he was introduced to Paganini’s style of violin playing. He toured Italy (1833–35) before returning to Paris to give a concert at the Opéra (apart from Paganini, he is the only violinist ever to do so). In 1840 he played Beethoven’s ‘Kreutzer’ Sonata in London with Liszt. He continued to tour extensively, and in later ...
(Violin, b. 1966) Violinist Regina Carter has stabilized her instrument’s precarious role in jazz after advanced work in classical, jazz-pop and experimental formats. From childhood Suzuki lessons (a method of teaching music that stresses listening over reading skills), she joined the Detroit-based band Straight Ahead, then the String Trio of New York. She was a featured soloist in ...
, then in 1935 to the US. There, alongside a legendary virtuoso concert career, he composed his Fourth Piano Concerto (1926), the dramatic Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini (1934), the Third Symphony (1938) and Symphonic Dances (1940). Though sometimes labelled ‘conservative’ for its Romanticism in a modern age, Rachmaninov’s music has won enduring recognition on account of ...
A leading figure of 1980s ‘neo-classical’ rock guitarists, Yngwie Malmsteen (b. 1963) learned his breakneck arpeggios and baroque composing style from classical composers and performers as well as rock artists. His own sweep-picking technique, his use of harmonic scales and pedal tones and his aggressive playing have helped create his distinctive style. Born in Stockholm, Sweden, Malmsteen’s ...
Italian opera, remained extremely popular. Here the orchestra’s primary purpose was to support the soloist’s technical display. The soloist in the finale of Violin Concerto No. 1 (1817–18) by Paganini, for example, plays high chords, brilliant runs and ‘ricochet’ effects in which several bouncing notes are played on one stroke of the bow. Similarly, although Weber’s ...
Anton Rubinstein (1829–94), the French Impressionists Debussy and Maurice Ravel (1875–1937), and the great pianist-composers Ferruccio Busoni (1866–1924) and Rachmaninov are all unthinkable without the realization by both Liszt and Paganini that virtuosity can be elevated to the status of great art. As Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921) later remarked: ‘A difficulty overcome is a thing of beauty. Performance | Serge Diaghilev | ...
that of Hamlet, proved inspirational; Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique similarly paints a personal, albeit phantasmagorical, journey. In the concert hall, virtuoso soloists such as Liszt and Nicolò Paganini (1782–1840) came to be seen as creative geniuses, musical heroes of the age. Introduction | Early Romantic | Classical Arts & Culture | Paris Conservatoire | Early Romantic | ...
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