Love-making was also among the diversions which Paganini began early
to practice. Like nearly all great musicians, he was an object of great
fascination to the fair sex, and his life had its full share of amorous
romances. A strange episode was his retirement in the country château of
a beautiful Bolognese lady for three years, between the years 1801
and 1804. Here, in the society of a lovely woman, who was passionately
devoted to him, and amid beautiful scenery, he devoted himself to
practicing and composition, also giving much study to the guitar (the
favorite instrument of his inamorata), on which he became a wonderful
proficient. This charming idyl in Paganini's life reminds one of the
retirement of the pianist Chopin to the island of Majorca in the company
of Mme. George Sand. It was during this period of his life that Paganini
composed twelve of his finest sonatas for violin and guitar.
When our musician returned again to Genoa and active life in 1804, he
devoted much time also to composition. He was twenty years of age,
and wrote here four grand quartets for violin, tenor, violoncello,
and guitar, and also some bravura variations for violin with guitar
accompaniment. At this period he gave lessons to a young girl of Genoa,
Catherine Calcagno, about seven years of age; eight years later, when
only fifteen years old, this young lady astonished Italian audiences by
the boldness of her style. She continued her artistic career till the
year 1816, when she had attained the age of twenty-one, and all traces
of her in the musical world appear to be lost; doubtless, at this period
she found a husband, and retired completely from public life.
In 1805 Paganini accepted the position of director of music and
conductor of the opera orchestra at Lucca, under the immediate patronage
of the Princess Eliza, sister of Napoleon and wife of Bacciochi. The
prince took lessons from him on the violin, and gave him whole charge of
the court music. It was at the numerous concerts given at Lucca during
this period of Paganini's early career that he first elaborated many of
those curious effects, such as performances on one string, harmonic
and pizzicato passages, which afterward became so characteristic of his
style.
But the demon of unrest would not permit Paganini to remain very long
in one place. In 1808 he began his wandering career of concert-giving
afresh, performing throughout northern Italy, and amassing considerable
money, for his fame had now become so widespread that engagements poured
on him thick and fast. The lessons of his inconsiderate past had already
made a deep impression on his mind, and Paganini became very economical,
a tendency which afterward developed into an almost miserly passion for
money-getting and -saving, though, through his whole life, he performed
many acts of magnificent generosity. He had numerous curious adventures,
some of which are worth recording. At a concert in Leghorn he came on
the stage, limping, from the effects of a nail which had run into his
foot. This made a great laugh. Just as he began to play, the candles
fell out of his music desk, and again there was an uproar. Suddenly the
first string broke, and there was more hilarity; but, says Paganini,
naively, "I played the piece on three strings, and the sneers quickly
changed into boisterous applause." At Ferrara he narrowly escaped an
enraged audience with his life. It had been arranged that a certain
Signora Marcolini should take part in his concert, but illness prevented
her singing, and at the last moment Paganini secured the services of
Signora Pallerini, who, though a danseuse, possessed an agreeable voice.
The lady was very nervous and diffident, but sang exceedingly well,
though there were a few in the audience who were inconsiderate enough to
hiss. Paganini was furious at this insult, and vowed to be avenged. At
the end of the concert he proposed to amuse the audience by imitating
the noises of various animals on his violin. After he had reproduced the
mewing of a cat, the barking of a dog, the crowing of a cock, etc., he
advanced to the footlights and called out, "Questo è per quelli che
han fischiato" ("This is for those who hissed"), and imitated in an
unmistakable way the braying of the jackass. At this the pit rose to
a man, and charged through the orchestra, climbed the stage, and would
have killed Paganini, had he not fled incontinently, "standing not on
the order of his going, but going at once." The explanation of this
sensitiveness of the audience is found in the fact that the people of
Ferrara had a general reputation for stupidity, and the appearance of
a Ferrarese outside of the town walls was the signal for a significant
hee-haw. Paganini never gave any more concerts in that town.
As he approached his thirtieth year his delicate and highly strung
organization, already undermined by the excesses of his early
youth, began to give way. He was frequently troubled with internal
inflammation, and he was obliged to regulate his habits in the strictest
fashion as to diet and hours of sleep. Even while comparatively well,
his health always continued to be very frail.
Paganini composed his remarkable variations called "Le Streghe" ("The
Witches") at Milan in 1813. In this composition, the air of which was
taken from a ballet by Sussmayer, called "Il Noce de Benevento," at the
part where the witches appear in the piece as performed on the stage,
the violinist introduced many of his most remarkable effects. He played
this piece for the first time at La Scala theatre, and he was honored
with the most tumultuous enthusiasm, which for a long time prevented the
progress of the programme. Paganini always had a predilection for Milan
afterward, and said he enjoyed giving concerts there more than at any
other city in Europe. He gave no less than thirty-seven concerts here
in 1813. In this city, three years afterward, occurred his interesting
musical duel with Lafont, the well-known French violinist. Paganini
was then at Genoa, and, hearing of Lafont's presence at Milan, at
once hastened to that city to hear him play. "His performance," said
Pagani-ni, "pleased me exceedingly." When the Italian violinist, a week
later, gave a concert at La Scala, Lafont was in the audience, and the
very next day he proposed that Paganini and himself should play together
at the same concert. "I excused myself," said Paganini, "alleging that
such experiments were impolitic, as the public invariably looked upon
these matters as duels, in which there must be a victim, and that it
would be so in this case; for, as he was acknowledged to be the best of
the French violinists, so the public indulgently considered me to be
the best player in Italy. Lafont not looking at it in this light, I was
obliged to accept the challenge. I allowed him to arrange the programme.
We each played a concerto of our own composition, after which we played
together a duo concertante by Kreutzer. In this I did not deviate in the
least from the composer's text while we played together, but in the solo
parts I yielded freely to my own imagination, and introduced several
novelties, which seemed to annoy my adversary. Then followed a 'Russian
Air,' with variations, by Lafont, and I finished the concert with my
variations called 'Le Streghe.' Lafont probably surpassed me in tone;
but the applause which followed my efforts convinced me that I did not
suffer by comparison." There seems to be no question that the victory
remained with Paganini. A few years later Paganini played in a similar
contest with the Polish violinist Lipinski, at Placentia. The two
artists, however, were intimate friends, and there was not a spark
of rivalry or jealousy in their generous emulation. In fact,
Paganini appears to have been utterly without that conceit in his own
extraordinary powers which is so common in musical artists. Heine gives
an amusing illustration of this. He writes: "Once, after listening to a
concert by Paganini, as I was addressing him with the most impassioned
eulogies on his violin-playing, he interrupted me with the words, 'But
how were you pleased to-day with my compliments and reverences?'" The
musician thought more of his genuflexions than of his musical talent.