Tabloid Paganini?

Synopsis

If TikTok influencers were around in Paris in 1831, they would probably have offered a breathless special edition report on a concert that occurred on today’s date that year.

Everybody who was anybody was there: from the literary world, French novelist Victor Hugo, author of Les Misérables, don’t you know, and writer Alfred de Mussett, who they say was living in sin with that scandalous baroness, who went by the name of George Sand. Oh, and German poet Heinrich Heine was there, and from the music world, three of the leading opera composers of the day: foreign-born Giacomo Meyerbeer and Luigi Cherubini, and popular native son, Jacques Halevy. And who could miss the dashing, lion-maned Hungarian pianist Franz Liszt also seated in the theater?

They were all there to witness the Parisian debut of the most charismatic performer of his time, Italian violinist Nicolo Paganini. It was whispered that the fourth string on his violin was made from the intestine of his mistress, murdered at his own hand, and that he had spent 20 years in prison for the crime, with his violin his sole companion. Others hinted he had actually made a pact with Satan, trading his immortal soul for superhuman virtuosity! He looked like death warmed over, thin and gaunt, but played like a man possessed.

Music Played in Today's Program

Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840): Caprice No. 10; James Ehnes, violin; Telarc 80398

On This Day

Births

• 1737 - Bohemian composer Josef Mysliveczek, in Ober-Sarka; He was a friend and colleague of Mozart

• 1839 - Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky (Gregorian date: Mar. 21)

• 1910 - American composer Samuel Barber, in West Chester, Pennsylvania

• 1930 - American composer and jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman, in Forth Worth, Texas

Deaths

• 1706 - Burial date of German composer Johann Pachelbel, 52, in Nuremberg

Premieres

• 1740 - Handel: oratorio L’Allegro, il Penseroso, ed il Moderato, and Organ Concerto No. 1, in London (Julian date: Feb. 27)

• 1748 - Handel: oratorio Joshua, in London at the Covent Garden Theater. The event possibly included the premiere of Handel’s Concerto a due Cori No. 1 as well (Gregorian date March 20).

• 1842 - Verdi: opera Nabucco (Nabucodonosor), in Milan at the Teatro alla Scala

• 1844 - Verdi: opera Ernani, in Venice at the Teatro La Fenice

• 1849 - Nicolai: opera Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor (after Shakespeare’s play The Merry Wives of Windsor), in Berlin at the Königliches Opernhaus

• 1868 - Thomas: opera Hamlet, (after Shakespeare’s play Hamlet) at the Paris Opéra

• 1877 - Tchaikovsky: symphonic-fantasy Fancesca da Rimini, in Moscow (Julian date: Feb. 25)

• 1924 - Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 5 (first version), in Paris, by the composer. A revised version of this sonata premiered in Alma-Ata (USSR) on February 5, 1954, by Anatoli Vedernikov.

• 1930 - Weill: opera Die Aufsteig und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny), in Leipzig at the Neues Theater

• 1941 - Cowell: Symphony No. 2 (Antropos), in Brooklyn

• 1951 - Honegger: Symphony No. 5 (Di Tre Re), by the Boston Symphony, Charles Munch conducting

• 1980 - Earle Brown: Caldar Piece, for percussionists and mobile, in Valencia, California

• 1982 - Berio: opera La Vera Storia (The True Story), in Milan at the Teatro alla Scala

Others

• 1831 - Italian violin virtuoso Nicolo Paganini makes his Parisian debut a the Opéra; Composers in the audience include Meyerbeer, Cherubini, Halvéy and Franz Liszt (who transcribes Pagnini’s showpiece La Campanella for piano). Also in attendance are the many famous novelists and poets, including George Sand, Victor Hugo, Alfred de Mussset and Heinrich Heine.