Paganini: String Quartet in A Minor, MS 20 No. 3 & 3 Duetti concertante, MS 130

Featuring

Gabriele Pieranunzi
Fabrizio Falasca
Francesco Fiore
Alessandra Leardini
Paolo Carlini
Niccolò Paganini

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Composition History

Paganini composed his three string quartets in 1815 while at the court of Elisa Baciocchi in Lucca, where he was also studying the guitar.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Paganini greatly admired Ludwig van Beethoven and frequently played his quartets, demonstrating a cultural openness at a time when Beethoven's later works were not yet understood.

Composer Biography

Nicolò Paganini, the famous virtuoso, was also deeply interested in chamber music, often playing first violin in string quartets with trusted colleagues.

Compositional Technique

In the "Tre Duetti Concertanti," Paganini ensures both the violin and bassoon share the leading role, systematically exchanging parts and exploiting their technical and expressive qualities equally.

Compositional Technique

Paganini's string quartets blend the virtuoso dominance of the first violin, influenced by Italian instrumental traditions and Rossinian opera, with the sonata form of the Viennese Classicists.

Composer Biography

Paganini composed the "Tre Duetti Concertanti" at age 17 in Livorno for a Swedish amateur bassoonist who complained about not finding difficult music.

Composition History

The manuscript for Paganini's "Tre Duetti Concertanti for Violin and Bassoon" was rediscovered in 1990 among the papers of his only known pupil, Camillo Sivori.