All biographical notices of Paganini, with the exception of that
in Riemann's "Dictionary of Music," give February 18th, 1784, as
the date of birth. The correct date seems to have been established
when the centenary celebration took place, in 1882.
Anders, and others after him, give the name of the second
singer as Albertinotti. No such name can be traced, and it is
probable that it was the young Bertinotti, who was a juvenile
prodigy, appearing in opera at the age of twelve. She sang in
London about the year 1812.
William Gardiner many years later spoke of the transparent
delicacy of Paganini's complexion, and said of his little son Achille
that he was the handsomest boy he had ever seen.
Cimarosa, who died in 1801, espoused the revolutionary cause
when the French army entered Italy, and was imprisoned and
condemned to death when the reaction came, but was restored to
liberty on condition of leaving Naples. He would, naturally, have
been popular with the Bonapartists, and it was rather ungenerous
vanity on the part of Paganini to have exulted over this particular
success.
With the exception of a Literary Supplement to the "New
Musical and Universal Magazine," 1774, there was no publication
devoted to Music until the year 1818, when "The Quarterly Musical
Magazine and Review" appeared, edited by Robert Mackenzie
Bacon. This was followed in 1823 by "The Harmonicon," edited
by William Ayrton.
Lady Morgan, in her book, "France in 1829-30," gives an
account of the Giraffe just then arrived in Paris. The animal was
added to the collection in the London Zoological Gardens in 1836.
The spelling betrays an ignorance of the instrument, though
the writer must have been Chorley himself. Interest in those
antique instruments had not then been revived, nor were there
artists to play upon them.
In the Musical World of February 16th, 1843, there is a
paragraph stating that Paganini's remains were still unsepulchred,
the corpse lying in an uninhabited house.
Duranowski, a talented Polish violinist. He entered the
French army and was aide-de-camp to a General. He lost his rank
when released; returned to his violin, and was living at Strassburg
up to 1834.
Little is now known of this artist. He married Veronica, sister
of the pianist and composer J. L. Dussek, and was the father of
Pio Cianchettini, composer, who died at Cheltenham in 1851.
In 1883, several musical papers stated that a certain amateur
collector of violins, during a tour in Italy, visited the little Sardinian
village, Ameglia, and purchased a collection of instruments used by
Paganini, which were at that time in the possession of the widow of
L. M. Germi, the intimate friend of Paganini. The said amateur
also became possessed of "the secret," but what he did with it has
never transpired.
It is strange that the Biographical Dictionaries are silent concerning
Oury, who must have been a man of some note. He is
merely named as the husband of Anna Caroline de Belleville, the
once famous pianist (1806-1880), who made her début in London at
a Paganini concert in 1831.
Carl F. W. Guhr, born at Militsch, Silesia, October 30th, 1787,
violinist, pianist and composer, became Director of the Museum
Concerts and Conductor of the Opera at Frankfort-on-the-Main, in
which city he died July 22nd, 1848.
Mrs. Tom Taylor (née Laura Wilson Barker) was a fine
musician, a composer, and almost phenomenal performer on the
pianoforte and the violin. She played with both Spohr and
Paganini, and took down this set of variations after hearing
Paganini play them twice. She died at Coleshill, Bucks, May 22nd,
1905, at the advanced age of eighty-six.