Virtuoso Voices - Gil Shaham (Paganini Under the Influence)

Nicolo Paganini's violin playing inspired great passion from his many female admirers. But the woman he loved preferred the guitar to the violin, so Paganini changed his composing focus to please her -- at least while they were still a couple. Use this clip to enhance your introduction of Violinist Gil Shaham playing Paganini Violin and Guitar music (DGG 437 837).

SUGGESTED HOST INTRO
Numerous legends recount the amorous appeal of Paganini. Women literally fainted at the sight of him playing his violin on stage. Violinist Gil Shaham (SHAH-hahm) says that even though Paganini was a famous ladies man, he was not immune to the love bug.

CLIP TRANSCRIPT
"He was actually quite a virtuoso guitarist in his own right. Most of his concerts when he toured Europe were in that format, with one violinist and one guitarist. And I think there was a period of three years there where he was in love with a woman who hated the sound of the violin. And so he dedicated himself to guitar. And he continued to write duos but favoring the guitar."

SUGGESTED HOST OUTRO

Violinist Gil Shaham (SHAH-hahm). Here he is with guitarist Goran Sollscherr (GORE-on SOLE-shur) with (insert music listing) by Paganini.

(To download a .txt file of this suggested copy, look under the "Additional Files" for this piece.)


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