Notes et souvenirs

'I was thirteen when I heard Paganini. A strange, fantastical man, yet endowed with a prodigious power of execution. What clearness, what assurance, what sympathetic warmth in his tone! It was especially in the performance of his own compositions that he was inimitable. The works of Viotti, Rode, Kreutzer were less suited to his nervous, even feverish nature. For the interpretation of Viotti, which requires an extraordinary variety of accentuation, the flashing bow of Baillot was wanting. However, one could not make any comparison between those two great artists. Certainly, Paganini could not have played as Baillol did the sublime Mozart Quartet in D minor or Beethoven's Septet, but, on the other hand, Baillot would not have been at ease with the diabolical technique required for the music of Paganini. Not that Baillot was lacking in mechanism, but his temperament led him to avoid what he called the ‘great eccentricities’. I still see Paganini, so much did he impress me: his violin sings yet in my ears.'
Charles Dancla