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LS in Italian, signed “N. Paganini,” one page, 8.5 x 10, July 7, 1828. Amid a wildly successful concert tour, Paganini sends a letter to the celebrated Italian cellist Gaetano Ciandelli, first cellist of the Orchestra of the San Carlo Theatre in Naples, in part (translated): “From your most welcome letter of the 17th of the past June I learn with great pleasure of your resolve…next August…of Turin, and the plan you have to give some concerts on the way there. In regard to this, I advise you to give concerts in Rome, Florence, Bologna, Milan, and Turin, to which cities I shall write in advance to awaken the interest of music lovers to hear you. I'll write Signore Palledro about your planned itinerary, and I think we will both be pleased if the said affair takes a favorable course. Please let me know precisely when you will begin your journey, since I must remain in Vienna until mid-August for some musical compositions and to give my fourteenth concert in the large Redoutensaal to bid the Viennese Signori farewell. I am enclosing with this letter and entrust in your hands my gratitude to Sig. Cod. Rotondo and the assurance of my efforts to procure for him that which he wishes, and entreat you to greet all my friends, and in doing so it won't matter if you recapitulate the letters to Signore Artaria.” In very good condition, with reinforced by archival backing on the reverse, and areas of paper loss affecting some of the text.
Paganini arrived in Vienna in late March 1828, with Grove's Dictionary stating that his first concert there was given with ‘prodigious success.’ The article continues: ‘All the Vienna newspapers teemed with unstinted praise of the virtuoso for two months. The public became absolutely intoxicated, a fever of admiration seized all classes of society…His portrait was displayed everywhere; his bust adorned the sticks of the Vienna dandies, and even dainty dishes were named after him. The emperor conferred upon him the title of 'Virtuoso of the Court,' and the town presented him with the gold medal of St. Salvator.’
Paganini used to give lessons in Italy and abroad, but it was Camillo Sivori whom he considered his only true student. Willing to prove in practice that this secret led to excellent results, Paganini would refer to the story about the cellist Gaetano Ciandelli, with whom he would share his secret. He told his biographer, Julius Max Schottky: ‘Ciandelli was playing the cello for a long time, but… in just 3 days he became a completely new musician and everybody started talking about the miracle of his instantaneous transformation.'
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