Niccolò Paganini

Moses Fantasy

With his bravura variations on a theme from Gioachino Rossini's opera "Moses in Egypt", which are to be performed exclusively on the G string, Niccolò Paganini caused a particular sensation, since such extreme playing in the upper register had not been demonstrated by any other violinist until then. At his concerts, Paganini cut the three upper strings before the eyes of the astonished audience, in order to also exclude any possible "cheating" from the outset.

Today, the Moses Fantasy serves as excellent study material, which is also excellently suited for performance due to its varied variations.

As a model for our new edition, we used the first edition for violin and piano published in Milan with the composer's piano reduction. Stroke markings and fingering of the violin part are by the editor Tomislav Butorac.