Niccolò Paganini

Terzetto concertante

This piece is quite unique among Paganini's chamber music works as for once it is not the violin but the viola which plays the leading part. The second pecularity is the fact that the three instruments play in turn to take the lead - which gives the impression of a musical dialogue. In his preface, the editor assumes that the composer was conscience-stricken as the violin had so far always been the primadonna assoluta in his chamber music works. The instrumentation of this composition is quite extraordinary, and - shortly after its completion - the piece was performed in London in 1833 where even Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy participated as he himself had adapted the guitar part for the piano.