La Campanella
Composers: Niccolò Paganini & Franz Liszt
Date of Publication: Paganini: 1826
Liszt: 1851
Names: The Little Bell
Paganini: Violin Concerto No. 2 in B Minor, Op. 7 - Rondo alla Campanella/Ronde à la clochette/Allegro Spiritoso
Liszt: Grandes Etudes de Paganini, S141, No. 3 in G# minor
The third movement of Paganini’s second violin concerto is far more popular than the rest of the piece, despite the entire concerto’s captivating techniques and bravado. Paganini often performed the movement alone, neglecting the concerto's other 2 movements entirely. However, its renowned approval is not without reason; the movement features a vibrant catchy motif that resembles a ringing bell (hence its nickname based off of a traditional Italian folk song, "La Campanella") and frolicking passages of double stops, bow ricochet, and harmonics that mesmerized audiences. The piece was so inspiring that after hearing Paganini perform it on his tour in Paris, April 1832, Franz Liszt — the technical mastermind of the piano — commented, "Quel homme, quel violon, quel artiste! Dieu, que de souffrances, de misère, de tortures dans ces quatre cordes!" (What a man, what a violin, what an artist! God, what suffering, what misery, what torture in those four strings!).
Unsurprisingly, the young piano virtuoso began adapting La Campanella for the keyboard, a process that would take him decades of rewrites. His first rendition of the piece came in his Grande Fantaisie de Bravoure sur la Clochette de Paganini, Op. 2, S. 420 published in 1834. However, this first draft drastically differs from Paganini's La Campanella, beginning with an extremely slow Lento and featuring passages that sound more like the piano accompaniment in Kreisler's arrangement. Due to its uninspiring themes, clunky transitions, and excessive 32nd note passages, Liszt's La Clochette became a relic of the past, and is rarely performed.
Here is a recording if you want to listen to it:
In 1838, Liszt revisited La Campanella, substantially changing his adaptation in his Grande Étude d’exécution transcendante d’après le Caprice de Paganini, S. 140, No. 2. Here, he changed the key from A minor to Ab minor, saving pianists a considerable amount of pain by converting the jumps from landing on white keys to black keys. He also removed the Lento beginning of his first rendition, opting to instead begin with 3 measures of bell chimes in an Andante tempo. Generally, the piece became more virtuosic, through the addition of scherzo like passages and the removal of unnecessary 32nd note chromatic runs.
1838 version:
Still, Liszt was not completely satisfied. In 1851, the middle-aged Liszt began working on a 3rd edition. First, he changed the key to its enharmonic equivalent, G# minor. Then, to fully capture Paganini's virtuosity, he cleaned up the transitions, moved the piece to a higher register, and removed several heavy chords, significantly lightening the piece. Finally, Liszt had a version he was satisfied with in his Grandes Etudes de Paganini, S141, No. 3 in G# minor, full of insane jumps, trills, chromatics, octaves, and chromatics, techniques that the now deceased Paganini would surely approve.
Fun Fact: Many pianists who perform the piece today often make their own changes to the piece, adding extra notes and cadenzas.
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