God Save the Violinist?!
Take a chill pill Paganini!
There is a good share of composers like Beethoven and Liszt who have made their own transcriptions of the British national anthem, “God Save the King” —or Queen if the reigning monarch of the time is one. Nobody knows who the composer of the tune was or when exactly it was composed. It did become an anthem during the reign of King George II with the first public performance in September 1745. Different versions with different verses have come and gone their ways to the present version sung today in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. Diversion fun fact: the Americans also use the tune for “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee”. For a country whose founding was based on a war over a slight increase on the tax over tea with farmers getting strapped to stack the bodies of one of the most powerful empires in history, I’d take it. Going back, of course transcriptions of the British national anthem exist for varying reasons depending on the event, but to make it a virtuosic showpiece is something else, especially when Niccolò Paganini is involved. What do you get when you combine the greatest violin virtuoso in history plus the British national anthem together? Well, his variations on it of course!
The variations on this work are dazzling and HORRIFYING to play. The introduction of the theme alone is terrifying, like who decides to play BOTH arco and pizzicato at the same time?! The jumps and stops alone are NUTS. For the first variation, the jumps and double stops in rapid fashion are INSANE. The second variation feels sane at first with mostly thirds before pulling out the harmonics. The third variation does the melody in tremolos both in single notes and FIFTHs. The fourth variation is pizzicato for the whole time with the bottom notes done arco, but the horror comes with SIXTHS in pizzicato. The fifth variation has more horrors with more harmonics as if doing an echo. The finale is not afraid to string cross like crazy with the last bars having a fifth double stop done arco while the sixths are played pizzicato. I really pity violinists with small hands. I as a pianist am terrified seeing violinists show off their skills with this monster of a work; if I was a violinist I would yap more about why this piece exists.
Here is Roman Kim playing this monster: