his own, and was most successful in playing his own compositions. In
Paris, when, out of respect to the Parisians, he played a concerto by
Rode, and one by Kreutzer, he scarcely rose above mediocrity, and he was
well aware of his failure. He adopted the ideas of his predecessors,
resuscitated forgotten effects and added to them, and the chief features
of his performance were, the diversity of tones produced, the different
methods of tuning his instrument, the frequent employment of double and
single harmonics, the simultaneous use of pizzicato and bow passages,
the use of double and triple notes, the various staccati, and a
wonderful facility for executing wide intervals with unerring accuracy,
together with a great variety of styles of bowing. The quality of tone
which he produced was clear and pure, but not excessively full, and,
according to Fétis, he was a master of technique and phrasing rather
than a pathetic player,--there was no tenderness in his accents.

It is said that Baillot used to hide his face when Paganini played a
pizzicato with the left hand, harmonics, or a passage in staccato.
Dancla, in his recollections, says: "I had noticed in Paganini his
large, dry hand, of an astonishing elasticity; his fingers long and
pointed, which enabled him to make enormous stretches, and double and
triple extensions, with the utmost facility. The double and triple
harmonics, the successions of harmonics in thirds and sixths, so
difficult for small hands, owing to the stretch they require, were to
him as child's play. When playing an accentuated pizzicato with the left
hand, while the melody was played by the hand of the bow, the fourth
finger pinched the string with prodigious power even when the other
three fingers were placed."

There are anecdotes told of Paganini's artistic contests with rival
violinists, chief among whom were Lafont and Lipinski, both of whom he