Paganini – Der Pakt mit dem Teufel

When the extraordinary violinist Paganini died of tuberculosis in Nice on 27 May 1840, it was clear to everyone that he was no ordinary man. Certainly he had to be in cahoots with the devil - after all, one clergyman claimed that Paganini himself had assured him that there was a devil in his violin! Under no circumstances was this man to be buried in the church. So the body was preserved, put on display, temporarily stored in an old barrel in an oil mill, and finally - after paying a considerable sum to the church - secretly buried at night in a field 36 years later.

Chris Pichler tells the incredible story and life of the "Devil's Violinist", while Benjamin Herzl plays Paganini's breakneck caprices and virtuoso works by his contemporaries and Ingmar Lazar devotes himself to Liszt's famous arrangement of "La Campanella", a bravura piece for solo piano.