The Best of Paganini. Why Paganini Is Considered The Devil's Violinist

Viewing this video " The Best of Paganini " I recalled an old Thomas Hardy short story about a mysterious and seductive musician , " The Fiddler on the Reels " . And came across this review by Carol Senf ( published 2016 ) : " The Fiddler on the Reels " : Hardy's Reflection on the Past : [ "Similarly, Hardy suggests that Mop’s strangely powerful music “could make any child in the parish, who was at all sensitive to music, burst into tears in a few minutes” (192). Describing him as repulsive to men and seductive to women, the narrator suggests something sinister or otherworldly about Mop. Not only does he compare him to Niccoló Paganini, whose power was sometimes said to be diabolic, but he also notes that he is associated with demonic powers: Mop had . . . never bowed a note of church-music from his birth; he never once sat in . . . Mellstock church where the others had tuned their venerable psalmody . . . had never, in all likelihood, entered a church at all. All were devil’s tunes in his repertory. (193) " ]