Francesca Dego

Il Cannone - Francesca Dego Plays Paganini's Violin

Paganini's violin, the legendary 'il Cannone', made by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù in 1743, is one of the most important musical instruments in the history of Western music. It has been heard on record just a handful of times. Francesca Dego was given the honour of recording with it after the success of her first performance on the

instrument, in October 2019, when she was invited to play Paganini's First Violin Concerto at the Paganini Celebratory Concert at Teatro Carlo Felice, in Genoa.

"I feel so privileged to be able to share the soul of 'il Cannone' in a new recording. I remember thinking long and hard about the ideal programme and carefully selecting a series of works paying homage to Paganini. The 'Cannon' has pretty much only ever been used to record music by Paganini, so the idea of its celebrated tone teaming up with composers who idolised the Italian virtuoso throughout history is really exciting to me!"