Writing chamber music was one of Paganini’s life-long occupations, from when he was little more than a child, with early works such as the two Terzetti with guitar M. S. 69 and M. S. 114, from 1833. Especially in the beginning Paganini wrote chamber music with regular frequency, both light works destined to amateurs and more serious compositions from the point of view of structure and creativity. Paganini’s chamber music is the genuine expression of the more private side of this composer’s musicality, completely separate - or only marginally related - to his unique and unequalled talent of performer; and it generally appears to be, compared to the works written for the concert hall, more sober and linear, and formally conventional. Perhaps nothing like Paganini’s chamber music serves to tone down the overly romantic image we have of him. Paganini is the sum of these two seemingly unrelated entities, which together form the figure of a man and artist who is brilliantly contradictory - and for this very reason, like every person who has faults and inconsistencies, quite fascinating. To consider only one of these two sides, ignoring the other, can be an acceptable personal choice, but would be wrong from a musicological point of view. For many Paganini’s chamber music will be a discovery; but after listening to it, one realises that it cannot be ignored if one wishes to have a complete picture of the greatest 19th-century Italian composer of instrumental music. This 10-CD box set features this complete production.