The meaning of the title escapes me; the booklet contends that ‘[Paganini] served his daemon with commitment and dedication’. Both imply that Paganini was in the grip of some supernatural spirit halfway between God and man. Why perpetuate the paranormal myth with such an ascription? Paganini was complex and supremely gifted musically. A genius. Can’t we leave it at that?

This 1995 film is really a radio talk illustrated with an impressive selection of pictures. Christopher Nupen provides in his usual trademark literate, elegant script a straightforward chronological account of Paganini’s career. Its very wordiness, though, means that you feel the musical examples come almost as an unwelcome interruption to the narration. This is spoken by Nupen himself with an idiosyncratic and unvarying inflection in which the voice maintains the same note before dropping a perfect fifth to the tonic at the end of every sentence.

Nupen is also the voice of Paganini, reading extracts from his letters without any discernible change in tone or inflection. This doesn’t help the feeling that we’re attending a lecture. It’s the sort of problem that arises when writer, producer, director and narrator are one and the same. A second or third pair of eyes can be beneficial. They might have asked why the contributions of the four professional actors, who read the quotes from Liszt, Goethe, Heine et al, are recorded in an empty concert hall, or have suggested adding on-screen identification of the music excerpts. With the exception of the Violin Concerto No 1, the ‘La campanella’ movement of No 2 and Caprice No 24, these are confined to the little-known Paganini – no Moto perpetuo, Moses Fantasy, Le streghe, I palpiti or Non più mesta – nor are his seminal technical innovations as clearly illustrated as they might be.

What we do have is superbly played by Gidon Kremer, the invisible Orchestra and Chorus della Svizzera Italiana and conductor Lawrence Foster, and with John Williams, no less, on hand for the guitar/violin pieces. Shot in extreme close-up, only Williams’s hands are ever seen, and Kremer remains unidentified until the very last selection. At least he wasn’t made to wear a long black wig and sideburns.

Verdict: good, worth a view, but not one of Nupen’s best.