This week's Paganini violin festival has been awaited by local music lovers with an expectancy approaching passion.
Tuesday and Wednesday Sergei Stadler, Russia's best violinist, plays the famous violin after laying his hands on the much coveted instrument only on Monday.
"Though it will be short, it will be exuberant affair," said Stadler before his brief three-day liaison with the famous Guarneri-made Paganini violin -- an obsession of every violinist around the world, including the Russian maestro.
Paganini revolutionized violin music by introducing new techniques, including double notes, one-string play, pizzicato and flageolets. Long after his death many of his compositions were considered unplayable.
Paganini's life is surrounded by a mystique, which has been passed on to his violin.
Stadler says: "We still cannot fathom what is truth and what is not when dealing with Paganini. Even now people dealing with the violin are known to be afraid of it.
"Legend has it that spirits play the violin at nights. Its guardians are afraid to approach its display case at nighttime." The violin has traveled to St Petersburg for the Paganini festival from Palazzo Tursi, the city chambers of Genoa, Italy. There it is kept in its original 1837 case in a palace.
Since 1954 it has been played every year by the winner of an International Violin Contest in Genoa, which derives its name from Nicolo Paganini.
Two famous Russian violinists -- David Oistrakh and Pavel Kogan have played the violin, which was known by Paganini as "canone" (cannon), and is famous for its powerful, sonorous voice.
The violin was 40 years older than Paganini. It was made in 1742 by Gossipy Guarneri (1698-1744), a master violin maker and the grandson of the famed of Entre Guarneri (1626-1698).
Guarneri violins are in the same elite class as those by Stradivari, but are more expensive because they are fewer. There are only 50 known examples in the world.
The Paganini Guarneri violin has several peculiar characteristics.
It is a little longer and thicker than normal. The wood from which it is constructed is 2 millimeters (about a twelfth of an inch) thicker than usual and the two holes in its body are different lengths. The right one is 77 millimeters long (a little over three inches) whereas that on the left is 79 millimeters (about a twelfth of an inch) longer.
In addition the violin's neck is 2 centimeters (three quarters of an inch) shorter than standard. This last detail is noteworthy, for it allowed Paganini, with his extraordinarily dexterous fingers, to perform passages on three and four strings, not in sequence but as simultaneous chords.
His legendary skill raised him to an unexcelled height of virtuosity but, amongst his contemporaries, it often cost him the epithet "demoniac."
Most of tickets for the St Petersburg concerts have been distributed to the city's VIPs, and guests specially invited by the sponsors of the festival.
A much sought after 100-120 tickets were sent to the Hermitage's box office over the weekend -- at 400,000 roubles each.