- Old, old movie (1946), "The Magic Bow" - a fictional (very, very fictional) biography of Niccolo Paganini, with handsome Stewart Granger as Paganini, and soundtrack played by Yehudi Menuhin. Granger's imitation of violin playing in this movie was (as I recall) excellent. The script an...
Star performers existed before the 20th century, such as Franz Liszt and Niccolo Paganini, but mass media produced a celebrity system promoting a few stars whose music was not necessarily the best or most diverse. Copyright provides protection for distribution companies and for a few celebrities, t...