Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Paganini's Caprice No. 24: Advanced Violinists Only

What’s the caprice anyway? 24 is number of the last caprice in Paganini’s set of 24 works for solo violin. All of those were composed in the period between 1802 and 1817 and are created in the form of etudes. Each of them was aimed at training an exact skill of a performer, be it fast switching of strings or other.

Each of the caprices had a certain dedication, most;y to famous musicians like, for example, Louis Spohr or Franz Liszt or Antonio Bazzini, among others.

As for the final caprice (24th), it became Paganini’s dedication to his own self. Or to be more precise, “to my self, regrettably buried”, according to the author. Up to now, No. 24 is considered to be one of the most technically difficult pieces for advanced violin performers only. A performer like should be skillful enough to rapidly shift the scales, possess the parallel octaves technique, left-hand pizzicato and not only.

Now look at one of the really good examples of such a gifted performance of this work. Below is Hilary Hahn's brilliant interpretation:



Haydn's Miracle Symphony No.102

They call Joseph Haydn the father in music. He is considered to be, indirectly, the father of both the symphony and the string quartet, hav...