Caprices 5 9 16 24

The greatest violinist of his time, Paganini was also one of its most influential composers, not so much because of the quality of his musical invention as because of his phenomenal command of violin technique. What he could do with the violin, both as a performer and as a composer, was such a revelation that greater composers – not least piano specialists like Schumann and Liszt – were inspired to emulate his breakthrough achievements in other areas. In a work like his famous 24 Caprices for unaccompanied violin the technical interest is such that it transcends mere virtuosity.

Caprice No.5 in A minor opens and closes with a cadenza of arpeggios and diatonic and chromatic scales of such velocity that literally dozens of notes must be articulated in the same upbow or downbow. The central agitato section, which consists of spiccato-bowed semiquavers in groups of four, could scarcely be anything but agitated. There is more ricochet bowing in the middle section of No.9 in E major which, however, is celebrated for the outer sections which give it its “La Chasse” nickname: double-stopped thirds and

sixths are quietly bowed on the fingerboard to imitate flutes in alternation with the same intervals boldly evoking hunting horns on the G and D strings. The first part of Caprice No.16 is a study in rapid semiquaver arpeggios passing between adjacent strings or jumping over one or two strings. This is contrasted with the legato bowing, particularly the slurred chromatic passages, in the second section. Based on the theme that has fascinated generations of later composers – Liszt, Brahms, Rachmaninov, and Lutoslawksi most prominent among them – the 24th and last Caprice is a set of 11 short variations and a finale exploring a still more challenging variety of left-hand and bowing techniques. Among the most remarkable are the double-stopped octaves of the third variation and the tenths of the sixth, the triple-stopped quavers of the eighth, the brilliant alternation of bowed and left-hand pizzicato notes in the ninth, and elevated elegance of the tenth.