Nicolò Paganini: 24 Caprices Op. 1 For Unaccompanied Violin – Igor Riva

The 24 Caprices, written sometime between 1805 and 1817, and issued by the major Italian publisher, Giulio Ricordi, are an extraordinary catalogue of almost all that can be done on a violin and with a violin. Many of the techniques on which each Capriccio focuses were at least perfected, if not outright created by Paganini. For years, the sheer technical difficulty of the Caprices had labelled them as unplayable; and while isolated Caprices were occasionally tackled by the most daring virtuosi, the feat of playing them in a row was considered as simply impossible for decades. However, they are conceived as concert pieces, not just as Etudes: they are captivating, pleasurable, not just thrilling. There is humour, magic, expressivity, fantasy galore, and the effort to constantly transcend the violin not just in terms of “notes per second”, but also of timbre: Paganini frequently prescribes to imitate a horn, or a flute, or a fanfare. This Da Vinci Classics production is the demonstration that the challenges of Paganini’s Caprices can be constantly brought to a new level, just as every world record encourages the next prodigy of athletics to beat it. Igor Riva, the protagonist of this CD, recorded the Caprices in a row, with no editing: it is a true live performance, refraining even from the commonly accepted retouches which do not disqualify a “live” as a “live”. And, furthermore, Riva is also planning to record them once more, but in Schumann’s version – with piano accompaniment. The gauntlet is thrown down.