Last Updated or created 2024-06-20

Niccolò (or Nicolò) Paganini.
October 1782 – 27 May 1840) was an Italian violinist and composer. He was the most celebrated violin virtuoso of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique. His 24 Caprices for Solo Violin Op. 1 are among the best known of his compositions and have served as an inspiration for many prominent composers.

I love listening to Paganini. The man was a beast.
Extreme technical, a pop star in his time.
But also because of that, he was seen as a demon.

Like the master bagpipers Stuart Liddell or the late Gordon Duncan.

Listening to Paganini’s caprices was wonderful.

A capriccio or caprice (sometimes plural: caprices, capri or, in Italian, capricci), is a piece of music, usually fairly free in form and of a lively character. The typical capriccio is one that is fast, intense, and often virtuosic in nature.

My top selection :

1,4,5,3

Why difficult?

Because of the advanced techniques, including parallel octaves, rapid interval shifts, extremely fast scales and arpeggios (including minor scales), left-hand pizzicato, high positions, and fast string crossings. Additionally, it features many double stops, such as thirds and tenths.

An arpeggio is a type of broken chord in which the notes that compose a chord are individually sounded in a progressive rising or descending order.

Pizzicato is a playing technique that involves plucking the strings of a string instrument.

Double stops are a fundamental technique in which two notes are played simultaneously on a stringed instrument. In the context of the violin, this entails using the bow to sound two adjacent strings at the same time.

On another note:

I finally got hold of the last missing Audio CD from Martyn Bennett!
I was looking for this for ages!