Day 222
Paganini: The 24 Caprices
Itzak Perlman
Over the years I have heard several of the Paganini caprices, not just the famous no 24, but I have never properly listened to all of them, so this was a good opportunity to fill that gap in my knowledge. I am sure that there were never intended to be listened to in a continuous series so I spread my listening into small groups throughout the day.
Again the issue arises as to how much true musical value there is in these pieces as opposed to the fascination as to what is possible from one player on a single violin. The answer here is I think mixed. Some of these are little more than exercise that one would never want to listen to purely as music, but others have some real musical character. Paganini was certainly well versed in the operatic conventions of his time and one hear that reflected in many of these pieces.
What is fascinating is how many composers took this music as a starting point for further development. Not only the many people who wrote variations on caprice 24, but the keyboard composers who took Paganini’s basic outlines and turned them into sustained and much more developed pieces. Schumann, Liszt and Brahms, to name but three, built on Paganini’s ideas and explored their possibilities in a way which the composer himself could never have done. I’m not sure that any other set of pieces has been quite such an inspiration to so many major composers.
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