Augustin Hadelich: Paganini – 24 Caprices (24/96 FLAC)

Composer: Niccolò Paganini
Performer: Augustin Hadelich
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Warner
Catalogue: 9029572822
Release: 2018
Size: 1..55 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes

Paganini: 24 Caprices, Op. 1
01. No. 1 in E Major
02. No. 2 in B Minor
03. No. 3 in E Minor
04. No. 4 in C Minor
05. No. 5 in a Minor
06. No. 6 in G Minor
07. No. 7 in a Minor
08. No. 8 in E-Flat Major
09. No. 9 in E Major
10. No. 10 in G Minor
11. No. 11 in C Major
12. No. 12 in A-Flat Major
13. No. 13 in B-Flat
14. No. 14 in E-Flat Major
15. No. 15 in E Minor
16. No. 16 in G Minor
17. No. 17 in E-Flat Major
18. No. 18 in C Major
19. No. 19 in E-Flat Major
20. No. 20 in D Major
21. No. 21 in a Major
22. No. 22 in F Major
23. No. 23 in E-Flat Major
24. No. 24 in a Minor

The elegant, but impassioned musicianship of Augustin Hadelich evokes the violinists of the ‘golden age’ of the early and mid-20th century. Winner in 2015 of the inaugural Warner Music Prize, Hadelich now releases his first recording for Warner Classics: Paganini’s 24 Caprices for solo violin. These works of proverbial virtuosity were conceived by the flamboyant Nicolò Paganini to test and showcase every aspect of a violinist’s skills. As Gramophone has written, Hadelich “meets and surmounts all obstacles, yet it’s not technical wizardry that most impresses but his musicianship.”

There comes a moment in the career of any respected violinist (and even some who aren’t), when they dream of playing, and perhaps recording, Paganini’s 24 Caprices. And that is precisely what German star violinist Augustin Hadelich (b. 1984) has done. Hadelich has been a regular fixture in the orchestras of Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, London, Munich and Salzburg, for whom he has given some of the greatest concertos that exist, but he has also performed a repertoire of much rarer, contemporary works, which he has decided to champion. Hadelich tackles these 24 Caprices, which Paganini wrote over about 15 years, from 1802 to 1817, without intending to make them into a cycle in their own right – much less a programme to be played in a single concert; indeed, it seems that he never performed them in concert himself – like many small Italian operas (but French ones as well, in the tradition of grand opéra), each one is concentrated down into a few minutes. They run from grandiose tragedy in the style of Meyerbeer, to lighter shades of Rossini, with a real lyrical and vocal vision which is as far removed as can be from pure and demonstrative virtuosity. At 33 years old, Hadelich shows consistent maturity, but also humility, and a sense of experience which one would expect to see in a much older musician.