Twenty-Four Caprices for Solo Violin, Op. 1

Composition date:

1802-1817

Composer:

About

Paganini's Caprices are 24 virtuoso pieces composed for solo violin. 'The Daemon of the Violin', like they call him sometimes, composed these Caprices as technical exercises of extreme difficulties. But thanks to their musical qualities, these short pieces then became often performed in concert and were recorded many times.

The violinists competing at the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition must perform, during the first round of the Competition, two of Paganini's Twenty-Four Caprices : one Caprice of their choice and the Caprice No. 24.

List of the Twenty-Four Caprices, Op. 1:

No. 1 in E major (andante)
No. 2 in B minor (moderato)
No. 3 in E minor (sostenuto - presto - sostenuto)
No. 4 in C minor (maestoso)
No. 5 in A minor (agitato)
No. 6 in G minor (lento)
No. 7 in A minor (posato)
No. 8 in E-flat major (maestoso)
No. 9 in E major (la chasse) (allegretto)
No. 10 in G minor (vivace)
No. 11 in C major (andante - presto - tempo I)
No. 12 in A-flat major (allegro)
No. 13 in B-flat major (allegro)
No. 14 in E-flat major (moderato)
No. 15 in E minor (posato)
No. 16 in G minor (presto)
No. 17 in E-flat major (sostenuto - andante)
No. 18 in C major (corrento - allegro)
No. 19 in E-flat major (lento - allegro assai)
No. 20 in D major (allegretto)
No. 21 in A major (amoroso - presto)
No. 22 en fa major (marcato)
No. 23 in E-flat major (posato)
No. 24 in A minor (tema - quasi presto - variazioni - finale)

About the composer

Niccolò Paganini

Birth date:

Oct. 27, 1782

Death date:

May 27, 1840

Niccolò Paganini was born with the violin, like Franz Liszt with the piano. A child prodigy in the truest sense of the term, his teachers, Rolla and Paer, admitted to having never taught him a thing. A life of adventure,…

Read his biography