The Strangest Recordings of Paganini's 24th Caprice

foreign [Music] lessons dutifully for the past 10 years and one day you walk into your teacher's studio and they tell you some very exciting news it's time you get to learn paganini's 24th Caprice which means you're going to be practicing a lot but never fear today we have the internet which means you can go and listen to any recording you want so why stick to the more normal recordings to help you learn this fantastic piece of music let's hear something a little different also having the internet means you can go to tonebase.com violin and sign up for a 14 day free trial and I've been told that our own Eric silberger is going to be producing his own master class on paganini's 24th Caprice you're not going to want to miss that I'm Tobi Murphy for tone-based violin and now let's listen to some truly unique recordings of paganini's 24th Caprice now when any piece of music becomes as entrenched in the repertoire as paganini's 24th Caprice it's inevitable that there has developed a standard interpretation and generally I think that's actually a good thing and if I was going to be teaching paganese 24th Caprice to any of my students then I would recommend that they start listening to the recordings that I think best reflect that standard so I would say Elliot caller it's a Perlman [Applause] and of course the unmatched Michael Rabin [Music] but something that's very interesting to me is that one of the more strange recordings of Paganini is actually the very first one Richie now some of you might find it strange that I would put Roger Richie's name on this list after all the guy's name was basically synonymous with taganini while he was alive but because he was the first person to record the entire 24 completely unedited it's very likely that he would do something a little bit unique to what we think of today thank you something I'm struck by immediately with Richie's playing is that first off is just how straightforward and muscular stone is if you listen to the likes of collar or the likes of Pearlman there's a lot more finesse to what they're doing and I think that's what most people expect from Paganini 24. it's it's not such a straightforward piece they're supposed to be this kind of mystery about it and he essentially takes the music exactly the way it's written foreign I love old recordings one of the things I just love so much about and we're going to listen to mostly old recordings here at the beginning of this video is just how much they allowed the solos to get away with you can hear you can hear his fingers shifting during that octave section again it's not I'm not saying this is bad none of it's bad but it's just it's so different it's so different than what than what we allow people to get away with today nobody would again like I said he's not missing notes but nobody would allow a recording like that to get out to market today [Music] now what I love about this especially if you know anything about Richie's performances so many of Richie's performances of the other 24 Caprices he just goes for absolute blinding speed you listen to his recording of the fifth Caprice or the octave section of the 17th Caprice [Music] but here he takes an entirely different track up to this point he's been the most matter of fact kind of almost muscular performer then he pulls this out in this particular variation and this is one where if you listen to someone like caller or Raven they make this as flashy as possible and many of them avoid the broken octaves entirely [Music] now everything up to that last variation up to about the bottom of the second page is pretty normal right he kind of plays in what we consider the standard approach to panganini but then he gets to this variation and again he's following what Paganini wrote but there's probably a reason why nobody else follows it just listen to this [Music] [Music] [Applause] people are always talking about oh did he do the original Boeing in the fifth Caprice I want to know did you do the original Boeing in the 24th Caprice one of the things I think makes this recording so interesting is Richie's rather dogged Devotion to what's exactly written on the page now I said that Roger Richie was the first person to record all 24 Caprices and that's only really true on a technicality he was the first person to record them as they were written as entirely solo violin pieces but actually there was somebody right before him or that is really the first person to record all 24 but he does not get his name in the history books because well he played them with piano the thing I know is immediately about this recording is it's fine he plays fine it's not really that interesting I think I think Richie was actually doing some very very interesting stuff musically much more interesting stuff musically than what Mr renardi was doing and the piano part was actually written by one Ferdinand David who some of you might recognize as the violinist who premiered the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto best piano accompaniment is incredibly boring he should have just stuck to violin now if you want to hear a really interesting take on Paganini you should actually listen to Fritz Chrysler playing the first movement of the Paganini Violin Concerto which yes is a recording that exists and the orchestra part he actually wrote himself [Music] this is so great this is Regret I had no idea pakanini came from Austria [Music] oh my gosh I want to make the rest of this video about this now but I I already dedicated myself to talking about the 24th Caprice so moving back adjacent to Rozier Richie let's listen to the recording made by Young yehudi menuen and some of you might be wondering how is rajier Richie adjacent to you hoodie menu those of you who are more in the know on violin history will remember that both you hoodie menu and Reggie Richie had the same teacher as a child Louis Persinger and these two recordings do have a few similarities but this is all yehudi [Music] foreign again that super muscular beginning and I love I love these old recordings because they just they just left that in there he he decided to play double notes at the beginning and uh and one was Out Of Tune I accidentally played that in tune one's Out Of Tune doesn't matter keep on going nowadays it's it's so much about the Perfection and again I don't want people to play sloppy but I do miss that kind of just raw focus on the music that you do find in some of these very old recordings I think he was probably a teenager when he recorded this so you know kind of a little Slack foreign [Applause] [Music] when you can play something like that nobody cares if your e double note was slightly Out Of Tune [Music] this is much more measured [Music] now I'm going to guess that was actually written by Chrysler I think this was an arrangement that combined things that Chrysler wrote and that our road but that's just I kind of wanted to hear whether or not because that takes the place of that broken octave section that Richie played so hauntingly and I kind of wanted to hear how he plays that but I guess he just replaced it with this but that is cool I want somebody I want more people to play this [Music] now that that I like for anybody that's actually had to study this piece um you'll know that section and thirds is uh it's a bit of a nightmare and um most most the time people don't play it that slowly see typically most of us violinists try to play something like this it's nice to know that this is an optional [Music] [Applause] [Music] I don't sound as good a menu on obviously but it's been about 10 years since I properly practiced this piece foreign Chrysler so in any case menuwinds is for me one of my absolute favorite recordings of the Paganini 24th Caprice not going to be helpful in the standard way that most people learn it but you should give it several listens because it will broaden your horizons on how you should think about the music now we're going to leave violin here a little bit and listen to a recording that I always find very fascinating for reasons that I'll get into and that is Yo-Yo Ma playing the Paganini 24. [Music] sounds like you're your mom so it sounds good [Music] most of the time I don't like it when violent pieces are played on cello or Viola but dang he's good yeah again just I'm astounded by just how good he's able to make some of the sound but things like that just it just the Timbre of that just does not work on very well in cello for me still better than what I can do as I demonstrated before still way better than what I can do again that just does not work on cello I'm sorry [Music] again he's it's some of that just some of the most amazing amazing Cell playing I've ever heard but it's still our piece now of course no discussion about stealing violin music would be complete without talking about Viola so let's listen to the Primrose recording [Music] foreign [Music] but I kind of wish he'd stay with The Pianist [Music] um being able to do that on violin is one thing being able to do those thirds on intense on viola is another so absolute mad lad absolute props to Primrose actually really good he wins a viola pass he definitely wins the viola pass now to completely leave the violin world let's see how the 24th Caprice has inspired people from other walks of the musical life [Music] [Music] I think that's cheating oh come on that just sounds like Mario bad guy music foreign do you mean to tell me it was that easy the whole time all right I'm out not really I have to finish this video but in all seriousness I wish it was that easy anyway these are some of my favorite recordings of the Paganini Caprices and I thought that you would enjoy listening to them with me as well and hopefully I was able to broaden your horizons on what this piece can be no you have a great piece of music when after 200 years people are still finding new ways to play it I've been to bio Murphy for tone-based violin and I can't wait to see in the next one [Music] oh [Music] [Music]

Channel: tonebase Violin

Views: 11,440

Keywords: classical music, paganini caprice 24, paganini caprice 24 guitar, paganini caprice 24 hilary hahn, Violin, Violin technique, violin lessons, violin tone, online tutorial, Twoset, learn violin, tonebase, twoset violin, violin vibrato, ling ling 40 hrs, practice, conservatory, learn, violin techniques, abrsm, mozart, soloist, auditions, perform, concert, tutorial, education, tonebase violin, Yehudi Menuhin, yoyo ma, murphy music academy, Paganini metal cover

Id: YHwZCfmB1GA

Length: 16min 44sec (1004 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 03 2023