Paganini, Jascha Heifetz plays Caprice No. 24

admin — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 07:05:27 +0000

Niccolo PAGANINI (born: Genoa, Italy – October 27, 1782, died: Nice, France – May 27, 1840) was one of the most famous virtuosi of his day and is considered to be one of the greatest violinists ever. He was taught to play the violin from a very young age and and was immediately recognized as a virtuoso after he gave his first public concert at the age of 11. In his early teens he studied under Rollo and Ghiretti, but he could not cope well with his success: at the age of 19 he was gambling and drinking. His career was saved by an unknown lady, who took him to her estate, where he recovered and studied the violin for three years.

Paganini reappeared when he was 23, and he soon became a legend for his unparalleled mastery of the violin.

One of the best known of Paganini’s compositions is his set of 24 Caprices, written around 1817 for solo violin. They are among the most technically difficult music ever written for instrument, calling for a very wide range of bowing techniques, extremely wide left hand stretches, double stopped trills and harmonics and left hand pizzicati. The last of these pieces, in A minor, is a set of twelve variations, and many other composers have taken its theme as the basis for a set of variations of their own (Franz Liszt,Johannes Brahms,Sergei Rachmaninov among them).

Jascha Heifetz plays Paganini Caprice No. 24 Amazing 3:49 – 4:10

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Paganini, Jascha Heifetz plays Caprice No. 24