Paganini: Caprice No. 24 in A minor

Few names are associated more strongly with virtuosity than Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840). He was one of the first performers to rise to fame in the wave of fascination with virtuosity that seized audiences in the early 19th century.

His remarkable skills weren’t explained by years of traditional study with the best teachers in Italy. People speculated that maybe he was just born that way, or that his skills were of divine origin. Perhaps, more intriguingly at the time, they might be diabolical in origin.

But this oddly shaped man with huge hands was something of a marketing genius. And that was important in the early 19th century when the traditional system of patronage had collapsed. Neither the churches nor royalty were in a position to support the arts as they had done for centuries. Musicians would now have to find their own audiences, sometimes with the help of well-to-do individuals.

Although Paganini’s skills seemed beyond normal human capacity at the time, violinists now routinely train to acquire his skills. Not all of them get there, but having such skills is no longer considered diabolical, just very impressive.

This Caprice is in the form of a theme and eleven variations. This work would inspire many other composers to arrange it for other instruments or, most notably in the hands of Liszt and Rachmaninov, to compose their own variations.