Ravinia 2026 Issue 2

version and in a different key, C major. Szigeti recalled seeing this “very precious” green vol- ume in Knokke before it passed down to Philip Newman, the British violinist who played the funeral march from Ysaÿe’s Poème élégiaque at the composer’s funeral. When Newman died, the Belgian violinist Josette Lavergne inherited his belongings. She in turn donated the sketches (now called the “Lavergne Manuscript”) to the Brussels Conservatory, where the unknown so- nata was rediscovered. Ysaÿe dedicated Sonata No. 5 in G major to Bel- gian violinist Mathieu Crickboom (1871–1947), for many years the second violinist of the Ysaÿe Quartet and later the founder/first violinist of his own quartet with Josep Rocabruna (second violin), Rafael Gálvez (viola), and Pablo Casals (cello) during his years of residence in Barce- lona. L’aurore (Dawn) evokes the slow break of day from first light to the full blaze of sun. The ensuing Danse rustique (Rustic Dance) projects a stately air in the violin’s full chords and irreg- ular phrase lengths. A more capricious central section diverges from the dance character. The Danse rustique resumes at a slightly faster tempo to conclude the sonata. NICOLÒPAGANINI (1782–1840) Caprice No. 19 for Solo Violin in E-flat major, op. 1, no. 19 Caprice No. 16 for Solo Violin in G minor, op. 1, no. 16 The first and perhaps most influential violin vir- tuoso of the 19th century, Paganini was born the son of a poor but music-loving shop owner in Genoa, Italy. His father taught the young boy to play the mandolin. Later, Nicolò took up the violin, rapidly progressing as a performer and composer. Paganini wrote his first sonata at the age of 8 and appeared in his first public perfor- mance at 11. After several tours in his teens, Pa- ganini temporarily suspended his concert career to perfect his virtuoso technique. His playing in- stilled awe and admiration in amateur and pro- fessional musicians alike. Hector Berlioz com- posed Harold in Italy , for viola and orchestra, for Paganini after meeting him in Paris. Franz Liszt modeled his career as a piano virtuoso on that of Paganini. A century and a half later, early heavy metal artists appropriated Paganini’s bargain- with-the-devil mystique and incorporated his actual violin figurations into their guitar solos. Like most 19th-century virtuosos, Paganini produced a substantial body of violin showpiec- es for his own recital and concerto performanc- es. His orchestral output chiefly consisted of variations on popular tunes and five concertos for the violin. Paganini’s talents also extended to the guitar, an instrument he studied in his teens and composed for throughout his career, including a number of chamber works for gui- tar and strings. According to legend, Paganini devised a way of playing both violin and gui- tar in chamber performances. The guitar hung around his neck while he played violin, then he quickly placed the violin between his knees for guitar passages. Paganini’s first known public performance oc- curred at a festive Mass on September 14, 1801—the Feast of San Croce—when he pre- sented a lengthy violin concerto after the Kyrie (“he was indiscreet enough to play one that took fully 28 minutes,” wrote Abbé Jacobo Che- lini). The worshippers, according to the Abbé, marveled at his unrivaled technical proficiency but bristled at an equivalent lack of judgment. “He imitated on his strings the songs of birds, the flute, trombone, and horn, and, though ev- eryone admired his astounding bravura, when they heard such mimicry produced on the vio- lin, it nevertheless aroused laughter even in church.” Paganini apparently enjoyed favor with government officials and influential fig- ures in Lucca. He was appointed first violinist of the republican orchestra in 1805. When Napo- leon installed younger sister Élisa Bonaparte Baciocchi (later, Levoy) as Duchess of Lucca, she demoted Paganini to second desk. The 24 Caprices, op. 1, for unaccompanied vi- olin are Paganini’s most celebrated composi- tion. This collection dates from his period in the aristocratic, artistically sumptuous, fortified ancient town of Lucca (1801–9), a short distance from his hometown. Several authors have sug- gested that the young violinist created them to establish himself as a serious composer, years before embarking on the concert tours that so- lidified his reputation as a virtuoso. These two dozen essays piled innovation upon innovation in one of Paganini’s most progressive creative displays, an avant-gardism he later abandoned for the popular concert stage. True to their Ro- mantic nature, the Caprices appear to speak in two voices, as described by musicologist Jeffrey Perry: “The first is lyrical and draws on the vocal Nicolò Paganini by John Whittle (1836) and operatic roots of Paganini’s musical up- bringing. The second I have labeled the questive voice. Romanticism is an aesthetic of distance; the questive voice is a means of traversing the immensity that is the one essential feature of early-Romanticism in its incarnations.” Composed over a 15-year period (1802–17), the 24 Caprices, op. 1, were published in Rome by Ricordi in 1820, simultaneously with opp. 2–5. Paganini dedicated the caprices to “All Artists,” presumably of his own time and into the future. Already, rumors of his supernatural technical ability had become more than whispers, per- haps daunting those violinists who attempted to conquer the Caprices’ technical challenges be- fore deeming them unplayable. Since then, these brilliantly virtuosic and expertly crafted compo- sitions—especially the tuneful Caprice No. 24 in A minor—have inspired derivative compo- sitions by the likes of Johannes Brahms, Franz Liszt, Witold Lutosławski, Robert Muczynski, Nathan Milstein, Serge Rachmaninoff, George Rochberg, and Robert Schumann, as well as a surprisingly diverse assemblage of popular mu- sicians, among them seminal heavy metal gui- tarist Yngwie Malmsteen, jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman, and Broadway composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. JOHANN SEBASTIANBACH (1685–1750) Partita No. 2 for Solo Violin in D minor, BWV 1004 Posterity owes a great debt to Carl Philipp Emanuel, the most famous of Bach’s musician sons, for the preservation of an estimated half of his father’s manuscripts. This family archive, which also contained music of other Bach fam- ily composers, disappeared during World War II and has only recently resurfaced in Kyiv, Ukraine. Equally important to his father’s leg- acy were the numerous biographical accounts and letters to Johann Nikolaus Forkel, who wrote the earliest extended biography of Johann Sebastian Bach. Emanuel lauded, among other qualities, his father’s intimate knowledge of string instru- ments: “As the greatest expert and judge of harmony, he liked to play the viola, with ap- propriate loudness and softness. In his youth, and until the approach of old age, he played the violin cleanly and penetratingly. … He un- derstood to perfection the possibilities of all string instruments.” Bach’s output for violin in various chamber combinations comprised six sonatas with fully composed harpsichord parts (the “accompanied sonatas”; BWV 1014–19), two sonatas with continuo accompaniment (i.e., keyboard plus sustaining bass instrument; BWV 1021, 1023), and the six sonatas and parti- tas for solo violin (BWV 1001–6). Violinists have prized these works as the summa of Baroque violin technique for three centuries. RAVINIAMAGAZINE • JULY 20 – AUGUST 2 , 2026 70