24 Caprices
24 CAPRICCI "DEDICATI ALLI ARTISTI"
Transcribed for solo guitar by Eliot Fisk
I primi dodici parte la. Altri dodici parte Iia.
[I] Capriccio No. 1 in E Major: Andante
[2] Capriccio No. 2 in B Minor: Moderato
[3] Capriccio No. 3 in E Minor: Sostenuto: Presto: Sostenuto
[4] Capriccio No. 4 in C Minor: Maestoso
[5] Capriccio No. 5 in A Minor: Agitato
[6] Capriccio No. 6 in G Minor: Lento
Opera 2da: 6 Capricci per violino
[7] Capriccio No. 7 in A Minor: Posato
[8] Capriccio No. 8 in E-Flat Major: Maestoso
[9] Capriccio No. 9 in E Major: Allegretto
[10] Capriccio No. 10 in G Minor: Vivace
[11] Capriccio No. 11 in C Major: Andante: Presto: Primo tempo
[12] Capriccio No. 12 in A-Flat Major: Allegro
Opera 3za: 12 Capricci per violin
[13] Capriccio No. 13 in B-Flat Major: Allegro: Minore: Allegro
[14]
Capriccio No. 14 in E-Flat Major: Moderato
[15] Capriccio No. 15 in E Minor: Posato
[16]
Capriccio No. 16 in G Minor: Presto
[17]
Capriccio No. 17 in E-Flat Major: Sostenuto: Andante: Minore: Andante
[18]
[19]
[20]
Capriccio No. 18 in C Major: Corrente: Allegro: Corrente
Capriccio No. 19 in E-Flat Major: Lento: Minore: Lento
Capriccio No. 20 in D Major: Allegretto: Minore: Allegretto
[21]
[22]
[23]
Capriccio No. 21 in A Major: Amoroso: Presto
Capriccio No. 22 in F Major: Marcato: Minore: Marcato
Capriccio No. 23 in E-Flat Major: Posato: Minore: Posato
[El Capriccio No. 24 in A Minor: Tema (Quasi Presto) 11 Variations and Finale
ELIOT FISK, GUITAR
Astounding! Even Paganini wouldn't have believed that it could be played on the guitar. An enormous accomplishment that will raise the level of guitar playing. Has to be heard to be believed.
-Ruggiero Ricci
I would like to dedicate this recording to Maestro Ruggiero Ricci, who has been a constant source of support and inspiration during the preparation of this and many other projects!
Like almost every aspect of the life of Paganini his relation to the guitar has been a subject of controversy, speculation and legend. A (probably) very fine guitar by Guadagnini was among the instruments listed in Paganini's possession upon his death. In the autobiographical sketch Paganini prepared for Schottky he describes one of his several retirements from public life as follows: "From Parma I returned to Genoa where for a long time I played the dilettante rather than the virtuoso. I played a good deal but for the most part at private affairs. On the other hand I busied myself with composition and also wrote a great deal for the guitar."
However, in another passage in Schottky's Paganinis Leben und
Treiben als Kunst/er und als
Mensch (Prague, 1830) we
experience the contradictions chat have kept Paganini the artist and
the man an object of debate and discussion more than a century and a half after his death: "During my first visit to Paganini, " Schottky
writes, "I saw a guitar lying on the bed, and, since much had been said about his guitar playing, I asked him if he ever performed on this instrument. 'No, ' he replied. 'I do not love this instrument but use it rather as a spur to my thoughts (Gedankenleiter); I pick it up in order to stimulate my musical fantasy for composition or to bring out a harmony I cannot play on the violin; otherwise it is, in my opinion, worthless. By the way, I have composed a lot for the guitar: Sonatas, Variations, Concertos; but it is all still in manuscript and scattered about here and there. "'
Schottky continues, "Paganini is about the same on the guitar as he is on the violin, although he does not have the technique
artist of our time, Giuliani. "
What is one to make of these contradictions? A "worthless" instrument is used as a "Gedankenleiter" to inspire musical composition; sonatas, variations and concertos (probably Paganini means "chamber music" rather than concertos for guitar and orchestra) are composed for the same "worthless" thing; a showman second to none refuses to have anything to do with an instrument on which he is second only to one. Modern scholarship only deepens the mystery: we know that Paganini composed 15 quartets, and 5 trios for guitar and strings, that he wrote innumerable duos for guitar and violin (including one work described by Paganini himself as a "Grand Sonata a Chitarra sola con Accompagnamento di Violino"), that
(he wrote innumerable shorter pieces
for the guitar. From Paganini's earliest surviving composition, the Carmagnuola con Variazioni of 1795 to the of 1835 (perhaps the last work completed by Paganini) the guitar is never long absent from his catalogue. Regrettably for us guitarists Paganini more often than not used the guitar in chamber music settings as a backdrop to the acrobatics, incisive rhythms and soaring melodies entrusted to other instruments. Nonetheless, the guitar does sometimes get a chance to share in the limelight in extended, brilliantly conceived and technically challenging solos in the Paganini chamber music.
Certainly it is 100% consistent with Paganini's temperament and innate show business genius to keep everyone guessing as to his real feelings on the subject of the guitar.
However, it is sad to see some modern scholars, who by now should know better, repeating the old quip about the guitar being a
"worthless" instrument. For example, John Sugden, in his monograph on Paganini published in 1980 as part of the Omnibus Press Series Illustrated Lives of the Great Composers, describes the guitar as
"the instrument Paganini always took up when he was too tired and bored to do anything else. " Sugden also repeats the unfortunate translation of Paganini's otherwise exemplary biographer G.E.C. de Courcey who translates Paganini's own statement that he devoted some years of his life "a pizzicare la chitarra" as "twanging the guitar."
Yet of the five works published by Ricordi during Paganini's lifetime, of the five works Paganini, with his perfect sense for public relations, allowed to be published, all except
the 24 Capricci of Op. 1 involved the
guitar, albeit in the familiar accompanimental Lives of the Great Composers, describes the guitar as "the instrument Paganini always took up when he was too tired and bored to do anything else. " Sugden also repeats the unfortunate translation of Paganini's otherwise exemplary biographer G.E.C. de Courcey who translates Paganini's own statement that he devoted some years of his life "a pizzicare la chitarra" as "twanging the guitar." Yet of the five works published by Ricordi during Paganini's lifetime, of the five works Paganini, with his perfect sense for public relations, allowed to be published, all except the 24 Capricci of Op. 1 involved the guitar, albeit in the familiar accompanimental accompanimental role for the most part. These published works included the duos for violin and guitar, Opp. 2 and 3, and the six Quartets, Opp. 4 and 5,
and the six Quartets, Opp. 4 and 5, dedicated to the "female admirers (alle amatrici) of Nicolo Paganini. "
As the guitar in 18th and 19th
century Europe was an instrument fashionable among society ladies and as many of the dedications of Paganini's guitar compositions bear the name of women the famous womanizer may or may not have bedded, this could be one cynical explanation (albeit an implausible
one in a musician of Paganini's caliber) for Paganini's lifelong interest in the guitar. A 10 part
Duetto amoroso (the latter one of Paganini's favorite adjectives -- it appears as well above the melody in sixths at the start of the 21st Capriccio and often in the chamber
music with guitar) brings this aspect of Paganini's music making into full relief. Dating from around 1807 this
Duetto portrays (in de Courcey's translation) "Commencement, Entreaty, Consent, Timidity,
Happiness, Quarrel, Reconciliation, Tokens of Love, Announcement of Departure, and Parting. "
In typical fashion Paganini later
muddied the waters still further by telling one of his traveling secretaries, Harrys, that the 6 guitar quartets of Opp. 4 and 5 had been written by a bad musician who had purloined his themes! (This rumor is repeated without citation by the great French encyclopedist, Fetis, whose biographical entry on Paganini has also been the source of a good number of misrepresentations of the great Genovese artist which have persisted to this day. Perhaps it is not surprising to read that for all his admiration of Paganini's skill on the violin, Fetis had serious reservations about Paganini's deeper musical qualities!)
Once again we must remember that Paganini loved to keep present, and would certainly have been very happy keeping future, biographers as well, guessing. When asked to put down details of his life for posterity Paganini procrastinated, writing a few lines for Lichtenthal ("at 3 A.M. on February 28, 1828, about 12 hours before leaving for Austria"). Likewise he told Schottky, "If you are counting on a fairly exhaustive autobiographical sketch, then I am sorry for you! For that you would have to go to Italy yourself in order to gather information about me from individuals and newspapers here and there, and concerning events that I have already forgotten. " Then he turns coy: "Your readers must be content with what I've told you. But perhaps this bit is already too much; for an artist is still only an artist, and in our age of exceptional men, I cannot believe
such sketchy details about my life
will find a large reading public. "
Paganini kept Carl Guhr, author of one of the first books on his technique, Paganinis Kunst die Violine zu Spielen ("Paganini's Art of Playing the Violin"), who spent some time traveling with Paganini on tour, utterly mystified as to when (and if!) he ever practiced! Schottky echoes this observation, quoting Paganini as follows: " 'People make a lot out of my memory, and, in fact, it's not half bad, for I play everything without music. I had complete forgotten my Larghetto on the Mozart theme "la ci darem la mano" (from the opera Don Giovanni) on the day of my last concert. One hour spent reading the score brought everything back (machte alles wieder gut) and, in addition, when I'm performing, the accompaniment of the other instruments reminds me where I am in the score with the
t that I can go before the public with confidence. " Paganini's great contemporary, the violinist and composer, Louis Spohr, has left an account that offers an important clue toward understanding Paganini's character: "Paganini came to see me to say many nice things about my concert. I begged him very urgently to play something for me, and several musical friends who were present joined their entreaties to mine, but he flatly refused, saying that his style was calculated for the general masses and never failed in its effect; but if he were to play something for me, he would have to adopt a different style and he was now far too little in practice for this. However, we would very likely meet in Rome or Naples and then he would no longer refuse. "
From this account of Spohr's we can deduce not only that Paganini had a superb instinct for self protection -- a trait common to celebrities of our own century like Howard Hughes or Greta Garbo -but also that he made an absolutely clear distinction between public and private life, between the "artisti" like Spohr (to whom the 24 Capricci are dedicated) and the countless "amatrici" who might be expected to appreciate (and perhaps even play) the lighter works in the Opp. 4 and 5
Quartets. Yet a further point on the continuum was represented by the heroic concertos and variations for violin and orchestra with which Paganini completed his final conquest of Europe beginning in 1828. Indeed, the more one learns about Paganini the more the caricature of
the shallow, brilliant stuntman -- the role all too often allotted Paganini in the annals of musicology -- seems absurd. Not only was Paganini far more complex than his detractors would have us believe, he succeeded in convincing and wholly mesmerizing some of the greatest musicians of his era. On the frontispiece of his book, Schottky quotes Paganini, "Bisogna forte sentire per far sentire!" ("It is necessary to feel deeply in order to make others feel.") And indeed, even so stern an eminence as Clara Schumann's father, the authoritarian piano pedagogue, Wieck, declared that he had never heard a singer who so touched him as the violin of Paganini in an Adagio. Other Paganini admirers included Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, and Berlioz, to name but a few. Posthumously the list is even longer,
including Brahms, Rachmaninoff and the American composer, George Rochberg, all of whom have used the theme of the 24th
Capriccio as the basis for variations.
The secret of Paganini's success was ultimately his own genius, but some of his early training was also superb. His father (incidentally a player of another plucked instrument, the mandolin} had been his first teacher. According to Nicolo, Paganini Senior had a bad ear but was passionately fond of music. The father started his son off on the mandolin at the age of 5 1/2. The boy soon progressed to the violin and by the age of 8 1 /2 he had performed a Pleyel concerto in church. Paganini described his father to Schottky thus: "He soon recognized my natural talent, and I have to thank him for teaching me the rudiments of the art. His
principal passion (by which Paganini
means playing the numbers!) kept him at home a great deal, trying by certain calculations to figure out lottery numbers from which he hoped to reap considerable gain. " (This interest in trying the odds seems to have been inherited by his son in all possible respects!) "He therefore pondered over the matter a great deal, " Paganini continues, "and would not let me leave him, so that I had the violin in my hand from morn until night." According to Nicolo his father even went so far as to deprive his son of food when he felt that he had neglected his duties. "But, " says Paganini, "I really didn't require such harsh stimulus because I was enthusiastic about my instrument and studied it unceasingly in order to discover new and hitherto unsuspected effects." (How many overly ambitious parents
could stand to learn a thing or two from Paganini's words!)
At the age of 12 Paganini was brought to play for the eminent master Alessandro Rolla. The boy proceeded to sight read a concerto of Rolla's that he noticed lying about, bringing the incredulous elder man out of his sick bed in order to tell him that he had nothing to teach him. Instead, Rolla sent Paganini to study composition with Paer, who referred him instead to his own teacher, Ghiretti. There followed a severe apprenticeship in which Paganini studied counterpoint with Ghiretti "solely with the pen, without any instrument" (as Paganini put it in the autobiographical sketch prepared for Lichtenthal in 1828). It was this excellent early training, which, wedded to his limitless imagination,
enabled Paganini to compose the 24 Capricci, Op. 1 , sometime during the period 1801-1807. One looks in vain here for the flashier tricks of Paganini's public persona. In the Capricci are no imitations of farm animals (although the Capriccio Number 9 makes use of the sounds of the hunt), no scordatura (although one imagines that a number of the Capricci would be more idiomatic in other keys}, and even left hand pizzicato makes only a cameo .appearance (in the penultimate variation of Capriccio 24). Neither is there on the other hand any attempt to work methodically through the cycle of fifths in the exhaustive fashion utilized by Bach in his
Wohltempiertes Klavier or even by Paganini's violinist contemporary Rode, whose 24 Caprices dans tous les ton preceded Paganini's cycle by some years. The Capricci of Pietro Locatelli have often been cited as
important models for those of Paganini. But outside of a few obvious examples, the work of Paganini so far exceeds that of Locatelli in musical and technical daring that it renders comparison almost useless. Paganini himself described the Capricci as consisting of three books: Book I (Capricci 16); Book II (Capricci 7-12); and a final Book (13-24). The formal idea of a group of 12 (= 2 x 6) appears again in the final Capriccio, the only variation set among the 24, where 11 variations and a Finale also add up to a set of 12.
Generations of violinists have sweated and cursed their way
through these demanding etudes, but more than perhaps any other
violinist it was Ruggiero Ricci who, through his recording and public performances, established the
validity of the entire set.
John Williams' stunning recording of the 24th Capriccio opened the door for guitarists, and indeed his version of the 24th gave me the courage to attempt the remaining 23. Little by little over a period of several years time I discovered new techniques to overcome a series of technical hurdles that exceeded anything I had ever attempted. I decided early on to renounce the typically
Paganinian effects such as scordatura or transposition. I wanted to try to play these pieces (at least the first time through!) without overly altering their character (although Schumann, Liszt and Rachmaninoff have certainly demonstrated that utterly enchanting results can be obtained by such recomposing!) Throughout the set of 24 I was continually reminded of effects Paganini must have borrowed from the guitar. For example, the Capricci Numbers 2
and 12 are considerably more
idiomatic to the guitar than to the
violin. Capriccio No. 9 calls for timbrel contrasts ("sulla tastiera imitando ii Flauto" and "imitando il carno") that are standard guitar
techniques, and the frequent double, triple and quadruple stops
that feature so prominently throughout the set lie much more naturally on the guitar's 6 strings than on the violin's 4. On the other hand, the huge expanses of arpeggios and scales that adorn so many of the Capricci are decidedly more idiomatic to the violin.
Of course, I found that by challenging myself again and again to expand my concept of the possible I learned a great deal from Paganini! I hope that the result may be of interest not just to guitarists and violinists but to music lovers, amatrici and artisti of all ages who
may thus experience one of the masterpieces of Western instrumental music in a new context.
-ELIOT FISK Special thanks to John Taylor, without whose infinite patience, humor and devotion to excellence, this project would not have been possible.
Inspired by Mr. Fisk's adventurous approach to interpretation and impeccable artistry, composers Nicholas Maw, George Rochberg, and Luciano Berio have all written for him. In September, 1992, he premieres Berio's Chemin for guitar and orchestra in Europe (commissioned for Mr. Fisk by Dennis Russell Davies).
Eliot Fisk is Professor at the
ELIOT FISK is celebrated for setting new performance standards and creating new repertoire with
commissions as well as with his own transcriptions. A highly visible recitalist and soloist with orchestras, he also dedicates much time and effort to playing chamber music, particularly with his frequent partner, flutist Paula Robison. Their duo recital recording, Mountain
Songs, was nominated for a Grammy Award.
Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, where he established the Andres Sego via Institute, an international teaching and research entity devoted to expanding the musical horizon of the classical guitar.
ALSO AVAILABLE BY ELIOT FISK:
ELIOT FISK PLAYS
GUITAR FANTASIES
Works by Mozart
• Couperin
• Sor Poulenc
• Weiss
• Dowland
• Bach and others
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BELL' ITALIA
Four Centuries of Italian Music
Works by Scarlatti
• Frescobaldi Locatelli
• Petrassi
• Fiorillo
Paganini
• Castelnuovo--T edesco
• Giuliani
#01612-67079-2
