The Name You Trust for Classical Music

Read reviews, listen to the music, and purchase the COMPACT DISC Paganini: Music for Violin and Guitar, Vol. 1

Customer Service Toll Free 866.489.4152

Flash 9 required. Click to download.

Narrow your search
with our Music Browser

Classical Music

        Ballet
        Chamber Music
        Choral
        Concertos
        Film Music
        Folk Legends
        Instrumental
        Musicals
        Opera / Operetta
        Orchestral
        Vocal

Jazz

Jazz Contemporary
Jazz Icons

New Age

Wind Band

World

        Ballad
        Bhuddist
        Chinese Music
        Classical (World)
        Early Music (World)
        Folk
        Gamelan
        Gypsy
        Hindustani
        Jazz (World)
        Klezmer
        Sufi
        Vocal (World)
        World

Special Offers:

Free MP3 Downloads

A Special Offer for Valentines

Catalogs

Internship Opportunities

Celebrating Black History

Masters of American Music

53rd Annual Grammy� Award Winners

Clearance

Penguin Guide

200 Essential Recordings

Recently Released

Upcoming Releases

SACD

DVD

        Ballet DVD
        Classical Concert
        Classical Documentary
        Dance Documentary
        Opera DVD

Audio Books

        Anthologies / Collections
        Arts
        Biographies
        Children's Classics
        Classic Fiction
        Great Epics and Tales
        History
        Junior Classic Fiction
        Junior History
        Literature
        Music Biographies
        Music Education
        Non-Fiction
        Philosophy
        Plays - Others
        Plays - Shakespeare
        Poetry
        Religion
        Samplers
        Sports
        Wine Guide

NaxosDirect Podcasts

Video Librarian Reviews

Labels

Naxos Label

        Naxos American Classics
        Naxos Best Of...
        Naxos Box Sets
        Naxos Cinema Classics
        Naxos Classics
        Naxos DVD
        Naxos DVD-Audio
        Naxos International
        Naxos Jazz
        Naxos Limited Edition
        Naxos Milken Archives
        Naxos Night Music
        Naxos Opera
        Naxos Orchestral
        Naxos Special Release
        Naxos Wind Band Classics
        Naxos World

Composers

Conductors

Ensembles

Orchestras

Choirs

Artists

Instruments

Producers

Paganini: Music for Violin and Guitar, Vol. 1

Home

Classical Music

Chamber Music

Paganini: Music for Violin and Guitar, Vol. 1

View large image

$9.99 (COMPACT DISC)

In Stock - Usually ships within 24 hours.

Link to this COMPACT DISC Link to this page

Nicolo Paganini (1782 - 1840) Music tor Violin and Guitar Vol. 1 Sonata Concertata in A Major 6 Sonatas Op. 3 Variations on Barucaba, Op. 14 Cantabile in D...

Read more about this recording

Nicolo Paganini (1782 - 1840)

Music tor Violin and Guitar Vol. 1

Sonata Concertata in A Major

6 Sonatas Op. 3

Variations on Barucaba, Op. 14

Cantabile in D Major

Paganini's popular reputation rested always on his phenomenal technique as a violinist, coupled with a showman's ability to dominate an audience and to stupefy those who heard him by astonishing feats of virtuosity. His playing served as an inspiration to other performers in the nineteenth century, suggesting to Chopin, in Warsaw, the piano Etudes, and to Liszt the material of the Paganini studies that he w rote in 1838. The very appearance of Paganini impressed people. His gaunt aquiline features, his suggestion of hunched shoulders, his sombre clothing, gave rise to legends of association with the Devil, the alleged source of his power, an association supported by the frequent appearance by his side on his travels of his secretary, one Harris, thought by some to be a familiar spirit or a Mephistopheles watching over his Faust. Stories of a pact with the Devil were denied by Paganini himself, who, with characteristic understanding of the value of public relations in a more credulous age, told of an angelic visitation to his mother, in a dream, foretelling his birth and his genius.

Paganini was born in Genoain 1782 and was taught the violin first by his father, an amateur, and then by a violinist in the theatre orchestra and by the better known violinist Giacomo Costa, under whose tuition he gave a public performance in 1794. The following year he played to the violinist and teacher Alessandro Rolla in Parma, and on the latter's suggestion studied composition there under Paer. After are turn to Genoa and removal during the Napoleonic invasion, he settled in 1801 in Lucca, where, after 1805, he became solo violinist to the new ruler, Princess Elisa Baciocchi, sister of Napoleon. At the end of 1809 he left, to travel during the next eighteen years throughout Italy, winning a very considerable popular reputation. It was not until1828 that he made his first concert-tour abroad, visiting Vienna, Prague and then the major cities of Germany, followed by Paris and London in 1831.

His international career as a virtuoso ended in 1834, when, after an unsatisfactory tour of England, he returned again to Italy, to Parma. A return to the concert-hall in Nice and then, with considerable success, in Marseilles, was followed by an unsuccessful business venture in Paris, the Casino Paganini, which was intended to provide facilities equally for gambling and for music. With increasing ill health, he retired to Nice, where he died in 1840.

Although he is popularly known principally for his violin music, Paganini wrote a large number of compositions for the guitar, an instrument of which he also demonstrated mastery. He left no less than 140 shorter pieces for the instrument, with 28 duos for violin and guitar, and a number of trios and quartets that make use of the instrument. He had had some familiarity with the instrument as a child in Genoa. When in 1801 he finally gained freedom from his family and established himself in Lucca, according to later legend he fell in love with a woman known to us only as Dida, whose identity is unknown but whose connection with Paganini is attested by dedications of some of his later compositions using guitar. These early years in Lucca were subsequently the subject of gossip, with speculation as to the nature of the affair in which Paganini was involved, or even suggestions that he had spent time, some eighty ears, in prison for the murder either of his mistress or of his rival in love.

These rumours Paganini later took the trouble to deny. Whatever amorous intrigues had occupied him in Lucca, it seems that he devoted some attention to the guitar as well as to the violin, his technique of left-hand pizzicato in the latter to some extent suggested by the technique of the former.

The first of his sonatas for violin and guitar, the Sonata concertata in A major, was written in 1804 and dedicated to Signora Emilia di Negri, the wife of one of Paganini's earliest patrons in Genoa, the Marchese Giancarlo di Negri. In this sonata the two instruments are evenly matched in the three movements, an opening Allegro, a moving Adagio and a lively final Rondo.

The two sets of sonatas for violin and guitar, Opus 2 and Opus 3, seem to have been composed during early years in Lucca. The six sonatas of Opus 3 were dedicated Alla ragazza Eleonora, to the girl Eleonora, a relation of a priest and musician, Abbate Domenico Quilici, who may well have been of help to Paganini in the development of his more general musical ability. The first of the set of sonatas has a charming if brief second movement. Double stopping by the violin marks the first movement of Opus 3, No.2. It is followed by a movement more scherzoso than andantino. This leads to a sonata that opens with a violin melody of now familiar contour, capped in a second movement by a spritely Rondo, its principal theme answered by a dramatic minor episode. The fourth sonata starts with a suggestion of recitative, contrasted with a more lyrical figure, the whole operatic in conception. The second movement, marked Allegretto, has a conventionally Turkish flavour in its principal theme, soon submerged in pyrotechnics. The amorous double stopping that marks the first movement of the fifth sonata suggests that of Caprice No.21, answered by an opera buffa last movement that finds a place for virtuoso violin display and briefly lyrical moments for the guitar. The set ends with a melancholy A minor Andante, any such feeling quickly dispelled by the cheerful folk-song that dominates the second movement and the virtuoso display of left-hand pizzicato.

Paganini's variations on the Genoese melody Barucaba were written in 1835 and dedicated to Luigi Germi, a friend and lawyer who was of great assistance to him in financial matters. The sixty variations, three sets of twenty in the original version for unaccompanied violin, provide an opportunity for technical virtuosity from the violinist, while demonstrating the composer's ingenuity in his varied treatment of a very simple tune, repeated in conclusion. The present variations for violin and guitar are drawn from the third book, with an unchanged violin part, to which guitar accompaniment is added. The flowing Cantabile is of uncertain date and it has been suggested that it was written for Paganini's protege Camillo Sivori, a native of Genoa and a violinist of very great ability.

Scott St. John

Born in London, Ontario, the Canadian violinist and violist Scott St. John has impressed critics and audiences, with a number of awards to his credit, including the 1988 Canada Council Competition, which brought the loan of the 1717 Stradivarius violin that he plays. A graduate of the Curtis Institute, he made his New York debut, playing violin and viola, in 1988, as first-prize winner of the Alexander Schneider Violin and Viola Competition. Other awards have included first prize at the 1992 Munich International Violin Competition. Scott St. John has appeared as a soloist with major orchestras in America, Europe and Japan, including the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras and the Royal Philharmonic in London.

The guitarist Simon Wynberg was educated in South Africa, later taking a Master's degree at the University of London, spending the years from 1978 to 1991 in the English capital. He has recently settled in Toronto. Simon Wynberg has won a very considerable reputation as a soloist and as a chamber musician, as well as for his research into guitar repertoire and his resulting editions and publications. He founded and directs the annual Blair Atholl Festival in Scotland and enjoys a distinguished career on both sides of the Atlantic. His recordings include an acclaimed set of ten discs devoted to the guitar works of Zani de Ferranti and a Bach Recital Album.

Disc 1

Sonata concertata in A major, Op. 61, MS 2

(more info)

Composed by: Nicolo Paganini
Julian Gray,
Ismo Eskelinen, guitar
Angele Dubeau, violin
Alvaro Pierri, guitar
David Kim, violin
Scott St. John, violin
Simon Wynberg, guitar
Pekka Kuusisto, violin

I. Allegro spiritoso - 8:28
II. Adagio assai espressivo - 3:33
III. Rondeu - Allegretto con brio scherzando - 2:07

Sonata for Violin and Guitar in A major, Op. 3, No. 1, MS 27

(more info)

Composed by: Nicolo Paganini
Scott St. John, violin
Simon Wynberg, guitar
Recording date: March 1993

I. Larghetto - 1:55
II. Presto variato - 1:33

Sonata for Violin and Guitar in G major, Op. 3, No. 2, MS 27

(more info)

Composed by: Nicolo Paganini
Scott St. John, violin
Simon Wynberg, guitar
Recording date: March 1993

I. Adagio con dolcezza - 2:20
II. Andantino scherzoso - 2:24

Sonata for Violin and Guitar in D major, Op. 3, No. 3, MS 27

(more info)

Composed by: Nicolo Paganini
Scott St. John, violin
Simon Wynberg, guitar
Recording date: March 1993

I. Andante sostenuto - 2:03
II. Rondo - Molto allegro - 1:25

Sonata for Violin and Guitar in A minor, Op. 3, No. 4, MS 27

(more info)

Composed by: Nicolo Paganini
Scott St. John, violin
Simon Wynberg, guitar
Recording date: March 1993

I. Andante largo - 3:02
II. Allegretto mottegiando - 1:48

Sonata for Violin and Guitar in A major, Op. 3, No. 5, MS 27

(more info)

Composed by: Nicolo Paganini
Scott St. John, violin
Simon Wynberg, guitar
Recording date: March 1993

I. Adagio amoroso - 2:14
II. Allegretto energicamente - 2:07

Sonata for Violin and Guitar in E minor, Op. 3, No. 6, MS 27

(more info)

Composed by: Nicolo Paganini
Ismo Eskelinen, guitar
Scott St. John, violin
Simon Wynberg, guitar
Pekka Kuusisto, violin
Recording date: March 1993

I. Andante innocentemente - 2:20
II. Allegro vivo - 1:56

Variations on Baracuba, Op. 14

(more info)

Composed by: Nicolo Paganini
Scott St. John, violin
Simon Wynberg, guitar
Recording date: March 1993

Variations on Baracuba, Op. 14 (Book 3) - 10:48

Cantabile in D major, Op. 17, MS 109 (arr. for violin and guitar)

(more info)

Composed by: Nicolo Paganini
Julian Gray,
Yi Chen, violin
Ismo Eskelinen, guitar
Lars Hannibal, guitar
Ichiro Suzuki, guitar
Takako Nishizaki, violin
Angele Dubeau, violin
Alvaro Pierri, guitar
David Kim, violin
Scott St. John, violin
Simon Wynberg, guitar
Pekka Kuusisto, violin

Cantabile in D major - 4:23

Reviews

Be the first to review this title

FREE SHIPPING on orders
of 5 items or more!

Earn Naxos Rewards Points by opening an account and buying your favorite music today! Create your account here.

See all of our great site features here.

Flash 9 required. Click to download.

Composer(s):
Paganini, Nicolo

Artist(s):
St. John, Scott; Wynberg, Simon

Label: Naxos Classics
UPC: 730099569026
Item Number: 8550690
Release Date: May 27, 1994