Word: paganinis
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Deutsche Grammophon's new release "Paganini for Two" with violinist Gil Shaham and guitarist Goran Sollscher advertises itself as "Italian Music for Violin & Guitar-Perfect Company for Relaxing at Home." Recently breaking Billboard's classical top 20 as well as Tower's classical top 10, this recording's success continues a trend in popular classical music which arguably started with the fuss over Henryk Gorecki's third symphony, and includes the more recent "international phenomenon" of Chant...
...might be expected with Paganini's work in general, the violin usually has the more interesting of the two parts, and I compliment Sollscher for his consistently sensitive playing. Shaham is right at home in the genre, and considering his knuckle-busting recording of Wieniawski's first violin concerto, the works are but child's play for such a player gifted with a singular virtuoso technique. To his credit, Shaham avoids adding excessive schmaltz, and concentrates on making solid music with the material...
...Though Paganini's music by its very nature is not profound, one finds less of Paganini's naturally extroverted nature in his writing for violin and guitar. We see more of an introspective bent than one might expect from the composer of such flashy showpieces as Le streghe and the first violin concerto, both touchstones of technical facility. But, those looking for violinist pyrotechnics certainly will not be disappointed--Shaham has ample opportunity to flex his violinist technique, and he dose so impressively, yet tastefully...
...showcase work, Paganini swiped the theme of his "Moses" Variations from a Rossini opera, and spun a half-dozen or so flavors, all to be played on a single string. Shaham's technique is evidently as facile with one string as it is with four, resulting in remarkably few signs of strain throughout the entire piece. He eschews the traditional scordatura (tuning the G string up to a B-flat, in this case), and refreshingly emphasizes a darker tonality than usually encountered with this piece...
THOUGH KNOWN AS THE SUPREME VIOLIN virtuoso whose personal eccentricities and wizardly playing combined to make him music's first superstar, Niccolo Paganini was also a superb guitarist. The instrument figured in all his published work during his lifetime except his magnum opus, the ferociously demanding 24 Caprices for solo violin. It seems just, then, that the guitar virtuoso ELIOT FISK has recorded his own transcriptions of the pieces (MusicMasters Classics). What amazes throughout is Fisk's ingenuity in finding the equivalents of, say, legato and ricocheted bowing on his plucked instrument, and his dexterity in executing them with such...