Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 01/01/2006, uploaded on 02/03/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Throughout the early 1830s, the music world was entranced by the performances of the violin virtuoso Niccolo Paganini. He traveled Europe performing his own compositions as well as those by his contemporaries and was more than willing to display his near supernatural talent. As his fame spread, so also did the rumors of his remarkable skill and it was often said that Paganini had sold his soul to the devil to acquire such ability on the violin.

Though his career as a traveling virtuoso was cut short due to health problems, Paganini's compositions for the violin lived on, even well past his death in 1840. Many composers were inspired by his many caprices and used them as the basis for their own compositions. Robert Schumann was one such composer.

In 1832, Schumann composed his Six Etudes after Paganini Caprices, op. 3. Unlike his later Concert Etudes on Caprices by Paganini, op. 10, the op. 3 etudes were primarily intended for pedagogical study rather than performance on the concert stage. Schumann's transcriptions, like their violin models, are highly virtuosic, demanding a pianist with exceptional flexibility and sensitivity. Perhaps the greatest challenge of these etudes, as with any virtuosic piece, is to lift it above a dry exercise in technique and give it a life of its own.       Joseph DuBose