Augustin Hadelich and Paganini's Capricci

“Paganini's capricci are often considered merely études used to improve technique. It is easy to forget that he uses these virtuosic acrobatics to serve the music; not vice versa. Each caprice is beautiful, witty and original with its own quirky personality; some are friends, but others are ferocious beasts to be tamed!” So writes Augustin Hadelich for his 2017 recording of the 24 Paganini capricci, and this typifies his approach to the works: highly musical (as well, of course, technically impeccable). With 16 different recordings of the complete Paganini capricci, I probably have enough to be going on with. I like many of my recordings, but I cannot claim to have an obvious favourite, though the recent Sueye Park and Hadelich stand out as worthy candidates. You need to play these works when you are young, full of enthusiasm, and with a reputation to establish.

In Europe, at least from the 1920s onwards, there were many specialist recording teams experienced in recording classical music – especially in England, Germany and the Netherlands. America has a more mixed reputation in classical recording; one thinks of the lousy recorded sound given to Arturo Toscanini in the 1950s, or the too close-up sound given to Michael Rabin for his recording of the Paganini capricci. I often have the impression that American recording studios are more geared to pop music and pop bands than to classical music, and that perhaps explains my occasional qualms over the recorded sound of Augustin Hadelich's recording of the capricci in Boston. At times the violin sounds somewhat aggressive, which is almost certainly not the fault of Hadelich's Guarneri del Gesù violin, nor of his playing. The sound needs more “air” around it, and the violin needs to be a couple of metres or so more distant from the microphones. A pity. An excellent comparison as to how a solo violin should sound when recorded could be three-star Antje Weithaas recorded in Cologne in 2015 in the complete solo violin works of Eugène Ysaÿe, and Johann Sebastian Bach. No aural aggression there! Just happy listening to a solo violin.