PAGANINI : 24 Caprices (Alina Ibragimova) (2021) 2CD / FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

The 24 Caprices, Op. 1, of Paganini are usually recorded as a set, and with the single opus number, it makes sense to approach them that way. Yet Paganini composed them not in a single stretch of creative activity but rather over many years, and when published, they were divided into groups of six, six, and 12. Certainly, they are among the most purely virtuosic violin pieces ever written, a compendium of violin techniques of which some say their first use in these works, and the famous Caprice No. 24 in A minor is in the nature of a finale, summing up the devices that appear in the earlier pieces. One way to approach the Caprices is as individuals, and that's what Alina Ibragimova does here. Given the fiery adventures of some of this violinist's other releases, one might expect a flamboyant Paganini set. Ibragimova does draw attention to her presence at some points where she evokes Paganini's presence in concert (check out the end of the Caprice No. 18, where she seems, as it were, to step to the back of the stage). For the most part, though, it is the personality of the individual Caprices, some of them programmatic, that emerges as the main attraction. Ibragimova's recording was made at an empty Henry Wood Hall during London's coronavirus lockdown in the spring of 2020; Ibragimova said that the solitude gave her the chance to "do some serious work" on the Caprices, and for all the fireworks, it is this inward quality with which the listener comes away. The engineering in this ideal space catches the balance between outward and inward, and the result is an entirely distinctive performance of these famed showpieces. by James Manheim  
All Tracks & Credits