Niccolò Paganini: 24 Capricci Op.1

Niccolò Paganini: 24 Capricci Op.1 features violinist Salvatore Accardo.  Salvatore Accardo and Giulio Cesare Ricci have been working together for a good 26 years. Among the many interpretations by violinist Salvatore Accardo that Giulio Cesare Ricci has recorded during these years, the 24 Capricci album by Nicolò Paganini represents another immortal page of the violin repertoire – an absolute reference interpretation.

Regarding the location, Giulio Cesare Ricci chose the Affaitati Palace in Cremona, which houses the City Museum “Ala Ponzone” and which at the time of the photo was also a Stradivarius Museum. The recording was made in the part of the museum dedicated to the restoration laboratory, precisely in the room where the tools of the great violin makers of the historical Cremona tradition are housed.

It was fascinating to use this place for the recordings, where the instruments are traditionally restored, and to hear and record the legendary interpretation that Salvatore Accardo gave the 24 Capricci by Nicolò Paganini.

It should be mentioned that the first 12 capricci were played with the violin “Il Cremonese” by Antonio Stradivari (1715), kindly provided by the municipality of Cremona, and the other 12 capricci with the violin “Hart” by Francescatti von Antonio Stradivari (1727).

Another special feature of this album is that Salvatore Accardo played all 24 Capricci in full version with all “refrains” (first and second refrains), so that Giulio Cesare Ricci had to publish the project in two albums and not in one. This means that the other editions of the 24 Capricci, which are only on the market as a CD, were recorded without the refrains.

Giulio Cesare used the legendary Neumann tube microphones U47 and M49 for this recording. Recorded in DSD stereo on a Pyramix recorder from Merging Technologies with dCS Analog to Digital Converters.

The recording was made without any manipulation of the sound, without equalization, without reverberation, without sound compression or expansion. Exclusively with natural sound and real timbre.

Salvatore Accardo, Violin