ALC 0034 Virtuoso violin

This precious violinistic promenade calls for a solemn incipit: let's start, then, from Niccolò Paganini, even for chronological reasons: his "Cantabile" refers to the year 1827 and is an example of pulsating and palpable romanticism up to the oneiric stroke. Another style is that of Camille Saint-Saëns. And yet "Introduction and Rondò Capriccioso" (1867), destined for an incomparable virtuoso such as Pablo de Sarasate, displays a writing dense with effect solutions, almost surprising in a declared devotee of classical aesthetics. It was Sarasate himself who, in 1878, composed a small hundred arias and motifs of gypsy inspiration, entitled "Zigeneurweisen". He wrote a version with piano accompaniment and another one for orchestra, it doesn't change much: the absolute and overbearing protagonist of the story remains the violin.  In the same 1878, another small but significant page, this time by Cajkovskij, sees the light in Switzerland: with "Souvenir d'un lieu cher", the Russian composer reaffirms his attention to the violin attested by the almost contemporary writing of the Concerto in D Major.