Michael Rabin - Paganini: 24 Caprices (2003)

Separately, Paganini's Caprices (24) are among the most difficult pieces ever written for the violin. Together, they are the very definition of violin virtuosity. And not just technical virtuosity, but tonal and even emotional virtuosity. Playing the notes perfectly is the beginning -- not the end -- of performing the Caprices: playing the notes with exquisite beauty and emotional expressivity is the goal of performing the Caprices. Michael Rabin can do all of that and he makes it sound easy. In this 1958 Capitol recording, Rabin plays all the absurdly impossible notes of Paganini's Caprices with an unfailingly beautiful tone. Better than that, Rabin gets beneath the notes to the gloriously beautiful, wonderfully expressive music in the Caprices. One could almost forget how ridiculously difficult these pieces are when listening to Rabin's passionate, contemplative, dramatic, comic, seductive, and heroic interpretations. But when one realizes how difficult the pieces are and how easy Rabin makes playing them sound, one is amazed all over again. This is one of the greatest solo violin performances ever recorded.