The 24 Caprices for Solo Violin were written in groups (six, six and twelve) by Niccolò Paganini between 1802 and 1817. They are also designated as M.S. 25 in Maria Rosa Moretti's and Anna Sorrento's Catalogo tematico delle musiche di Niccolò Paganini which was published in 1982. The Caprices are in the form of études, with each number exploring different skills (double stopped trills, extremely fast switching of positions and strings, etc.)
Ricordi first published them in 1820, where they were grouped and numbered from 1 to 24 as Op. 1, together with 12 Sonatas for Violin and Guitar (Op. 2 and 3) and 6 Guitar Quartets (Op. 4 and 5). When Paganini released his Caprices, he dedicated them "alli artisti" (to the artists) rather than to a specific person. A sort of dedication can be recognized in Paganini's own score, where he annotated between 1832 and 1840 the following 'dedicatee' for each Caprice (possibly ready for a new printed edition): 1: Henri Vieuxtemps; 2: Giuseppe Austri; 3: Ernesto Camillo Sivori; 4: Ole Bornemann Bull; 5: Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst; 6: Karol Józef Lipiński; 7: Franz Liszt; 8: Delphin Alard; 9: Herrmann; 10: ; 11: Sigismond Thalberg; 12: Dhuler; 13: Charles Philippe Lafont; 14: Jacques Pierre Rode; 15: Louis Spohr; 16: Rodolphe Kreutzer; 17: Alexandre Artôt; 18: Antoine Bohrer; 19: Andreas Jakob Romberg; 20: Carlo Bignami; 21: Antonio Bazzini; 22: Luigi Alliani; 23: [no name]; 24: Nicolò Paganini, (to my self, regrettably buried).
Ferdinand David's first edition was published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1854. David, as editor, also issued an edition of Caprices with piano accompaniments by Robert Schumann. Another edition by David was issued in two books of 12 caprices each "" (with additional piano accompaniment by Ferdinand David) and published by Breitkopf & Härtel (c. 1860).
Unlike many earlier and later sets of 24 pieces, there was no intention to write these caprices in 24 different keys.
Details
Scores
Critical edition by (Ed. Curci, 1982) Critical edition by (Urtext, 1990)
Complete set / commercial recordings
In 1940, to celebrate the centenary of Paganini's death, the complete set in the arrangement for violin and piano by Ferdinand David was recorded by the 20-year-old Austrian violinist Ossy Renardy (pseudonym of Oskar Reiss), with Walter Robert on piano (78 rpm's, RCA Victor; CD reprint by Biddulph). This was the world premiere recording of any version of the 24 Caprices. Renardy had played the solo violin version of the 24 in his Carnegie Hall debut the previous October. In 1953, shortly before his untimely death, Renardy recorded the 24 again (on Paganini's Guarnieri del Gesù violin, 'Il Cannone'), in the same arrangement by David, with Eugene Helmer accompanying (2LPs, Remington R-99-146 & R-99-152).
In 1947, Ruggiero Ricci made the first complete recording of the 24 Caprices in their original version (Decca). Ricci later made further recordings, as stated below: 1947 | 2LPs | Decca LK.4025 Nos.1–12; LXT.2588 Nos.13–24 -mono-; 1950 reprint | 2LPs | London Decca LL.264 Nos.1–12; LL.252 Nos.13–24 mono (London, July 1947) 1959 | LP | Decca LXT.5569 -mono- / SXL.2194 -stereo- (Victoria Hall, Geneva, 1–9 April 1959) 1973 | LP | Vox Turnabout TV-S 34528 | + premiere recording of Caprice d'adieu in E major, MS 68 (USA, 1973) 1978 | 2LP | Price-Less C–93042 (CD reprint: Price-Less D12179) | "Golden Jubilee" – recorded direct-to-disc at Soundstage Recording Studio, Toronto, Canada | + Caprice d'adieu in E major, MS 68 + Duo merveille in C major, MS 6 (Toronto, 1978) 1988 | CD | Radio Vaticana 061–003 / Biddulph LAW 016 | performed on Paganini's Guarneri del Gesù "Il Cannone" (Genova, 16–20 April 1988) 1998 | CD | Dynamic CDS244 | 80th Birthday Concert, live in Szeged Synagogue, Hungary | version for violin and orchestra by Laszlo Meszlény (Nos.1–23) and Chris Nicholls (No.24), based on the piano accompaniment composed by Robert Schumann (Hungary, 17 May 1998) 1982 | LaserDisc-NTSC | One Eleven, Ltd. URS-V-91610 | 69 mins. | BBC Scotland, Live television performance (p)1991 1987 | VHS-NTSC | Shar Products Company RR–1 (Michigan University, 10 January 1987) | unedited performance