Niccolò Paganini - Caprice no. 6

Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840)
Caprice no. 6 from Paganini's 24 Caprices for solo violin, Op. 1.
Arranged by Drew Henderson.

It was Eliot Fisk's recording of the 24 Caprices which inspired me to take up the classical guitar in the first place. My brother, who played the classical guitar before me, brought home the Fisk/Paganini CD one day and immediately played for me the infamous Caprice #5. This caught my attention, and I started listening to the whole CD. Having only played electric guitar, it was unlike anything I had ever heard on the instrument. Sure, I had heard impressive electric guitar virtuosi, but the marriage of a rich sound, insane technique, and beautiful polyphonic music all played acoustically really appealed to me. Not long after that, my electric guitar starting collecting a lot of dust, and i would use my brother's classical guitar when he wasn't around.

20-something years later...

In arranging this piece, I consulted the original violin music and Franz Liszt's version for piano (Grandes Études de Paganini no. 1). I decided to keep the melody singing on top for the first portion of the piece (like Liszt's version), only migrating the tremolo between the registers later on. Near the end, at the recapitulation up the octave, I move the tremolo to the top two notes, while using a harmonic in the lower voice. I think it sounds great on the guitar, and it makes this section much more idiomatic and fluid.

Hope you enjoy this...and the next one ;)

Guitar by Jeff Sigurdson
http://www.sigurdsonguitars.com/

Видео Niccolò Paganini - Caprice no. 6 канала Drew Henderson