PAGANINI: 24 Caprices, Op. 1 – Mayuko Kamio, violin – RCA Victor 88697449442, 78:56 ****:
Mayuko Kamio won the Gold Medal in the 2007 Thirteenth International Tchaikovsky Competition, and she plays a 1727 Stradivarius once owned by Joseph Joachim. In the US, Kamio worked with Dorothy DeLay. Kamio brings her considerable prowess to bear on these pillars of the violin repertory – composed 1802-1817 and published in 1820 as Opus 1 – which make every sort of technical demand whilst maintaining the arioso singing line Paganini admired in Rossini. Thus, Paganini fashioned a new rhetoric for the virtuoso Romantic violin whose musical repercussions would translate to the keyboard artistry of Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, and Brahms.
The innovative power in Paganini’s art lies in the demands made upon the left hand, which must demonstrate utmost flexibility and independence among the fingers for tremolo or trills. The bowing arm, too, must execute chordal, ricochet or detache playing in lifted-stroke fits and starts, even as a steady pulsation flows through the etude, an adumbration of Chopin. The opening caprice in E Major wants all four strings crossed in the midst of hurtling 16th notes; later Kamio must barely touch the string and apply left-hand pizzicato or slurred arpeggios to produce ghostly effects, as in No. 12 in A-flat. The B Minor indulges in half steps with non-adjacent strings crossed by the bow, a feverish thankless sound. The E Minor has Kamio creating slurred legato and octave trills in rather sizzling fashion. The C Minor No. 4 is the first of several homages to Bach or Locatelli, with multiple stops, sustained pressure on several strings. No small stamina informs No. 5 in A Minor, with ricochet bowing through ascending arpeggios and descending scales at breathless speed. Like No. 4, No. 6 in G Minor is a stamina-tester torture chamber of skills, alternating between melodic and flutter, tremolo effects in slow harmonic motion. Slurred staccato and arpeggio passages in No. 7 in A Minor must still render a ardent song. No. 8 in E-flat Major opens with a series of affects in swift motion, with outrageous demands on the bow arm. Trills and slurred glissandi move in snake-like fashion over the entire fingerboard.
With No. 9 in E Major come tunes and effects we often associate with Liszt’s transcription. Flute and horn effects alternate in double stops from non-adjacent strings, the bow in ricochet in the middle section. The synchronizing of the two hands raises a task in itself. Schumann liked the fiery No. 10 in G Minor whose thrusts and jabbing scales provide no end of metric intricacy. The C Major begins in Neapolitan opera but its upstrokes provide a nervous motion until it breaks into a game dance a la tarantella. No. 13 in B-flat holds a special place for its double stops and detached bowing, often called the “Devil’s Laughter” Caprice. Milstein and Heifetz loved it, and so does Kamio. No. 14 in E-flat Major is all about brass choirs, voiced by violin chords in multiple-stop fanfares. Its wonders end too soon. The E Minor No. 15 provides an eerie moment, almost a rasping, staccato caterwaul in the night. The G Minor No. 16 certifies Kamio’s mastery: a triple-time study in fortissimo and syncopated accents, the detached bow must skip strings but not lose the flow, smorzando legato.
The A and E strings in thirds receive a workout in No. 17 in E-flat Major, a Liszt specialty. The middle section octaves are murder. The G string in high position marks No. 18 in C, a throaty baritone melody that breaks into brisk scales. No. 19 Lento in E-flat Major defies easy characterization, a skittish piece in detached bowing with touches of legato whose fury emerges suddenly, half-way through. A drone on D secures the work on the A and E strings in No. 20 in A Major, which breaks out into flying work in 16ths. A tempestuous vehicle for Ms. Kamio, this one. Kamio’s sentimental side emerges in No. 21 in A, an “Amoroso” aria in sixths that accelerates to up-bow staccato work. No. 22 in F is a high-strung affair from every angle, alternating bowing strokes while moving through a flurry of 16ths in broken metrics. The G string and E string receive the ultimate workout in No. 23 in E-flat, either as part of an octave group or in 16th patterns of three Gs to one E, cross-bowed in quick tempo, if you please. Finally, the granddaddy of caprices, No. 24 in A Minor, which exploit’s the kitchen sink of multiple stops and left hand pizzicato to full effect. Kamio seizes the theme and variations with demonic abandon, her Stradivarius a knife through molten wax.
–Gary Lemco
