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Caprice no. 24



I love number 24 for its completeness. Its form is reminiscent of many Baroque compositions, where short movements are packaged together (often alternating slow/fast tempi) to collectively make a piece that is about the same length as a long pop song.

Campagnoli utilized the variation to include many different techniques: double-stops, bass and treble voicing, fast passagework, and string crossings. I am glad the fast movements were not any longer. The single take recording was quite a challenge!




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Introduction

Background Two years ago, I assigned one of Bartolomeo Campagnoli's 41 Caprices for Viola, Op. 22 to a student of mine. At our lesson the following week, she told me she had searched for a recording online but couldn't find one. Listening to assigned pieces is a regular exercise for her (as for many of my students), and the fact that she couldn't find a recording hindered her progress that week. I went home that evening and began searching online for recordings of the caprices, and found they were sadly lacking. Campagnoli's Caprices for Viola are as difficult and musical as Paganini's 24 Caprices for Violin, yet as scarce as Paganini's are popular in representation. That's when I realized someone needed to change that. In fact, I could change it. I thought up a far-fetched dream to record all forty-one caprices. After practicing some of my favorite caprices and realizing their true difficulty, I got discouraged and put the thought away for a w...