24 Caprices for solo violin

"Ehnes has recorded the Caprices before, in 1995, at the age of 19. Since then his view of the music hasn't changed a great deal… There's the same daring, bold approach, relying on exceptional technique to deliver an inner vision of each piece… what has changed is that Ehnes's technique has got even better, the intonation more precise, the bow control more sensitive. And the new recording adds an extra degree of clarity so that the playing makes a more vivid impact. Even a solitary listener will feel the desire to applaud the Presto section of No 11, with its jaunty rhythms and extraordinary leaps, or the quick staccato scales at the end of No 21." Recording of the Month Gramophone Magazine January 2010

"Yet the thing I take most from this album is not the supreme technical brilliance of the playing but the beauty of the music making it serves. Curiously, I still find this music hard to listen to in a single sitting, mainly because I find myself reeling from the unending challenges it presents - it seems like the musical equivalent of fifteen rounds in the ring with a world champion but I can honestly say that Ehnes has thrown light onto it in a way I have never heard before. A marvellous, amazing, stunning, spectacular, fabulous, awe-inspiring, fabulous piece of music-making."
(MusicWeb Recording of the Month Nov 2009)

"This eminently popular and extremely challenging set of works for virtuoso solo violin naturally has attracted the interest of every major artist worthy of the name, resulting in a significant recorded legacy that's as much a tribute to the artists--Accardo, Perlman, Rabin, Ricci, Midori, etc.--as to Paganini's genius. However, if you're in the market for a first-rank--indeed superlative--recording of Paganini's masterpiece, look no further than this release from Canadian violinist James Ehnes."
(10/10 ClassicsToday April 2010)

James Ehnes revisits the most demanding work in the violin repertoire, and delivers an astonishing new interpretation, focusing on the lyrical rather than the pyrotechnics in the Caprices - though there is ample virtuosity on display here! These works have never been exceeded in the challenges they present for the performer, and as such are the ultimate studies for solo violin. Upon hearing Paganini play the Caprices for the first time, Liszt had serious doubts about his own abilities as a composer. In contrast, they inspired Schumann to abandon his chosen career as a writer, and take up composition.

" a masterclass in how to transform virtuosic acrobatics into sensitive 'scenes' for the violin, each one telling its own little story." Salzburger Nachrichten after Salzburg Festival performance 2009

Insightful booklet essay by Ehnes on the composer and the music