Paganini - Caprice No. 9 La Chasse Liszt - Transcription Caprice No. 9

Niccolo Paganini composed his Opus 1 Caprices for solo violin between 1802 and 1817. The set of 24 were first published in 1819 and they marked a new era in violin technique. Some of Paganini's innovations in technique were hinted at earlier in the history of the violin while some seem to have originated solely with him. Since their publishing the Caprices have been a cornerstone of violin technique, although they are rarely heard in the concert hall.

But the Caprices, like the rest of Paganini's music, have always been more than just virtuoso pieces.  Paganini was one of the greatest, if not the greatest violin players of all time, but chances are his name would not be as well known now if that's all there was to him. He was also a fine composer with a genuine gift for melody as well as technical virtuosity. his Violin Concerto No. 1 is full of fireworks and glittering virtuosity, but it is also full of splendid melodies and a 2nd movement that is like a scene from a dramatic opera.

The Caprices show Paganini's gift for melody and inventiveness. There are times when it is difficult to believe that there is but one violin (and one violinist) playing. And composers as different from each other as Schumann, Liszt, Brahms and Rachmaninoff (to mention only a few)  have been inspired by Paganini's Caprices.

The Caprice No. 9 has the nickname La Chasse (The Hunt) given to it for the imitation of a pair of hunting horns in the second part of the main melody that opens the work:

Notice that Paganini asks the violinist to imitate a flute (Flauto) in the beginning of the Caprice as well as horns (Corno) in the 'answer' to the melody. Paganini was obviously thinking in orchestral terms when he wrote this Caprice, even if it is for a solo violin. The Caprice is in the form of a short rondo with this melody being repeated between different themes until its final repetition.

When Franz Liszt first heard Paganini in 1832, he was already a seasoned concert pianist and piano teacher. After hearing Paganini he vowed to become Paganini's equal on the piano. He went back to studying and practicing countless hours to add to his already very formidable technique.  What better way for Liszt to compare himself to Paganini than to play Paganini's own music on the piano? Of course music for solo violin needs to be modified to the keyboard which is what Liszt did to six of Paganini's pieces first in 1838, which he revised in 1851 into the version played today. He called these six pieces Grandes études de Paganini and the 5th Etude is a transcription of Paganini's La Chasse Caprice. Outside of adapting the music for both hands and adding a few harmonies, Liszt's transcription is a fairly literal one, more so than some of his other transcriptions which became more like Liszt's thoughts on the original rather than a transcription.

The art of transcription in music is an old one. Bach transcribed some of Vivaldi's violin concertos to concertos for keyboards. Bach even transcribed some of his own violin concertos into keyboard concertos.  It is done for various reasons; to make a piece of music accessible for an instrument or ensemble it was not written for is the usual reason. But it is usually done for noteworthy pieces of music, sometimes as a way to revive the piece or make it more well known. The Liszt transcriptions of Paganini's music are probably heard at least as often (if not more often) than the originals. So while I am sure Liszt had in mind to showcase his own technique, his transcriptions in their own way are also homages to the technical virtuosity and musicality of  Paganini's music.