Recorded Live

Recorded, mixed and mastered at Topaz Audio Studios Cologne

Guitar has played an important role in Paganini’s life, in fact he used it extensively for composing, teaching and dedicating a lot of time and attention to it.

The sonatas each consist of four movements, in the typical slow-fast-slow-fast pattern of the sonata da chiesa. The first two movements are coupled in a form of prelude and fugue. The third (slow) movement is lyrical, while the final movement shares the similar musical structure as a typical binary suite movement. Unlike the sonatas, the partitas are of more unorthodox design. Although still making use of the usual baroque style of allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue, with some omissions and the addition of galanteries, new elements were introduced into each partita to provide variety.

Known as an iconoclastic contrarian, legendary Romanian conductor Sergiu Celibidache rarely went into the recording studio. His live recordings are surprisingly well-documented however. His transcendent performances of Schubert and Schumann are captured here with the RAI Symphony Orchestra of Rome.