I received the 3 Paganini Caprices recital tapes last week. All I can say is WOW! First, in my 50+ years of concert going, I have never heard the complete Paganini Caprices ever played in one concert. Typically in a violin recital, a group of three of the caprices are featured as one of the pieces, or sometimes one of caprices is played as an encore. So playing all 24 in one live concert is a monumental accomplishment. The caprices range from being difficult to almost impossible to play. Paganini wrote them over a period of years in three groups - 6, 6 and 12. And this is how the recital was arranged, as well as the three tapes. The first two tapes are around 25 minutes long each, and the last one is over 30 minutes long, making the total recital over 80 minutes in length. Narita is a fabulously talented violinist, with both extreme technical chops and an expressiveness that comes out in this playing. You can feel the tension in the room as he plays one after another - almost like movements in a sonata. It is like a high wire act without a net.
If the price of three tapes is too steep in one go, I would recommend starting with the last reel, Caprices 13-24. This contains his last and most famous caprice #24. This was the basis for several very famous workes, including two sets of Brahms piano variations and the ultra popular Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Rachmaninoff, for piano and orchestra.
Ed has continued to incrementally improve his already fine recording and duplicating electronics, which you can read about in his post above. The sound is even more palpable with the WE 300b's in the chain.
I compared Narita's traversal of the Caprices with my two favorite versions - the Itzhak Perlman from the '70's and the Michael Rabin from the '50's. I find the emotion and subtlety of Narita's playing to surpass both Perlman and Rabin, which were both studio recording. The sonics, in these 15ips 2 track tapes are in another league, of course.
Buy at least reel 3, then you will want the other two.
Larry
