Caprice Variations

George Rochberg’s brilliant and virtuoso album is a modern masterpiece in the unaccompanied violin repertoire. Composed in 1970, this work is comprised of fifty-one character variations”as compositionally expansive and technically varied as Chopin’s Etudes or Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier”drawing on many music parodies and allusions, and culminating in the (almost) literal statement of Paganini’s famed Caprice No. 24. Because of the composition’s extended length, the composer has sanctioned the thoughtful curtailment of some printed repeats and even the omission of certain variations in recital performance.