The free cadenza, the relentless storm of the Agitato and the final turn to A major shape Paganini’s Fifth Caprice into a compressed dramatic journey for solo violin. i Work Information Composer: Niccolò Paganini (1782–1840) Title: Caprice No. 5 in A minor, Op. 1, MS 25 Year of composition: Before 1818; the surviving autograph of the collection is dated 1817 Premiere: No documented first performance Genre: Virtuoso caprice–étude Structure: Opening cadenza – Agitato – closing cadenza Duration: approx. 2½–3½ minutes Instrumentation: Solo violin Paganini’s Fifth Caprice changes the way speed itself is heard. Within a few minutes, a solitary violin opens the musical space with the freedom of an improviser testing the limits of the instrument, plunges into an unbroken vortex of semiquavers, and finally transforms the darkness of A minor into a blazing A major. Virtuosity supplies the dramatic engine of this journey: every tech...