#NewPaganiniProject

"I have played Paganini’s solo caprices for many years. From the very beginning I was fascinated by the unique combination of extreme virtuosity and musical variety and vividness the likes of which you seldom encounter. I have always regretted the fact that in the concert hall the caprices have not been able to enjoy the attention that, in my opinion, they deserve. They are much more than pure ‘technical studies’. Right up until today each of them has remained a small jewel for every violinist. The main idea of my project is, by adding a symphony orchestra, to provide these small jewels with a new ‘setting and precision polish‘.”

Niklas Liepe

„#The New Paganini Project“, the CD debut of Niklas Liepe with the German Radio Philharmonic of Saarbrücken/Kaiserslautern, was released in March 2018 by Sony Classical and has been nominated for the Opus Klassik prize. The project is based on orchestral re-arrangements of Paganini’s 24 solo caprices for violin in historical and contemporary styles. The internationally renowned arranger Prof. Andreas N. Tarkmann was responsible for the historic arrangements; he is known for his work for Jonas Kaufmann, Sabine Meyer, Plácido Domingo, Anna Netrebko, Albrecht Mayer and James Galway as well as the Berlin Philharmonic. 

The 22 composers of #The New Paganini Project are:
Robert Schumann, Fazil Say, Andreas Gömmel, Henrik Albrecht, Gerard Tamestit, Bastion Bund, Prof. Tobias Rokahr, Peter Wesenauer, Benjamin Scheuer, Jaques Thibaud, Prof. Martin Messmer, Stephan Lenz, Fritz Kreisler, Prof. Claus Kühnl, Adolf Busch,Sidney Corbett, Andrea Csollany, Dominik D. Dieterle, Mario Pilati, Karol Szymanowski, Stephan Koncz, Friedrich Heinrich Kern, Prof. Andreas N. Tarkmann

The composers were faced with a particular challenge. The new work should not assign the orchestra the trivial role of simple accompanist; rather it should create a new, outstanding group of pieces on the basis of Paganini’s caprices. The famous original infuses the new piece compositionally and artistically and presents the orchestra with a task that is technically, compositionally and artistically challenging. At the same time, the unique virtuosity of the violin part is not to be compromised.

The project conductor is the German Radio Philharmonic’s Gregor Bühl. He is an Echo Klassik laureate and enjoys a splendid international reputation as a particularly knowledgeable, expressive and versatile conductor at both the opera and concert podium.

The German Radio Philharmonic presents concert series at both of its home cities, Saarbrücken and Kaiserslautern. It makes regular appearances across the border in France and Luxemburg, as well as in Brussels, Mainz, Karlsruhe and Mannheim. In the concert hall and on the broadcast programs of the Saarland Broadcasting Corporation, the Southwest Broadcasting Corporation, SR/SWR Television and ARTE, the German Radio Philharmonic is dedicated to delighting classics audiences with the enormous repertory scope of a broadcast orchestra, in best artistic quality, and to creating intensive musical experiences. With its podcasts and live streaming, the orchestra is expanding its audience outreach into the digital world.