Paganini a Castello Durini

The title promises violinistic fireworks—and it certainly delivers. From the great Genoese virtuoso, we hear two of his most famous and acrobatic pieces, La Campanella and I Palpiti, separated by a lesser-known work by Eugène Ysaÿe—a violin showpiece based on an earlier piano virtuoso piece by Saint-Saëns. The program, however, opens with a piece of an entirely different character: Fauré’s Sonata Op. 13, which has little to do with virtuosity—except, perhaps, in its sparkling third movement—but is instead brimming with magnificent melodic ideas.