Paganini’s Sonata a violino solo (M.S. 6), composed during his Lucca period (1805-1809), forms part of a series of music written for solo violin that has failed to attract the attention of both performers and scholars interested in Genoa’s famous violinist. This work – published several times in the nineteenth century (especially outside Italy, with various titles: Duetto per un violino solo, Duo Merveille, Meraviglia di Paganini word etc.) – is divided into two movements (Adagio – Allegro molto). Paganini used a two-staff system of musical notation to produce two distinct levels of sound, as well as graphically: pizzicato on the lower line, arco on the upper. It is a short, pleasing piece, containing all the typical characteristics one expects from Paganini: melody and instrumental virtuosity. This critical edition, based on the autograph kept at the Biblioteca Casanatense in Rome as part of a collection of the most important editions from the 1800s and 1900s, is intended to provide scholars and performers a philologically reliable text that revives the original version.
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