 Pourtant considérés par Paganini comme des modèles, les Caprices pour violon seul de Locatelli sont très rarement enregistrés. Initialement, ces caprices sont des cadences écrites pour les mouvements externes des concertos de L’Arte del Violino, op. 3. Mais Locatelli leur a donné une telle ampleur (quatre sont plus longs que le mouvement auquel ils appartiennent !) et une telle richesse technique et mélodique qu’ils méritent d’être joués séparément. Entre acrobaties (pour l’archet comme pour la main gauche), fantaisie et invention, c’est une fête presque constante, nous entraînant quelque part entre Bach et Paganini. Igor Ruhadze, complète ici son précieux « Projet Locatelli » et propose le premier enregistrement qui, aux 24 caprices canoniques, ajoute un caprice supplémentaire pour le Concerto en la et le caprice qui clôt la dernière Sonate de l’op. 6. Respectant la part d’improvisation laissée à l’interprète, Ruhadze fait preuve, sur son violon baroque, d’une grande maîtrise technique (seuls les aigus stratosphériques du 22e caprice résistent un peu à son intonation) et d’un panache plein de finesse et de poésie. Il est, de plus, très bien capté. (Emmanuel Lacoue-Labarthe) The virtuosic, gloriously indulgent music of Pietro Antonio Locatelli has long been passed over in favour of later composers, such as the master of flamboyant showiness Niccolò Paganini (whose 24 Caprices were inspired by these works). Eighty years before Paganini, however, came these capricci (or capriccios), long soloistic passages for solo violin that were originally written as cadences within movements of violin concertos. But Locatelli’s knack for this style proved so popular that the works easily stand alone; indeed, some of the capriccios are so long that they actually exceed the length of the movement they originate from! Locatelli would write out the beginning of the capriccio, leaving the player to improvise the final cadenza, and Igor Ruhadze has followed that pattern here, improvising cadences to bridge between all 24 capriccios and as the final tuttis of the concerto movements to which they belong. Even Locatelli’s notated section still leaves plenty of room for interpretation; he would simply write the notes in a block chord, leaving the player to pick this apart in whatever style he wished. The writing is rapid, technically demanding and stratospherically high, making huge demands on the performer and providing a treat for the listener in search of a compelling alternative to Paganini. Igor Ruhadze is a highly experienced performer of Locatelli’s works. In 2015 Brilliant Classics released a 21CD set of the composer’s ensemble music, featuring Mr. Ruhadze and his aptly-named ensemble Violini Capricciosi. A separately-released volume from the Edition, that of the Trio Sonatas, received a very favourable review from Gramophone magazine, which described the ensemble as ‘fine advocates’ of Locatelli’s music, and praised the ‘brilliantly and at times breathtakingly performed’ works.
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