Gringolts is no stranger to the Caprices, having won – at the age of 16 – not only first prize in the 1998 Premio Paganini but also two further commendations as the youngest ever competitor and best interpreter, and released a disc of other works by Paganini in 1999 (BIS, 8/99). He claims to have revised his approach over the years and presents here what may be ‘a work of archeology’ but it is clearly a fresh, modern take on these technical masterpieces.

What he has achieved is to make them playful. Having discovered the dramatic qualities within, he has reflected on them. What in other recordings is somewhat predictable here becomes an exciting journey. Where we were once content simply to marvel at the pyrotechnics, now, because of Gringolts’s acute sense of timing and close attention to dynamics, we hear the music.

Gringolts is not afraid of silence, rubato or playing delicately; indeed, he revels in the possibilities they afford. He can be declamatory (No 7), conversational (No 4), balletic (No 6) and painterly (No 10); he can laugh (No 13), evoke (Nos 9, 14 and 19) and even seduce (No 21). Perhaps most remarkable of all, in No 17, he creates the musical equivalent of mime, but in No 24 he provides a worthy finale – full of swagger yet still able to accommodate the ethereal (Var 10). These are performances that would surely have made Paganini smile.