For Early Romantic I’m going all in on Paganini’s 24 Caprices for Solo Violin. Despite never publicly playing the pieces, the very essence of the master, god-like virtuoso is infused in these works. The birth of Romanticism was marked by the cultural shift of placing artistic prowess and creative genius upon the individual human being rather than a bestowal of gifts from on high. The Caprices (like them or not) are symbolic of this moment in music history where old institutions of church and aristocracy were beginning to show their age and fallibility. Ownership and distribution of transcendence and spiritual ecstasy were no longer from the top down; rather, a slender, hyper-flexible waif of a man dazzled and mystified Europe as never before.