Two giants of solo violin music played by a contemporary virtuoso on period violin.

Crescendo’s concertmaster Edson Scheid plays virtuosic unaccompanied violin works by two groundbreaking masters of the genre: Johann Sebastian Bach and Nicolo Paganini. Mr. Scheid led Crescendo’s period instrument orchestra “...with passionate aplomb” (The Millbrook Independent, October, 2023) in the recent 20th anniversary concerts of the award-winning music organization.
The two composers couldn’t be more different in style and personality. Bach is known for his spiritual depth, for his masterful crafting of melodies, for the complexity of his voicing, and for the thought-through structure of his works. His unaccompanied Sonatas and Partitas are the culmination of Baroque violin repertoire up to that point. In these works, he takes the violin to the limits of what a melodic string instrument can do in portraying a multi-layered musical work.

Paganini, born almost 100 years later than Bach, was an extroverted and extraordinarily accomplished violinist himself. His charisma and virtuosity made him a legend in his own time. His compositions require extreme technical proficiency and virtuosity, and draw attention toward the performer’s ability. Paganini writes for the violin in a way that was thought impossible before, and he did so because he was able to play at that level. Both composers revolutionized solo violin repertoire, and hearing their works side by side in a program is an unusual treat.

Brazilian-born period-violinist Edson Scheid has been hailed as a “virtuoso violinist” by The Boston Globe, and “both musically and technically one of the most assured and accomplished of today’s younger period violinists” by The Boston Musical Intelligencer. Scheid’s many performances of Paganini’s 24 Caprices, on both period and modern violins, have been received with enthusiasm around the world. He has performed the Caprices in cities in Europe, North and South America, and Asia, and has been featured live in-studio on In Tune from BBC Radio 3. His Naxos recording of Paganini’s Caprices, Op. 1 on period violin was described as “glowing from an inner strength I rarely have experienced” by reviewer Dave Saemann (Fanfare, 2017).