Sonata Napoleone

Sonata Napoleone
by Niccolò Paganini
Niccolò Paganini in his youth
KeyE♭ major
CatalogueMS 5
OpusOp. 31 (Posthumous)
Year1807
FormVariations
Duration10 minutes approximately
ScoringViolin and orchestra

The Sonata Napoleone, Op. 31, MS 5, sometimes also entitled Napoléon or Sonata sulla IV corda, is a composition for violin and orchestra by Italian composer Niccolò Paganini. It is one of the earliest compositions by Paganini and the earliest to be composed only for the fourth string.

Background

Paganini's first work for the G string,[1][2] the Sonata Napoleone, was composed while he was appointed as a musician for the Court in Lucca between 1805 and 1808.[3][4] It was written in 1807 on the occasion of the name day of Napoleon Bonaparte. At the time, Paganini served as maestro di musica to Princess Elisa Baciocchi, Napoleon Bonaparte's sister, who was very fond of music but mildly disliked the violin.[5] The composition was dedicated to her, as she later had a romantic relationship with the composer.[5] This was the basis for Franz Lehár's Paganini (1925).[6]

The Sonata Napoleone was the first of several works that Niccolò Paganini composed for the G string, a practice he continued in subsequent years to show his technical command by making frequent shifts up and down the fingerboard. In fact, in performance, he is reported to have removed the other three strings of the violin when playing such pieces, as violinist Louis Spohr criticized, “in order to drive the point home.”[7]

The composition was not published in his lifetime. The original violin and guitar arrangement was meant to be orchestrated. It was only published many years later, in 1940, by Casa Ricordi in Milan, in a reduction for violin and piano by Michelangelo Abbado. It was reprinted again in 1968, 1984 and 1997.[8][9] It was assigned Op. 31 posthumously by publishers, though not in a rigorous or authoritative way. As a result, most catalogues and recordings do not list it with an opus number.[10]

Structure

The piece is in E♭ major and is conceived as a concertante work for violin and orchestra, with the solo part written entirely on the fourth string.[2] As with several other works by Niccolò Paganini, including the Maestosa sonata sentimentale and the Sonata with Variations on “Pria ch’io l’impegno”, the designation “sonata” does not correspond to a formal sonata structure, but rather to a generic, historically-sound “piece to be played” meaning. Paganini’s focuses on the exploration of the violin’s technical possibilities, which corresponds with his activity principally as a virtuoso performer rather than as a composer concerned with formal development. Accordingly, the variations do not present a significant melodic departure from the original material and are designed primarily to display instrumental technique.[5]

It is structured as follows:

  • Introduction. Adagio - Larghetto
  • Theme. Andantino variato
  • Variation I
  • Variation II
  • Variation III
  • Finale

A common practice for Niccolò Paganini was the use of scordatura to facilitate technical execution. In this work, the G string is retuned upward by three semitones to B♭ for the introduction, and by four semitones to B♮ for the remainder of the piece.[11]

Recordings

The following is a list of recordings of the composition:

Recordings of Niccolò Paganini's Sonata Napoleone
Violin Conductor (or instrumentalist) Orchestra Date of recording Place of recording Label Notes
Salvatore Accardo Charles Dutoit London Philharmonic Orchestra January 1976 Barking Town Hall, London, UK Deutsche Grammophon [12]
Massimo Quarta Stefania Redaelli (piano) — September 1998 Dynamic's, Genoa, Italy Dynamic Recording of the 1968 reduction for violin and piano by Michelangelo Abbado.[13]
Mario Hossen Alexander Swete (guitar) — March 2017 Casino Baumgarten, Vienna, Austria Dynamic [14]

Reception

Accounts of his performances are largely lost nowadays. However, it is known that at a concert held on August 16, 1911, Paganini created "a furor in Parma."[15]

References

  1. ↑ Reed, Martin (1871). A manual of systematic history. Jarrold & Sons.
  2. 1 2 Burton, Deborah; Nicassio, Susan Vandiver; Ziino, Agostino (2004). Tosca's Prism: Three Moments of Western Cultural History. UPNE. ISBN 978-1-55553-616-9.
  3. ↑ The International Library of Music for Home and Studio: Index Manual to the Pianoforte Compositions, Listing Every Musical Composition Contained in the Four Grades of Study Material and in the Eight-volume Library of Selected Piano Pieces. University Society. 1925.
  4. ↑ Stoeving, Paul (1904). The Story of the Violin. Walter Scott publishing Company, Limited.
  5. 1 2 3 Klein, Hans-Günter. Liner notes of DG 463 754-2. Hamburg: Deutsche Grammophon.
  6. ↑ "Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840): "Sonata Napoleone", "I Palpiti"…". GBOPERA (in Italian). 2020-05-27. Retrieved 2026-04-20.
  7. ↑ Riggs, Robert (2016). The Violin. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-1-58046-506-9.
  8. ↑ Moretti, Maria Rosa; Sorrento, Anna (1982). Catalogo tematico delle musiche di Niccolò Paganini (in Italian). Comune di Genova.
  9. ↑ Paganini, Niccolò (1968). Napoleon - Sonata sulla IV corda per violino e pianoforte (Abbado). Milano: Ricordi. ISMN 9790041820736.
  10. ↑ HalLeonard.com. "Napoléon - Violin and Piano Hal Leonard Online". Hal Leonard Online. Retrieved 2026-04-20.
  11. ↑ Fanfare. J. Flegler. 1984.
  12. ↑ "Accardo plays Paganini". Deutsche Grammophon (in German). Retrieved 2026-03-29.
  13. ↑ "PAGANINI: I palpiti / Napoleon / Maestoso suonata .. - CDS232 | Discover more releases from Dynamic". www.naxos.com. Retrieved 2026-04-13.
  14. ↑ "PAGANINI, N.: Cantabile, Op. 17 / Violin Concerto .. - CDS7808.02 | Discover more releases from Dynamic". www.naxos.com. Retrieved 2026-04-20.
  15. ↑ Day, Lillian (1929). Paganini of Genoa. Macaulay Company. ISBN 978-1-4047-0754-2. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
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