It takes an incredible violinist to keep up with a master like Niccolò Paganini, and violin virtuoso Julia Fischer is more than up to the task. The Munich-born Fischer began playing when she was only 3 and took over her teacher's spot as Violin Chair at the Munich Academy of Music at age 28. She is a world-renowned soloist who is constantly in demand with orchestras across the globe. Her home base is still in Germany, where she is the Artist in Residence for 2018 with the Wiener Symphoniker. Fischer is equally adept in the world of chamber music, where she has led her own Julia Fischer Quartet since 2011. And, from this recording, it is certainly apparent that she can kill it with no accompaniment whatsoever as well!

Violinist, guitarist, and composer Niccolò Paganini was born in Italy in 1782 at the tail-end of the Classical Era. During his short life, the traveling freelance player became famous across Europe and celebrated for his amazing skill with the violin. His ability to improvise was uncommon among most classical musicians, and he would play entire pieces by memory. His incredible virtuosity even caused rumors that he had sold his soul to the devil for his craftsmanship (a la American bluesman Robert Johnson a century later). Playing his compositions have been the mark of a master violinist ever since.

Besides Fischer, famous violinists such as Joshua Bell, Salvator Accardo, and many more have taken on Paganini (Accardo has dedicated his career to mastering his works). Paganini's influence went beyond violinists, too. Sergei Rachmaninoff and Johannes Brahms each wrote entire pieces based on themes from Paganini, as have other famous composers. Additionally, some of rock's most technically superb guitarists have tackled Paganini's compositions, including Steve Vai and Uli Jon Roth.

Paganini has plenty of memorials to his name, including the Paganini Competition (Premio Paganini), an international violin competition created in 1954 in his home city of Genoa, and even a small planet which was named after him in 1978 by a Soviet astronomer! Clearly, this recorded performance of Paganini puts Julia Fischer in some rarified air.