There’s nothing like a little Paganini to make you feel completely inadequate as a guitarist. Especially when it’s the daunting “Caprice No. 24,” originally written for solo violin, played a by a 13-year-old. In this case, it’s a (slightly grainy) early performance by the Chinese prodigy Li Jie (now in her mid-30s), who began her guitar studies with the great teacher Chen Zhi when she was just 11. This isn’t flawless, but its still pretty incredible. So, happy birthday to Nicolo Paganini, who turned 233 this week.
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