My goal for this year is to learn all of paganini's 24 caprices (on flute, i'm nowhere near good enough to play it on my fiddle, and anyway, its a completely different style to folk music), I was wondering if anyone else had done it yet?

I have already nailed no.11 and no.24, and can almost play no.15......

Do you think this is too much, considering I'm also trying to learn some hideous looking Gaubert and Messiaen.

Nope can't play all of them, but I did do one for my midyear performance exam this year. They're absolutely stunning 'studies' to play, although I prefer to think of them as pieces

Thats a pretty good idea, I might take that up too! I know some flute players have recorded all of them, but then they are professionals. Never come across any students who have done them all, or any in that fact. I think a lot of flute players stay away from the paganini and stick to the ones actually written originally for flute.

Not in the mood for looking at them at the moment tho! GRRR Chethams + NYO people always have to entere the competitions you enter dont they! 1st prize- Chets girl in NYO and going to RCM or RNCM, 2nd prize - chets girl, 3rd prize - NCO, runner up ME.....O well.

Back to the topic.....Is there a reason for choosing which ones you are doing first, or are they meant to be worked through in order?

We doing the 24th one in orchestra this term which is annoying as we did it at woodwind group last term

I dont think you have to play them in order... And I dont think they run in order from hardest first or anything. Most of the 24th one is quite easy, and I played the 11th one for my DipLCM perf exam and also learnt number 12 at the same time because it was one or the other. I would rather think of them as pieces too, I've decided to play the 24th one for an audition I have this coming weekend, now i just have to find something contrasting to go with it.