Composer: Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst
Performer: Sherban Lupu, Ian Hobson
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Toccata
Catalogue: TOCC0118
Release: 2011
Size: 337 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Fantaisie brillante sur le Prophete de Meyerbeer, Op. 24
01. I. Allegretto molto moderato
02. II. Andantino pastorale
2 Nocturnes, Op. 8
03. No. 1, In A Major
04. No. 2, In E Major
Le Carnaval de Venise, Op. 18, ‘Variations burlesques sur la canzonetta Cara mia mamma’
05. Theme
06. Variation 1
07. Variation 2
08. Variation 3
09. Variation 4
10. Variation 5
11. Variation 6
12. Variation 7
13. Variation 8
14. Variation 9
15. Variation 10
16. Variation 11
17. Variation 12
18. Variation 13
19. Variation 14
20. Variation 15
21. Variation 16
22. Variation 17
23. Variation 18
24. Variation 19
25. Variation 20
26. Variation 21
27. Variation 22
28. Variation 23
29. Variation 24
30. Variation 25
2 Morceaux de Salon, Op. 13
31. No. 1, Adagio sentimental
32. No. 2, Rondino
Theme Allemande Varie, Op. 9
33. Introduction
34. Theme
35. Variation 1
36. Variation 2
37. Variation 3
38. Variation 4: Moderato
39. Variation 5
Rondo Allemand sur des themes d’Oberon, Op. 23
40. I. Introduzione. Andante
41. II. Rondo. Allegro moderato
42. III. Final. Presto
43. Rondo Papageno in B-Flat Major, Op. 20
Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst (1812–65) was one of the leading musicians of his day: a friend of Berlioz, Chopin, Liszt and Mendelssohn, and for Joseph Joachim ‘the greatest violinist I ever heard’.
Born in a middle-class Jewish family from Brünn in the Austrian Empire (now Brno in the Czech Republic), he studied at the Vienna Conservatory and quickly made a name for himself as a virtuoso, astounding even Paganini with his skill and later becoming his most significant rival.
He began to compose when a debilitating illness – most likely porphyria – started to affect his playing, and he spent his last years desperately seeking a cure, in increasing poverty and supported by public benefit concerts given for him by Brahms, Joachim, Wieniawski and others of his friends.
His output includes numerous popular encore pieces that he played in his concerts around Europe. But these represent only a fraction of his work. This series of six CDs presents his complete violin works for the first time, revealing one of the instrument’s most accomplished and memorable composers.
This first disc shows him in a range of moods, from the mystery and grandeur of the Prophet Fantasy and the Chopinesque poetry of the Two Nocturnes to the bizarre whimsy of The Carnival of Venice and infectious high spirits of the Rondo Papageno – the nineteenth-century virtuoso violin both in introspective melancholy and at its most dazzlingly flamboyant.