Ernst: Music For Violin And Orchestra

Description

Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst (1814-1865) Othello Fantasy • Concerto Pathétique • Elégie • Concertino • Rondo Papageno  The violinist and composer Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst was born in Brno in 1814 and after early study and appearances in his native city entered the Vienna Conservatory in 1825 as a pupil of Joseph Böhm, whose pupils were to include Joseph Joachim and Brahms's early collaborator, Ede Reményi. He took composition lessons with Ignaz von Seyfried, who had been a piano pupil of Mozart and a composition pupil of Albrechtsberger and Winter. In 1828 he heard Paganini in Vienna later and soon abandoned his studies, after disciplinary action against him for unauthorised absence. Setting out on a concert tour, he made his way to Paris, where he was able to hear more of Paganini, whose unpublished compositions he played by ear, in 1837 anticipating Paganini's arrival in Marseille by giving his own concert there. He visited London in 1843 and settled there in the 1850s. He continued to appear throughout Europe until about 1857, when he turned his attention rather to chamber music, collaborating from 1859 with Joachim, Wienawski and Piatti in the Beethoven Quartet Society. In 1864 he retired to Nice, to find some relief from gout, and died there the following year.Ernst's compositions were chiefly for his own instrument, including, in addition to the works given here, another concerto, a Boléro, a Polonaise, Variations on a Dutch National Air/Anthem, Carnaval de Venise, Variations on Hungarian Airs and a work based on themes from Bellini's opera Il pirata. He duly provided cadenzas for Beethoven's Violin Concerto and for one of Spohr's concertos, extended the string quartet repertoire with further operatic variations, and wrote a number of virtuoso pieces for violin and piano, including variations on operas in current repertoire. His compositions for unaccompanied violin include a set of Six Polyphonic Studies, published posthumously. The last of these is a technically demanding treatment of The Last Rose of Summer, dedicated to the Italian virtuoso Antonio Bazzini. Ernst was greatly respected as a performer and as a musician. He collaborated with Berlioz in performances of Harold en Italie, was accompanied by Mendelssohn, and was regarded by Joachim as the greatest violinist of the time. Berlioz, indeed, had the highest praise for him as a man and as a musician. His technical accomplishments reflected the strong influence of Paganini, many of whose innovations he made part of his virtuoso armoury.Ernst's Fantaisie Brillante sur la Marche et la Romance d'Otello de Rossini takes themes from the first act of Rossini's opera and the famous Romance sung in the last act by Desdemona. The opera had had its first performance in Naples in 1816, and Ernst's Fantasy was published in 1839. The orchestra starts the introduction, marked Andante non troppo, sounding the openin