Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst: Complete Music, Volume Four
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'. But the popular encore pieces by which Ernst is remembered today represent only a fraction of his output. This fourth CD — in a series of seven presenting all his compositions for the first time — contains some of his most important compositions: an early Concertino with a melancholy slow movement and charming waltz finale; the fiendishly difficult Concerto that had a deep influence not only on Liszt's Piano Sonata but also the Brahms and Sibelius violin concertos; and the late String Quartet, with echoes of Beethoven and Mendelssohn and an inwardness, charm and energy all of its own.
Sherban Lupu
Ciompi String Quartet
Sinfonia da Camera
Ian Hobson
Listen To This Recording:
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Violin Concerto in F sharp minor, Allegro pathétique, Op. 23 (1846)
- Allegro moderato –
- Solo –
- A tempo – Dolce
- Molto cantabile –
- Lento –
- Tempo I
- I Allegro moderato –
- II Adagio –
- III Rondo. Allegro moderato
- I Allegro non troppo e con grazia
- II Andante con moto e con molto tenerezza
- III Allegretto animato e scherzoso
- IV Finale. Allegro energico
Violin Concertino in D major, Op. 12 (1837)
String Quartet in B flat major, Op. 26 (1862)
MusicWeb International :
‘Volume four in the Complete Ernst series from Toccata takes on his major work for solo violin and orchestral forces, the Concerto in F sharp minor, composed in 1846 in Leipzig. …It requires a thoughtful and stylistically aware violinist to chart the course between the lyrical and the more tensely terse and introspective aspects of the concerto. There is surely no-one today so actively involved in Ernst’s music as Sherban Lupu and he navigates these expressive poles with great assurance. …A competitor disc here is on Naxos 8.557565, in which Ilya Grubert, with the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra under Dmitry Yablonsky, performs both the Concerto and Concertino…I prefer Lupu and Ian Hobson.’
—Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International