Friedrich Gernsheim: Piano Music, Volume One
Friedrich Gernsheim (1839–1916), born in Worms, on the Rhine, grew up to be one of the most formidable musicians of his age: composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. Even as a teenager, Gernsheim was attracting attention as a virtuoso-composer, earning comparisons with Mozart. These two early piano sonatas – restored by Jens Barnieck from Gernsheim’s manuscripts – combine youthful freshness with praeternatural assuredness, showing awareness of Schumann and anticipating Brahms. By the time of the Six Preludes, written a decade later, Chopin has become the dominant star in Gernsheim’s firmament.
Jens Barnieck
Listen To This Recording:
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Piano Sonata No. 2 in E flat major (1853)
- I Allegro di molto
- II Adagio
- III Allegro molto
- IV Allegro vivace assai
- I Adagio molto Allegro appassionata
- II Agitato assai
- III Adagio
- IV Poco andante Allegro agitato
- No. 1 Un poco lento e sostenuto
- No. 2 Andante espressivo
- No. 3 Allegro energico
- No. 4 Andantino
- No. 5 Allegretto vivace e leggiero
- No. 6 Allegro molto agitato
Piano Sonata No. 3 in D minor (1854)
Six Preludes, Op. 2 (publ. 1864)
FIRST RECORDINGS
MusicWeb International :
‘All three pieces/sets are most sympathetically shaped and sounded out by Jens Barnieck. Clearly he has invested of his time and self in producing some very listenable results. He strikes what feels like the adroit note for works that had not seen or heard the light of day probably for upwards of a century. The days when one might have gained a music appreciation store by LP sleeves were chancy. Knowledge now accrued from sleeve-notes of this calibre strikes deeper and wider.
The English-only essay, which runs to sufficient pages to mean that getting the booklet into the jewel case clips can be tricky, is by William Melton. It’s a welcome piece of writing as it follows the Toccata template of being admirably detailed and date-specific. Melton also takes time to cast comparison and context with other composers and other works by Gernsheim.’
—Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International