About This Item
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'. This sixth album - in a series of seven presenting all his compositions for the first time - begins and ends with some of the most difficult music for solo violin ever composed Ernst's Six Polyphonic Studies (the last of which is a set of variations on 'The Last Rose of Summer') and his transcription of Schubert's song, Der Erlkonig. Between these pieces come some less familiar fare five Schubertian piano pieces, and two settings of Goethe.