DOCSLIB.ORG

Toccata Classics TOCC 0118 Notes

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Toccata Classics TOCC 0118 Notes ERNST฀Complete฀Music฀for฀Violin฀and฀Piano,฀Volume฀One Fantaisie brillante sur le Prophète 24 Variation XIX 0:28 (Opéra de G. Meyerbeer), Op. 24 12:47 25 Variation XX 0:40 1 I. Allegretto molto moderato 4:54 26 Variation XXI 0:25 2 II. Andantino pastorale 7:53 27 Variation XXII 0:30 28 Variation XXIII 0:35 Deux Nocturnes, Op. 8 7:38 29 Variation XXIV 0:31 3 No. 2 in E major 4:54 30 Variation XXV 0:44 4 No. 1 in A major 2:44 Deux Morceaux de Salon, Op. 13 11:58 Carnaval de Venise (Variations burlesques 31 No. 1, Adagio sentimentale 5:52 sur la canzonetta ‘Cara mamma mia’), Op. 18 32 No. 2, Rondino grazioso 6:06 10:15 5 heme 0:34 hème Allemand Varié, Op. 9 10:43 6 Variation I 0:28 33 Introduction 2:10 7 Variation II 0:30 34 heme 1:14 8 Variation III 0:30 35 Variation I 0:58 9 Variation IV 0:31 36 Variation II 1:01 10 Variation V 0:30 37 Variation III 1:06 11 Variation VI 0:30 38 Variation IV and Moderato 2:36 12 Variation VII 0:33 39 Variation V 1:08 13 Variation VIII 0:31 14 Variation IX 0:31 Rondo Allemand pour Piano et Violon sur des 15 Variation X 0:34 thèmes d’Oberon, Op. 23 11:49 16 Variation XI 0:29 40 Introduzione: Andante 3:02 17 Variation XII 0:32 41 Rondo: Allegro moderato 7:03 18 Variation XIII 0:33 42 Final: Presto 1:44 19 Variation XIV 0:28 20 Variation XV 0:30 43 Rondo Papageno, Op. 20 8:08 21 Variation XVI 0:35 22 Variation XVII 0:31 TT 76:20 23 Variation XVIII 0:28 16 TOCC฀0118฀Ernst฀Vol฀1.indd฀฀฀1 18/10/2010฀฀฀15:49:14 HEINRICH฀WILHELM฀ERNST Complete฀Music฀for฀Violin฀and฀Piano,฀Volume฀1 by฀Mark฀Rowe Recorded in the Foellinger Great Hall of the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, A Brief Biography University of Illinois, on 2, 3, 5 and 7 April 2010. Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst was one of the most important performers of the nineteenth century. Producer: Samir Golescu In 1884, reviewing over thirty years of avid concert-going, the Rev. H. R. Haweis wrote: ‘[If], Engineer: Jon Schoenoff looking back and up to the present hour, I am asked to name off hand, the greatest players – the Booklet text: Mark Rowe very greatest I ever heard – I say at once Ernst, Liszt, Rubinstein’.1 His assessment was shared by Design and layout: Paul Brooks, Design and Print, Oxford the professionals. ‘Ernst was the greatest violinist I ever heard,’ said Joseph Joachim, ‘he towered above the others [...]. He became my ideal of a performer, even surpassing in many respects the Special thanks to the Creative Research Awards of the College of Fine ideal I had imagined for myself.’2 Similarly, Berlioz could not say enough about the genius of and Applied Arts of the University of Illinois for the funding of this project. his friend: ‘Let me reiterate, Ernst, who is a great musician as well as a great violinist (as well as being the most delightfully humorous man I know) is the complete rounded artist, profoundly Executive Producer: Martin Anderson 3 and predominantly expressive in everything he does’. As a performer, he was particularly TOCC 0118 admired for his stupendous technique, his intense and melancholic expressivity, his capricious © sense of humour, and a tone which came remarkably close to the human voice. 2010, Toccata Classics, London 2010, Toccata Classics, London These gifts, moreover, were lavished not only on the solo violin: he also made an outstanding contribution to public chamber music. Sir Julius Benedict, for example, reminiscing about the Come and explore unknown music with us by joining the Toccata Discovery Club. Membership brings dismal premiere of one of Beethoven’s late quartets, had no doubts about which violinist finally you two free CDs, big discounts on all Toccata Classics recordings and Toccata Press books, early ordering revealed these works as masterpieces: ‘Not until Ernst had completely imbued himself in the on all Toccata releases and a host of other bene�ts for a modest annual fee of £20. You start saving as soon spirit of these compositions could the world discover their long hidden beauties’.4 When one as you join. You can sign up online at the Toccata Classics website at www.toccataclassics.com. 1 Rev. H. R.Haweis, My Musical Life, Longmans, Green and Co., London, 1902, p. 34. Toccata Classics CDs are also available in the shops and can be ordered from our distributors around 2 Quoted in Andreas Moser, Geschichte des Violinspiels, Max Hesses Verlag, Berlin, 1923, pp. 519 and 533. the world, a list of whom can be found at www.toccataclassics.com. If we have no representation in your 3 Hector Berlioz, Memoirs, ed. and trans. David Cairns, Victor Gollancz, London, 1970, p. 538. 4 Quoted in Alexander hayer, Life of Beethoven, ed. Alan Pryce-Jones, 3 vols., Centaur Press, London, 1960, Vol. 3, country, please contact: Toccata Classics, 16 Dalkeith Court, Vincent Street, London SW1P 4HH, UK Tel: pp. 139–40. (For some reason the paragraph containing this quotation was omitted from Elliot Forbes’ ‘complete and +44/0 207 821 5020 Fax: +44/0 207 834 5020 E-mail: [email protected] unabridged’ one-volume edition of Thayer’s Life (rev. edn. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1967).) 2 15 TOCC฀0118฀Ernst฀Vol฀1.indd฀฀฀2 18/10/2010฀฀฀15:49:15 Werner Mueller, Denis Russell Davies, Daniel Lewis and Gustav Meier, and he worked with Lorin Maazel also discovers that Ernst was Paganini’s most significant rival, the first Jewish violin virtuoso of in Cleveland and Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood. A professor in the Center for Advanced Study at the international renown, an important technical innovator and a highly successful and influential University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), Ian Hobson received the endowed chair of Swanlund Professor composer, it is natural to wonder who exactly he was. of Music in 2000. Ernst was born on 8 June 1812 to a middle-class Jewish family from Brünn in the Austrian He is a recording artist of prodigious energy, having to date amassed a discography of some sixty releases, Empire (now Brno in the Czech Republic). At the age of nine, he began to take violin lessons with including the complete piano sonatas of Beethoven and Schumann and a complete edition of Brahms’ variations for piano. In 2007, with the Sinfonia Varsovia, he recorded Rachmaninov’s four piano concertos a local baker called Johann Sommer and – assisted by private study of Leopold Mozart’s A Treatise and Rhapsody on a heme of Paganini for the Zephyr label in the dual role of pianist and conductor – an on the Fundamental Principles of Violin Playing – started to make rapid progress. Within a year, he achievement no other performer has matched. In addition, he has recorded more than twenty albums for the was taken on by the leading violin teacher of the town, a Herr Leonhard, and won a place at the Arabesque label featuring the music of Clementi, Dussek and Weber, the complete piano sonatas of Hummel, excellent music school of the Augustinian Monastery of St Thomas. With these advantages, his the complete solo piano transcriptions of Rachmaninov, and Hobson’s Choice, a collection of his favourite progress became even more remarkable: in March 1824, he made his first public appearance as a pieces exploring the multiple facets of virtuosity across the span of three centuries. soloist; and in 1825, Leonhard suggested he should audition for the Vienna Conservatory. He has also been engaged in recording a sixteen-volume collection of the complete works of Chopin, His father took him to the violin professor Joseph Böhm – a close associate of Beethoven and also for the Zephyr label, having marked the composer’s 200th birthday with a series of ten solo concerts in Schubert – who quickly realised that Ernst was nearly his equal in practical skill, although he still New York. In addition to the large body of work for solo piano, this recording series features his performances had things to learn about music and musicianship. Ernst moved to Vienna, and for the next three as pianist and conductor, with the Sinfonia Varsovia, in all of the works for piano and orchestra, as well as his collaboration as pianist with other artists in Chopin’s chamber music and songs. In this edition there years studied with Böhm (and played at his informal quartet-evenings), took lessons in music is around three-quarters of an hour of music by Chopin that has never been recorded before, making Ian theory from the composer Ignaz Seyfried (who had conducted the premiere of Beethoven’s Fidelio) Hobson the �rst ever artist to record the composer’s entire œuvre. and received advice and encouragement from the popular composer and virtuoso Joseph Mayseder. In addition, Ian Hobson is a much sought-ater jury-member for national and international Within ten months of his arrival, Ernst had made several well received public appearances and won competitions, among them the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (at the speci�c request of Van the Conservatory’s first prize. Cliburn himself), the Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Poland, the Chopin Competition in Florida, the His education ensured the Viennese classics entered his bloodstream, but it was Paganini’s Leeds Piano Competition and the Schumann International Competition. arrival in March 1828 that proved the overwhelming influence.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • THE VIRTUOSO UNDER SUBJECTION: HOW GERMAN IDEALISM SHAPED the CRITICAL RECEPTION of INSTRUMENTAL VIRTUOSITY in EUROPE, C. 1815 A
    THE VIRTUOSO UNDER SUBJECTION: HOW GERMAN IDEALISM SHAPED THE CRITICAL RECEPTION OF INSTRUMENTAL VIRTUOSITY IN EUROPE, c. 1815–1850 A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Zarko Cvejic August 2011 © 2011 Zarko Cvejic THE VIRTUOSO UNDER SUBJECTION: HOW GERMAN IDEALISM SHAPED THE CRITICAL RECEPTION OF INSTRUMENTAL VIRTUOSITY IN EUROPE, c. 1815–1850 Zarko Cvejic, Ph. D. Cornell University 2011 The purpose of this dissertation is to offer a novel reading of the steady decline that instrumental virtuosity underwent in its critical reception between c. 1815 and c. 1850, represented here by a selection of the most influential music periodicals edited in Europe at that time. In contemporary philosophy, the same period saw, on the one hand, the reconceptualization of music (especially of instrumental music) from ―pleasant nonsense‖ (Sulzer) and a merely ―agreeable art‖ (Kant) into the ―most romantic of the arts‖ (E. T. A. Hoffmann), a radically disembodied, aesthetically autonomous, and transcendent art and on the other, the growing suspicion about the tenability of the free subject of the Enlightenment. This dissertation‘s main claim is that those three developments did not merely coincide but, rather, that the changes in the aesthetics of music and the philosophy of subjectivity around 1800 made a deep impact on the contemporary critical reception of instrumental virtuosity. More precisely, it seems that instrumental virtuosity was increasingly regarded with suspicion because it was deemed incompatible with, and even threatening to, the new philosophic conception of music and via it, to the increasingly beleaguered notion of subjective freedom that music thus reconceived was meant to symbolize.
    [Show full text]
  • An Ashgate Book
    An Ashgate Book ZZZURXWOHGJHFRP Ernst by Frederick Tatham, England, 1844 (from a picture once owned by W.E. Hill and Sons) HEINRICH WILHELM ERNST: VIRTUOSO VIOLINIST To Marie Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst: Virtuoso Violinist M.W. ROWE Birkbeck College, University of London, UK ROUTLEDGE Routledge Taylor & Francis Group LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2008 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © M.W. Rowe 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. M.W. Rowe has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Rowe, Mark W. Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst : virtuoso violinist 1. Ernst, Heinrich Wilhelm, 1812–1865 2. Violinists – Biography I. Title 787.2'092 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rowe, Mark W. Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst : virtuoso violinist / by Mark W. Rowe. p. cm. Includes discography (p. 291), bibliographical references (p. 297), and index. ISBN 978-0-7546-6340-9 (alk. paper) 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Technical Analysis on HW Ernst's Six Etudes for Solo Violin in Multiple
    Technical Analysis on Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst’s Six Etudes for Solo Violin in Multiple Voices In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS in the Performance Studies Division of the College-Conservatory of Music Violin by Shang Jung Lin M.M. The Boston Conservatory November 2019 Committee Chair: Won-Bin Yim, D.M.A. Abstract Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst was a Moravian violinist and composer who lived between 1814-1865. He was a friend of Brahms, collaborator with Mendelssohn, and was admired by Berlioz and Joachim. He was known as a violin virtuoso and composed many virtuosic works including an arrangement of Schubert’s Erlkönig for solo violin. The focus of this document will be on his Six Etudes for Solo Violin in Multiple Voices (also known as the Six Polyphonic Etudes). These pieces were published without opus number around 1862-1864. The etudes combine many different technical challenges with musical sensitivity. They were so difficult that the composer never gave a public performance of them. No. 6 is the most famous of the set, and has been performed by soloists in recent years. Ernst takes the difficulty level to the extreme and combines different layers of techniques within one hand. For example, the second etude has a passage that combines chords and left-hand pizzicato, and the sixth etude has a passage that combines harmonics with double stops. Etudes from other composers might contain these techniques but not simultaneously. The polyphonic nature allows for this layering of difficulties in Ernst’s Six Polyphonic Etudes.
    [Show full text]
  • Beverly Brown, Violonchelo
    BEVERLY BROWN, VIOLONCHELO. UN VIOLONCHELO QUE ENAMORA… Beverly Brown nació en la ciudad de Ann Arbor en Estados Unidos. Estudió la licenciatura en la Universidad de Michigan, donde se graduó con honores. Cursó una maestría en el Conservatorio Peabody de la Universidad Johns Hopkins. Se trasladó a México en 1983, año en el que ingresó a la Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM, y en la que es violonchelista principal. Además de sus conciertos con la OFUNAM, ha tocado como solista con orquestas y suele interpretar música de cámara. Asimismo, imparte clases particulares de violonchelo. Giuseppe Maria Clemente dall'Abaco (1710-1805) Nació en Bruselas en 1710. Siguió los pasos de su padre y estudió música. Su talento fue tan evidente que a la edad de 19 años fue nombrado violonchelista en la orquesta de la corte del Príncipe Clemens August von Bayern en Bonn y, 10 años después, llega a ser director de la agrupación. Fue uno de los más grandes violonchelistas de su tiempo. Muy pocas de sus composiciones han sobrevivido, entre ellas sus 11 Capricci para violonchelo solo. En las partituras no hay indicaciones de tempo, dinámica o expresión, es necesario que el solista utilice su conocimiento de la práctica de interpretación e improvise libremente en el estilo marcado. Algunos pasajes muestran un virtuosismo elevado, pero sin dejar de ser sensible, melancólico y expresivo. En particular el Primer Capricci es una pieza de una belleza que nos envuelve desde la primera nota, nos roba el corazón, de una enorme espiritualidad que nos transmite la maestra Beverly Brown. Carlo Alfredo Piatti 1822-1901) Nació cerca de Bérgamo en 1822.
    [Show full text]
  • Toccata Classics TOCC0163 Notes
    P ERNST Complete Music, Volume Three Introduction et Variations Brillantes en form de Fantaisie pour le violon sur le Quatuor favori de Ludovic de F. Halévy, Op. 6 13:45 1 Introduction: Moderato 3:45 2 Thema: Moderato 1:09 3 Var. 1: Risoluto 1:29 4 Var. 2 1:23 5 Var. 3 1:10 6 Var. 4 1:41 7 Molto Adagio 1:28 8 Allegretto moderato 0:37 9 Finale: Lostesso Tempo 1:00 Élégie sur la mort d’un objet chéri, Op. 10 9:19 10 Introduction by Louis Spohr 2:11 11 Élégie 7:08 Introduction, Variations et Final, Dialogués & Concertans sur une Valse favorite pour Piano et Violon par Charles Schunke et H. W. Ernst, [Schunke’s] Op. 26 13:59 12 Introduzione: Moderato maestoso 3:27 13 Tema 0:57 14 Var. 1: Meno Vivo 0:53 15 Var. 2 0:51 16 Var. 3: Brillante ma moderato 1:13 17 Var. 4: Andantino pastorale 2:05 18 Finale 4:33 2 Pensées Fugitives, Part II 22:39 19 No. 7 Rêverie: Quasi Allegretto 3:49 20 No. 8 Un Caprice: Allegro assai 2:06 21 No. 9 Inquiétude: Adagio 3:28 22 No. 10 Prière pendant l’orage: Allegro non troppo 2:59 23 No. 11 Intermezzo: Allegro poco agitato 3:06 24 No. 12 Thème original de H. W. Ernst: Allegretto 1:12 25 Variation: Moderato 1:25 26 Presto capriccioso: Presto 4:34 Souvenirs de l’Opéra La Juive de F. Halevy pour Piano et Violon Concertants Composés par Osborne et Ernst 8:07 27 Adagio 4:03 28 Allegro 4:04 Airs hongrois variés, Op.
    [Show full text]
  • Louise Dulcken Soon Ranked Among the Main Musical Events of the Year
    Dulcken, Louise Louise Dulcken soon ranked among the main musical events of the year. Birth name: Louise Marie Louise David The “stars” of the Italian opera such as Giulietta Grisi, Variants: Louise David, Louise Dulken, Louise Marie Giovanni Battista Rubini, Antonio Tamburini and Luigi Louise Dulcken, Louise Marie Louise Dulken, Louisa Lablache took part in them, along with well-known Euro- Dulcken, Louisa David, Louisa Dulken, Louisa Marie pean musicians: the pianists Leopold de Meyer, Alexan- Louisa Dulcken, Louisa Marie Louisa David, Louisa der Dreyschock and – also as pianist – Felix Mendels- Marie Louisa Dulken, Luise Dulcken, Luise David, Luise sohn Bartholdy, the harpists Aline Bertrand, Robert Ni- Dulken, Luise Marie Luise Dulcken, Luise Marie Luise cholas-Charles Bochsa, Théodore Labarre and Elias Pa- David, Luise Marie Luise Dulken rish Alvars, the concertina player Giuligo Regondi, the violinists Charles de Bérot, Camillo Sivori, Leopold Ganz * 20 March 1811 in Hamburg, and Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst as well as the violoncellists † 12 April 1850 in London, Max Bohrer, Moritz Ganz and Jacques Offenbach. Louise Dulcken went on a number of concert tours through, “Madame Dulcken’s Concert. This concert, which is al- among other places, Germany, Russia and Latvia, and fre- ways one of the great affairs of the season, took place quently took part in the concerts of her colleagues in Eng- Monday morning, when the Opera Concert-room was land as well. In addition to her performances and ap- crowded in every part by a most fashionable audience. pearances as pianist, Louise Dulcken was simultaneously The programme was one of more than usual bulk [...].
    [Show full text]
  • Pedagogical Examination of Henryk Wieniawski's L'école
    PEDAGOGICAL EXAMINATION OF HENRYK WIENIAWSKI’S L’ÉCOLE MODERNE OPUS 10 by PAWEL KOZAK (Under the Direction of Levon Ambartsumian and Stephen Valdez) ABSTRACT This document examines the violin techniques found in Wieniawski’s caprices L’école modern Opus 10, and presents practice solutions to the technical challenges. Chapter one provides biographical information on Wieniawski, focusing on his life as a violinist, composer, and pedagogue. Chapter two is an introduction to L’école moderne, containing a list of techniques found within each caprice, and a list of caprices/etudes which should be mastered prior to learning this work. Chapter three examines the technical challenges of each caprice and presents methods for their realization. Chapter four summarizes main ideas discussed in chapter three. INDEX WORDS: Henryk Wieniawski, Wieniawski, L’école moderne, Opus 10, violin caprices. PEDAGOGICAL EXAMINATION OF HENRYK WIENIAWSKI’S L’ÉCOLE MODERNE OPUS 10 by PAWEL KOZAK BM, Augusta State University, 2003 MM, University of Georgia, 2005 A Document Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS ATHENS, GEORGIA 2011 © 2011 Pawel Kozak All Rights Reserved PEDAGOGICAL EXAMINATION OF HENRYK WIENIAWSKI’S L’ÉCOLE MODERNE OPUS 10 by PAWEL KOZAK Major Professors: Levon Ambartsumian Stephen Valdez Committee: Milton Masciadri Evgeny Rivkin Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2011 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my doctoral committee members for their continued support of this document. I would especially like to thank Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • 5040167-44026A-5060113443113
    HEINRICH WILHELM ERNST: COMPLETE WORKS, VOLUME SIX by Mark Rowe Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst was one of the most important violin virtuosi of the nineteenth century. Born to Jewish parents in Brno on 8 June 1812, he began to learn the violin at the age of nine, and his progress was soon so rapid that he transferred to the Vienna Conservatoire in 1825. Here he studied under Jakob Böhm (for violin) and Ignaz Seyfried (for composition), but it was Paganini’s Viennese concerts in 1828 which inspired the young virtuoso to set off on an ambitious solo tour of Germany in 1829–30 – sometimes entering into competition with Paganini himself – before heading for Paris in 1831. Remorseless practice ensured that by 1834 he was appearing in concerts with Liszt and Chopin, and his success became unequivocal when he triumphed over the now ailing Paganini in Marseilles in 1837. During the next eleven years, Ernst completed spectacularly successful tours of France, the Austrian Empire, Germany, Poland, the Low Countries, Britain, Scandinavia and Russia, before the 1848 Revolution put a temporary end to professional musical activity across the continent. He spent a good deal of the next eight years in Britain – one of the few major European countries unaffected by revolution – but he still undertook a handful of extended foreign tours, and on one of these excursions, to France in 1852, he met the actress Amélie-Siona Lévy. By the time they married, two years later, Ernst’s health – which had been delicate since his early twenties – was beginning to fail, and in 1858 he was forced to retire from the stage.
    [Show full text]
  • Musical Quarterly-2011-Eshbach
    Joachim’s Youth—Joachim’s Jewishness Robert W. Eshbach For Richard M. Schwartz But time and change shall naught avail... Downloaded from The centenary of Joseph Joachim’s death has brought a welcome new focus on this important artist and has led to a substantial body of new scholarship about his life and work. This development is long overdue. The first (1898) edition of Andreas Moser’s landmark biography, Joseph http://mq.oxfordjournals.org/ Joachim: Ein Lebensbild, was written in anticipation of the violinist’s “Sixty Years’ Jubilee”: the anniversary celebration of his performing debut, which took place in Berlin on 17 March 1899. An updated English edition of the book, Joseph Joachim: A Biography (1831–1899), translated by Lilla Durham, was published in London in 1901, while Joachim was still alive. A later expanded German edition, published by Verlag der Deutschen Brahms-Gesellschaft in 1908, the year after by guest on May 29, 2012 Joachim’s death, adjoins the final chapter to the story of Joachim’s remarkable career. Until recently, Moser’s authorized biography has remained the only comprehensive account of Joachim’s life. Others, such as Karl Storck’s Joseph Joachim: Eine Studie (1902) and J. A. Fuller- Maitland’s Joseph Joachim (1905), are shorter appreciations of Joachim’s career and influence, which rely heavily upon Moser’s work. The first modern biography, Beatrix Borchard’s Stimme und Geige: Amalie und Joseph Joachim. Biographie und Interpretationsgeschichte (2005), is a dual biography of Joachim and his wife that brings a significant amount of new information and an original perspective to our understanding of this influential artistic couple.
    [Show full text]
  • The Twenty-Four Caprices of Niccolo Paganini
    CHAPTER I NICCOLO PAGANINI Op.1 TWENTY-FOUR CAPRICES FOR VIOLIN SOLO· Dedicated to the Artists "These perennial companions to the violinist, together with the 6 Sonatas and Partitas of 1.5. Bach, form the foundation of the violinist's manual, both Old and New Testament", Yehudi Menuhin writes in his preface to the facsimile edition of the manuscript of Paganini's 24 Caprices. 1 This "New Testament of the Violinist" was first published in 1820, creating a sensation in musical circles. With the Caprices, Paganini's contribution to the repertoire can now be seen as one of unchallengeable importance, both violinistically and musically. The Caprices stimulated creative exploration in violin playing by extending the limits of the instrument and encouraged the elaboration of new pedagogical approaches. They still exert their influence on the instruction of violinists of all countries. There is no conservatorium student who has not become acquainted, at least didactically, with this fundamental work (even when dully defined as "required repertoire"). In Poland and some other countries, the Caprices have made their appearance in the syllabus of secondary schools and are increasingly often played by violin students under fourteen years of age.2 1Facsimile of the autograph manuscript of Paganini's 24 Caprices, ed. by Federico Mompellio, Milano, Ricordi, 1974,p.5. 2See Tadeusz Wronski's preface to his edition of the 24 Caprices, Krak6w: Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne, 1977,p.3. I Thanks to many recent performances and recordings, the listener too has become familiar with the Caprices, enjoying these products of a remarkable period in the evolution of Italian music above all for their musical content.
    [Show full text]
  • Robin Stowell Henryk Wieniawski: »The True Successor« of Nicolò Paganini? a Comparative Assessment of the Two Virtuosos with Particular Reference to Their Caprices
    Robin Stowell Henryk Wieniawski: »the true successor« of Nicolò Paganini? A comparative assessment of the two virtuosos with particular reference to their caprices Few will dispute Robert Schumann’s evaluation of Nicolò Paganini (1782–1840) as »the turning point in the history of virtuosity.«1 The paragon of the Romantic violin virtuoso, Paganini built on the technical bravura and musical capriciousness of predecessors such as Jakob Scheller (1759–1803), Antonio Lolli (c. 1725–1802) and Carl Stamitz (1745–1801). He inspired new attitudes and expectations, bringing to his performances not only a com- bination of personal magnetism, technical expertise and expressive freedom but also a commercialism that was unique. His technical effects were integral to his artistic aspira- tions and he was foremost amongst his peers in raising the status of the solo instrumen- talist to equal, and even surpass, that of the solo singer. He grasped the opportunities offered by the explosion in concert activity of his times and paved the way for talented instrumentalists to operate independently, without relying on patronage. People of di- verse rank and interests flocked to hear him and avidly absorbed anecdote and rumour about him. According to Franz Liszt, Paganini raised the significance of virtuosity to »an indispensable element of musical composition.«2 Paganini’s reception by his musical peers was mixed. While Louis Spohr considered the Italian virtuoso’s compositions »a strange mixture of consummate genius, childish- ness and lack of taste,« he informed Wilhelm Speyer that he was alternately »charmed and repelled« by his style of playing, praising Paganini’s left-hand facility and intonation while criticising his showmanship.3 The views of, for example, Ignaz Moscheles, Moritz Hauptmann and Peter Lichtenthal were equally contrary, but François-Joseph Fétis re- assessed Paganini as a great violinist, having initially described him as a »charlatan«.4 LisztwentsofarastosuggestthatPaganini’s »genius, unequalled, unsurpassed, pre- cludes even the idea of a successor.
    [Show full text]
  • Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst and His Contributions to the Development of Left-Hand Pizzicato and Harmonics
    Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst and his Contributions to the Development of Left-hand pizzicato and Harmonics. Tobias Wilczkowski Magister's thesis, 15 ECTS points The Department of Musicology and Performance studies Stockholm University, 2011 Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst and his Contributions to the Development of Left-hand pizzicato and Harmonics Tobias Wilczkowski Magister's thesis, 15 ECTS points The Department of Musicology and Performance studies Stockholm University, 2011 Supervisor: Jacob Derkert Abstract Tobias Wilczkowski: Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst and his Contributions to the Development of Left-hand pizzicato and Harmonics. Magister's thesis in Musicology, The Department of Musicology and Performance studies, Stockholm University, 2011. From the middle of the eighteenth century, the use of left-hand pizzicato and harmonics began to become more common in violin playing. Over time, these techniques underwent substantial developments thanks to several different violinists, among others Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst. These developments, however, have not been adequately investigated or documented, and in general, ignorance and misconceptions prevail regarding who contributed what, as well as to the significance of these individual contributions. This thesis attempts to present Ernst's contributions in this area, and also advance that his lack of adequate recognition is unfair. In order to do this, a more complete and chronologically accurate review of the development of left-hand pizzicato and harmonics from the beginning of their development has been drawn up. This has been done through critical reviews and comparisons of different contemporary sources such as musical journals, violin methods and musical scores. The conclusion has been drawn that Ernst contributed to the development of left-hand pizzicato and harmonics to a greater extent than has been adequately recognised.
    [Show full text]