If one was able to go back in time and ask jazz great
Glenn Miller who his favorite trombone player was, rather than the expected
Miff Mole or
Tommy Dorsey one would be surprised to hear him answer "Wilbur Switchenburg," the name of a player who later solved his nominal challenge by changing his name to Will Bradley. Likewise, if one could go back still further and ask
Joseph Joachim his favorite violinist, he would happily proffer the name of Moravian Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst over those of Ole Bull or Sarasate. The problem with both answers, of course, is "Who?" Ernst's name is known to violinists, as exercise excerpts drawn from his various compositions routinely litter their practice books, and some may even have tried out his Elégie sur la mort d'un objet chéri, Op. 10, Ernst's best-remembered work. Overall, despite
Midori's acceptance of his Variations on "The Last Rose of Summer" as an encore piece, the music of Ernst has remained the domain of violin history experts such as
Ingolf Turban or old timers like
Ruggiero Ricci, who learned Ernst's music at the feet of elder masters.
Naxos has stepped forward to represent Ernst with an entry in its Violin Virtuoso Composers series, Ernst: Concerto Pathétique/Concertino, featuring five works of Ernst, including the aforementioned Elégie sur la mort d'un objet chéri, Op. 10; his Concerto Pathétique, Op. 23; and Concertino, Op. 12, and two novel paraphrases on
Mozart and
Rossini. Ernst was strongly devoted to
Niccolò Paganini and, in a stylistic sense his work seems stuck in the late classical/early Romantic Italian manner, taking its cue from composers like
Rossini, Nicolai, Bellini, and
Donizetti. Although Ernst was not writing opera, this in itself is not such a bad thing, as his approach to this style was inspired and expert and his writing for the violin demonstrates a complete knowledge of the instrument's capabilities. Moreover, as compositions, these works are thoroughly delightful examples of arch-Romantic violin music; perhaps not as deeply felt as the violin concerti of
Beethoven or
Brahms, but too sturdy and well considered to be seen as belonging to the salon, not to mention immensely entertaining.
Ernst's trick bag of double stops, extreme leaps of register, and relative lack of legato writing sometimes leads to results that can't help but sound a little scrappy. Although violinist
Ilya Grubert, who has distinguished himself before in
Paganini for Chandos, admirably executes Ernst's giga-difficult violin writing and has a breathtaking turn in the Rondo Papageno, Op. 20, he is not at all helped by the sound recording, made in the studios of Russian State TV Company Kultura in Moscow. One cannot imagine why the engineers didn't want to get closer to the violin;
Grubert is playing a 1740 Guarnieri and it almost sounds like a Stroh. Indeed, there are recordings of the violin made in 1912 that sound more responsive to the instrument's presence and resonance than this one does. Nevertheless, the
Russian Philharmonic has a splendid outing here, with the full-throated Russian brass making the most of their significant roles in the Concerto Pathétique. Despite its shortcomings, anyone who loves the violin, and many who play one, will certainly enjoy Naxos' Ernst: Concerto Pathétique/Concertino -- while it is not perfect, it doesn't represent much of a risk.