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.
