I reviewed the first
volume in this comprehensive, pioneering series with great
pleasure and feel the same way about the second release. As
before, the fully idiomatic and nerveless duo of Sherban Lupu
and Ian Hobson take the honours — for expressive variety, technical
excellence and ensemble assurance.
Each work has some defining feature or features to compel interest,
though maximum interest will, I think, be focused on violin
fanciers whose range of experience will be richly enhanced by
the three works that have never been previously recorded. The
first of that trio is Souvenir du Pré aux Clercs, written
with Charles Schunke (1801-39), who had been appointed pianist
to the French queen. The two men fashioned something out of
Ferdinand Hérold’s last work, an opera premiered in 1832. It’s
been securely presented by Toccata which allocates a separate
track to the introduction, theme, series of variations, cadenza,
andante and finale. This is a work where the piano part proves
to be every bit as formidable as that for the violin, if not
more so. Technical difficulties begin to accumulate as the variations
develop, and there is a droll quality to the writing too, and
a joint cadenza in which ensemble pitfalls are manifold, and
a finale full of élan, lightning fast left hand pizzicato and
lashings of audacity.
Pensées Fugitives Part 1, written with Stephen Heller
(1839-42), is another premier recording. The Hungarian pianist
Heller based himself in Paris, and shunned virtuosic music after
an early breakdown. Ernst’s philanthropy — he wanted to help
Heller financially — was laudable and the joint work reflects
the sense of lyricism and romanticism that Heller sought in
composition. The six charmers are character pieces, somewhat
reminiscent of Mendelssohn — though Mendelssohn equally knew
of Heller and Ernst, so it’s by no means one way traffic. Songful
and charming they are performed with impeccable attention to
detail.
The last of the previously unrecorded works is Variations
brillantes sur un thème de Rossini which was probably Ernst’s
first published work. This is a real Paganinian blockbuster
with coruscating technical demands; the second variation is
an especially arduous test of intonation, which Ernst himself
must have passed heroically; and there’s bravura aplenty in
the fourth variation as well. After the Last Rose of Summer
variations the Fantaisie brillante sur la Marche et la Romance
d’Otello de Rossini must be Ernst’s most recorded work.
David Oistrakh and Ruggiero Ricci recorded it. Lupu loses little
in comparison, keeping things alive timbrally and expressively
throughout — his sense of colour shading is exemplary, and Hobson’s
pianism outstanding. This feast of articulation, finger position
changes, mastery of colour, and subtlety of vibrato usage exemplifies
all that is best in Ernst’s writing and indeed in these performances.
Note how Lupu’s vibrato widens and intensifies for the ‘pathetic’
sensibility summoned up in the Romance section. As if this were
not enough, we have the luxury of the Boléro with its
amiable warmth and the two Romances, where cantabile warmth
and lilting lyricism are the names of the game.
Top notch recording quality and an outstanding booklet note
complete this exemplary offering.
Jonathan Woolf
Sherban Lupu (violin) 
