Paginini's shadow: H.W. Ernst

In the early days of Baroque music, composers such as Antonio Vivaldi, George Handel, and Arcangelo Corelli made some of the earliest violin compositions that were technically not too difficult. Vivaldi’s 6th violin concerto is one of the first pieces I learned when starting violin, and is even featured in the early Suzuki books for beginners. Fast forward a couple hundred years from the days of Baroque music and we have violin concertos that are exceptionally challenging for most violinists; the daunting chords of Tchaikovsky, Sibelius’s famous cold and clinically precise soloistic runs, and the deceptively hard concerto of Beethoven. This evolution of music was influenced by many people, but today, I’ll uncover the life of Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst, one of the biggest contributors to 21st century music.

Ernst was born in 1812 to a family of no musical background in Brno, Moravia. At age 9, he picked up his first violin and learned by tagging along with his older brothers to their violin lessons. However, his prodigious growth began when he obtained a copy of “Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule” (A Treatise on the Fundamental Principles of Violin Playing) by Leopold Mozart, father of the famous W.A. Mozart. With it, his skill became noticeable and he began studying in the Vienna Conservatory with Joseph Böhm, Joseph Maysede, and Ignaz von Seyfried, learning both violin playing and composition.

As a young boy, Ernst was infatuated by Antonio Paginini, the most widely recognized virtuoso at the time, and a pioneer too, in rediscovering old violin techniques. He would jump upon any chance to listen to his playing, and in 1828, he would do just that, when Paginini toured Vienna, a city not too foreign to both him and Ernst. Paginini’s concerts were extraordinary and showcased some of the most difficult techniques in all of violin playing, in his own Violin Concerto in B Minor and his Variations on Non Più Mesta by Rossini, among others. Infatuated, Ernst scheduled a concert of his own where he played Paginini’s own La Chasse with immense precision and skill, even (albeit accidently) substituting the written double stops with double harmonics, a technique not just exceedingly demanding, but one that he had never played before. His playing amazed Paginini, who attended the concert and exclaimed, “E un diavoletto!” (“He is a little devil!”), a generous compliment coming from the “Devil’s Violinist”. 

Following these events, Ernst became increasingly competitive with Paginini, evidently hoping to show the world that he too, was one of the leading musicians of the 19th century. In 1830, during Paginini’s tour in Germany, Ernst shocked both Paginini and his audience by playing Paginini’s own Nel cor pìù non mi sento, one of the hardest pieces in the entire violin repertoire, even to date. Extraordinarily, the work was unpublished at the time and could only be heard in Paginini’s own concerts, meaning that Ernst had constructed, learned, and mastered the piece simply by hearing it. 

Seven years later, Ernst was able to hear Paginini again, this time in France. He was able to attend his concerts, and even his rehearsals, usually exclusive to a select few. Ernst, hoping to showcase his talents to the audience, scheduled his concerts just before or just after Paginini’s, playing masterfully and with ability no lesser than his idol. This series of concerts set Ernst up for success in his career for decades after.

In 1844, after Paginini retired, Ernst moved to England and joined the famous Beethoven String Quartet Society, where he played with other pioneers of modern classical music, including Joseph Joachim, Henry Wienawski, Carlo Alfredo Piatti. He moved to Nice in France around 1858, where he composed many of his hallmark pieces, including Concerto Pathétique and his 6 Polyphonic Studies, which included his famous Die Letze Rose, or Last Rose of Summer, a monument of polyphony in itself. Due to severe neuralgia, he was forced to play less and less over time and eventually retire in 1862.. His tombstone writes his birthday as “"LE 8 JUIN 1814” (June 8, 1814), however, after further research, scholars believe it to be a mistake - it should actually be June 8, 1812.

Although Ernst did feature many compositions by other composers in his concerts, his works were also considered some of the most influential in developing polyphonic music. His first recorded work (3 or more have been lost), Variations brilliantes sur un Thème de Rossini, was composed in 1834 for violin and piano, and since then, he composed at least 20 more works for violin, most similar in style to Paginini - technically difficult, a showpiece, and akin to a cadenza. In fact, in 1840, Ernst published Le Carnaval de Venise, his own take on the same theme used in Paginini’s own Il Carnevale di Venezia, possibly as a tribute to Paginini’s retirement. Ernst’s Trio pour un violon is also seen as an answer to Paginini’s Duo Merveille, possibly a means of one-upping him by adding an extra rhythmic succession; the fact that not two weeks prior Ernst wrote a letter to his siblings about his triumph over Paginini further solidifies this theory. Ernst’s influence from Paginini and his own style of composing creates an underappreciated type of music that is a milestone in classical music history. His inventions in the world of polyphony are some of the best, even in today’s age, and continue to be guidance for new composers wishing to learn this art.

I’ll link some of his works below and would recommend you to listen to them, and even explore some of his other compositions.