Midori- Variations on “The Last Rose of Summer” by Ernst
An evening pause: Performed live 1990, four days before her 19th birthday. As every single commenter at the youtube page correctly notes, this is an incredibly difficult piece. “Many great violinists won’t play this in public, or even record it.” Just watch and see. If you admire great guitar players, you will be astounded by some of the moves she performs.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
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“Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst (8 June 1812 – 8 October 1865) was a Moravian-Jewish violinist, violist and composer. He was seen as the outstanding violinist of his time and one of Niccolò Paganini’s greatest successors. He contributed to polyphonic playing and discovered new ways to compose polyphonic violin music … in Frankfurt in the spring of 1830 … Ernst gave a concert where he played Paganini’s Nel cor pìù non mi sento with an accuracy that stunned both the audience and Paganini himself. This work, as with most of Paganini’s compositions, was unpublished at that time, which meant that Ernst must have learned it by ear at Paganini’s concerts.” (Wikipedia)
i was lucky enough to see Midori in person at our local restored opera house five or six years ago when she came to put on a workshop for young violinists. She played an incredibly complex Tchaikovsky piece. She is an amazingly powerful player, but as seen here can also be extremely delicate.
Written at about the same time as Jules Verne was pushing the limits in the books we are familiar with. Also about the same time places like MIT and other land grants were being founded in the US. Read the music at
https://imslp.org/wiki/The_Last_Rose_of_Summer_(Ernst%2C_Heinrich_Wilhelm)