 Friedrich Gernsheim a concentré l’essence de son art dans ses partitions chambristes. L’orchestre le trouve peu inspiré, sa plume comme engoncée, ses Symphonies le prouvent mais ses Concertos ? Les deux opus qu’il écrivit pour le violon sont séparés par plus de dix années durant lesquelles justement sa musique de chambre se sera épanouie. Le Premier est un rien indécis, concerto-récitatif à la manière de Spohr mais sans ses libertés narratives, avec une pointe de Schumann dans l’orchestre. Alors que le Second ! Un concerto-ballade, où le soliste prend la main, chante avec une fantaisie de tous les instants, et laisse parfois l’orchestre s’épancher seul. Œuvre magnifique, qui dans le grand appareil symphonique récupère les vertus si lyriques de cette manière unique dans l’histoire du romantisme tardif. Evidemment ces paysages de fantaisie ont une pointe de Brahms –Gernsheim était un de ses intimes – mais le ton parfois scène d’opéra que prend le soliste est décidément hors champs. Linus Roth y déploie ses aigus de grâce, phrase avec brio et tendresse, révélant l’œuvre majeur de ce disque où la Fantaisiestücke, charmante, est un complément aussi parfait qu’anecdotique (Discophilia - Artalinna.com). (Jean-Charles Hoffelé) Following our release of two of Friedrich Gernsheim’s symphonies and his piano quintets, we are now pleased to present to you the violin concertos of this composer, whose life was very much a European one. Born in Worms in 1839, Gernsheim became the youngest student at the Leipzig Conservatory when he was thirteen. His further musical training then took him to Paris, Europe’s musical capital, where he enjoyed daily contact with the most famous musical personalities of those times: Liszt, Saint-Saëns, Rossini, and Rubinstein. His further stations included the post of city music director in Saarbrücken, six years as a professor and music director in Cologne, and Rotterdam. He then spent the last fifteen years of his life in Berlin. A good decade ago Christoph Schlüren wrote in his introduction (well worth reading) to the score of the Violin Concerto No. 1 that all three works [for violin and orchestra] had been forgotten and were awaiting rediscovery. This recording is intended as the first step – and not only that – toward their rediscovery. Very much in the spirit of German romanticism, with influences from Mendelssohn, Schumann too, and plenty of Brahms and Bruch, Gernsheim’s music is immediately familiar to the ear though unknown in its specifics. What is special about Gernsheim is his talent for beautiful, extended melodies of Brahmsian character incorporating a touch of Tchaikovsky. In 1912, a good two decades after his Violin Concerto No. 1, Gernsheim wrote a second violin concerto, his op. 86, a work dedicated to the premiere violinist Henri Marteau. Its premiere at the Philharmonic Concerts in Hamburg brought him a »sensational success.« Gernsheim had reduced his musical vocabulary to what he regarded as the essentials. Even though it is hardly to be termed ascetic for this reason, a concentration of the expressive means indeed is audible in this through-composed work closely coordinating the roles of the orchestra and the soloist. A genial master!
|
Catalog 
