Paganini -Schubert : Vilde Frang(Vn)

Vilde Frang, partnered by pianist Michael Lifits, has assembled a programme that juxtaposes music by two violinist-composers of the early 19th century, Franz Schubert and Niccol Paganini. While they lived vastly different lives and inhabited diverse aesthetic worlds, there are links to be found between them. Through the juxtaposition, Frang wants to highlight Schuberts capacity for virtuosity and Paganinis musicality and sensitivity. Its the contrasts that appeal to me, she says. For her, the key connection between Schubert and Paganini is the inspiration they both found in the human voice. The album includes variations that Paganini wrote on themes from operas by Rossini (Tancredi) and Paisiello (La molinara), and the grand caprice that the violinist Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst considered Paganinis greatest successor based on one of Schuberts most thrilling songs, Erlknig. It sets a poem by Goethe that tells of a frantic night-time horse-ride by a father and his young son, who is tempted by a wicked spirit, the Erlking. When they reach their destination, the child is dead. This Erlknig is a gift to the violinist. There is such precision and accuracy in Ernsts transcription it works so well that it sounds like it was written for the violin. And then there is the challenge of characterising the galloping horse, the father, the son and the Erlknig himself.