Gernsheim's Fantasiestück op. 33 is a precursor to his violin concertos and is still composed entirely in the Romantic tradition; one is reminded of the Fantasiestücke of Schumann and Brahms, which seek to combine feeling and formal freedom.

Gernsheim was born into a distinguished Jewish family in Worms. His life extended into the 20th century. He studied in Leipzig with Ignaz Moscheles and Ferdinand David and met Theodor Gouvys, Édouard Lalos and Camille Saint-Saëns in Paris. He was active in Saarbrücken, Cologne, Rotterdam and Berlin. He was good friends with Brahms. His oeuvre contains a wealth of music in various genres and versions; he can be counted among the late Romantic composers. During the Nazi era, his music was outlawed and thus largely forgotten.

Personally, I have immediate access to this Fantasiestück op. 33. This is not the case with Gernsheim's later violin concertos of 1880 and 1912. For this reason, I will only refer to these two violin concertos, which seem to me personally to be a little too forced and, despite the almost impressionistically beautiful passages in the middle movements, almost a little too thickly virtuosic and too much of a sought-after construction.

The Fantasiestück op. 33, however, can certainly stand alongside a work like Max Bruch's Scottish Fantasy. On the contrary, its brevity and inner radiance speak for themselves. I also think that in the CD recording of these rare violin compositions with orchestra (on the cpo label, of course!), violinist Linus Roth is at his best in this fantasy piece, compared to the violin concertos. He imparts emotion to these melodies and makes their climaxes shine with committed expressivity.

Listen here.