Le Carnaval de Venise : Variations Burlesques sur la Canzonetta "cara mamma mia" : pour le Violon principal avec accompagnement de...Piano, Oeuv. 18

Leipzig: Fr. Kistner. [1844]. 15 pp; 3 pp. Engraved, [PN] 1405, 1406. Dampstaining, scattered foxing, corners chipped, spine reinforced with paper. Scarce.

In tribute to Paganini, Ernst composed his own set of variations on the theme used by his fellow violin virtuoso for his Op. 10 and also used scordatura in the same manner as Paganini did in his variations on the theme. The composition was perhaps Ernst's most popular work, and it became his signature piece, often the final work he played at each concert. A review of an 1842 performance notes that "his magical Carnival of Venice charmed this time to an even greater degree than the first time, and the oftener one hears this wonderful musical humoresque by Ernst, the more one recognizes that all imitations of the Ernst Carnival are in proportion to the latter as artificially fizzing new cider is to real champagne." (Amely Heller, "H.W. Ernst as Seen by His Contemporaries", p. 10) (5973)

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