The complexity of human identity

In addition to German, Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst spoke English, French and Yiddish, and was a model European. Yet he was forgotten in the age of national ideas and nation states. For the Germans he was too Moravian - and Jewish, for the Moravians and Bohemians he was too German - and Jewish.

And for the Jews, quite possibly including his siblings in Brno and their families, he was an apostate from the faith, baptized for purely career reasons, moreover, urging his Jewish wife, an independently successful artist, to be baptized as well.

But what remained of him was his music.

Towards the end of his life, he wrote a set of pieces for unaccompanied violin, of which the variation on the traditional Irish tune "The Last Rose of Summer" is considered the most difficult piece for violin to perform. Listen to Clara-Jumi Kang's bravura performance of it. Don't worry, it's not the whole piece, just the first two minutes.