Adolf von Henselt: Piano Concerto in F minor, Op. 16

 

Adolf von Henselt

(12 May 1814 -- 10 October 1889)  German composer and pianist.

시대의 가장 위대한 거장 가운데 한 사람으로 평가되었다. 바이마르에서 요한 후멜에게 피아노를 배웠고 빈에서는 지몬 제히터에게 이론을 배웠다. 독일 순회 연주(1836~37) 이후 상트페테르부르크로 이주해서 그곳의 궁정 피아니스트이자 음악교사가 되었다. 1852, 1867년에 영국을 방문했지만 사석에서 단 1번 연주했을 뿐이다.

그는 공공 연주회를 거의 갖지 않았다. 멘델스존은 그의 연주에 대해 "활짝 펼쳐진 화음을 연주하는 솜씨가 뛰어났으며 하루 종일 계속하여 프레스티시모로 손가락을 펼쳐 아르페지오를 연습했다"라고 . 피아스트로서 그는 후멜과 리스트를 잇는 가교역할을 한 중요한 인물로 평가되고 있다. 주로 피아노를 위한 그의 음악들은 피아노 협주곡 1곡, 2벌의 연습곡, 그리고 다수의 살롱 소품들이 있다. 이 곡들은 양식에 있어 거장적인 기교를 요하는 것이면서 음악적 가치를 지녔다.

 Piano Concerto in F minor, Op. 16

         

I. Allegro patetico - Religioso - Tempo I
II. Larghetto 13:16
III. Allegro agitato 20:40

Michael Ponti, piano
Philharmonia Hungarica
Othmar Maga, conductor

 

Henselt was born at Schwabach, in Bavaria. At the age of three he began to learn the violin, and at five the piano under Josepha von Fladt. on obtaining financial help from King Ludwig I of Bavaria he went to study under Johann Nepomuk Hummel in Weimar for some months, and thence in 1832 to Vienna, where, besides studying composition under Simon Sechter (the later teacher of Anton Bruckner), he made a great success as a concert pianist.

In order to improve his health he made a prolonged tour in 1836 through the chief German towns. In 1837 he settled at Breslau, where he had married Rosalie Vogel, but in the following year he migrated to Saint Petersburg, where previous visits had made him persona grata at Court. He then became court pianist and inspector of musical studies in the Imperial Institute of Female Education, and was ennobled in 1876. He usually spent his summer holidays in his former homeland Germany. In 1852 and again in 1867 he visited England, though in the latter year he made no public appearance.

Saint Petersburg was his home practically until his death, which occurred during a stay at Warmbrunn, Germany (now in Poland), due to cardiac disease. The characteristic of Henselt's playing was a combination of Franz Liszt's sonority with Hummel's smoothness. It was full of poetry, remarkable for the great use he made of extended chords, and for his perfect technique. Indeed, his cantabile playing was unequalled: Liszt once commented on the lengths to which Henselt had gone to achieve his famous legato, saying, "I could have had velvet paws like that if I had wanted to." Henselt's influence on the next generation of Russian pianists is immense. It is in Henselt's playing and teaching that the entire Russian school of music had its genesis, developing from the seeds planted by John Field. Sergei Rachmaninoff held him in very great esteem, and considered him one of his most important influences, unsurprising, since Rachmaninoff's teacher, Nikolai Zverev, was a Henselt pupil.

He excelled in his own works and in those of Carl Maria von Weber and Frédéric Chopin. His Piano Concerto in F minor, Op. 16 was once frequently played in Europe; and of his many valuable studies, Si oiseau j'étais was very familiar. At one time Henselt was second to Anton Rubinstein in the direction of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory.

However, despite his relatively long life, Henselt ceased all composition by the age of thirty. The

reasons are unclear. Chronic stage fright, bordering on paranoia, caused him to withdraw from concert appearances by age thirty-three.