"Robert Schumann wrote glowingly about the concerto, and his wife Clara rushed to perform it shortly after its publication. Liszt and Hans von Bülow, too, would play it passionately. [...] Liszt accomplished the unheard of: to sight-read the F minor concerto in a rehearsal in Leipzig from its manuscript. Henselt proceeded to record this event therein, adding that this feat never was nor ever will be equalled by anyone. Of such difficulty was the concerto that not even the composer felt satisfied with his own rendition and never publicly performed it." [translated from German] - Marie Lipsius: Musikalische Studienköpfe. Vol 3 Ch. 2. gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/musikalische-studienkopfe-dritter-band-jungstvergangenheit-6958/2
sorry to be so offtopic but does anyone know of a trick to log back into an instagram account? I stupidly lost the login password. I would love any tricks you can give me
@Jax Bradley Thanks for your reply. I got to the site through google and I'm waiting for the hacking stuff now. Looks like it's gonna take quite some time so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
The Schumanns were paying lip service. They knew this was a piece of garbage. How could they not? Every note is contrived and/or stolen. This is an orchestrated harmony exercise, and a lousy one at that.
'Henselt was himself a virtuoso pianist as well as a composer, and Liszt was said to have admired his hands and his divine legato. His fingers had an unusual elasticity that allowed him to achieve a technique most players cannot hope for no matter how much they practise. So challenging is Henselt’s only piano concerto that only three recordings of it exist, including one by Canadian virtuoso Marc-André Hamelin with the Scottish BBC Orchestra. The other two feature Raymond Lewenthal and Michael Ponti. As quoted in Harold C. Schoberg’s book Great Pianists, Anton Rubinstein himself struggled with the concerto and other Henselt pieces for days, and declared, “It was a waste of time, for they were based on an abnormal formation of the hand. In this respect, Henselt, like Paganini, was a freak.” '
Yes, the extensions in some of Henselt's works are impossible, but I've been able to play a couple of less demanding pieces, even though I have only sparrow's claws compared to Anton Rubinstein's eagle's talons (and of course a birdbrain compared to him as a musician).
I've lost count of how many times I have listened to this. I rank it just below Rach 3 in my pantheon of favourite piano concerti. Paul Wee is out with a new recording of this that just dazzles.
Tempestuous and brilliant performance. What a fantastically crafted concerto, bravura-infused and High Romantic in style-though I find it stern and somewhat overbearingly turbulent. Perhaps it is not a progressive piece of work, but it certainly doesn't come of as uninspired. For its time, I'm sure this Henselt work is a sufficiently monumental opus by itself. I'm glad the work is somewhat brought out to the light of day again.
I love the plangent passage that starts at 8:11 with the piano. The orchestral line ends serenely in the previous bar, and the piano picks up from the next like you've just recalled some deep tragedy.
Wow, Rachmaninoff German then! He was taught by Taneyev and Arensky in Russia. Henselt was living in Poland at this time. Still, I'm pleased you appreciate this masterpiece.
@@DavidA-ps1qr he meant the pianism has obviously influenced rachmaninoff. Something everybody on the planet said including rach himself. What next? You're going to say that Rach's moment musicaux 4 isn't very very heavily "inspired" by Henselt's Etude 1? Don't know why you're being so obtuse.
@@bitchslappedme Thank you for this, I have learnt something. Having researched further you are absolutely correct. I have to admit I'm very surprised, but having read a thesis written by a Dr. of Musical Arts at the University of Texas in 2020, I am completely wrong. Thank you again for correcting me. David A.
@@DavidA-ps1qr Just to add another example. The opening the Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C-sharp minor is very clearly taken from the bars on minute 15:49 . There's alot of heavy heavy "inspiration" of Henselt on Rach's early works. Cheers
@@bitchslappedme Just listened to it and you're right again. I'm annoyed I haven't spotted this before. I just didn't connect the two. You know your music that's for sure. :-)
Are you performing it with The Orchestra Now by any chance? Came across your comment on this video while trying to write program notes for this piece for the concert :)
It has everything a piano concerto needs, it deserves more Performances. The score looks similarly diffiicult as the Saint Saens concertos with all those neverending runs, but those are maybe more spectacular than the one by Henselt.
Of course he did not. Liszt was a formidable virtuso, but let's be serious and realistic: nobody can sightread such a monstrous piece. Liszt's legends are quite exaggerated.
@@dreamsdreams9493 But actually I've read in an German classical music journal that Brahms wasn't a really big virtuoso. He was ofc very good at the piano but there we're much more better pianist
@Gavin Yerg It's just Mr. Lewenthal revelling in his own virtuosity. It's not at all serious (and doesn't need to be), and I happen to find it quite funny. It doesn't make me rate the recording any lower.
During the last six bars of the first movement the performer plays flourishes where the sheet music says he should be silent. Does anyone know why? Are there several editions of the work?
the 4 staffs in the Larghetto seem pretty excessive, i mean he could've easily put everything in 2 staffs and it would have looked fine, likely even better.
Although I appreciate the technical aspects of this work and it would be fun to play through it a few times this work suffers from a fundamental lack of catchy melodies or themes. I'm not saying it doesn't have moments but generally it's just a lot of arpeggios and octave runs we've all heard an played a thousand times before. Technically brilliant, musically mediocre.
The Anton Rubinstein 4th Piano Concerto is supposed to be extremely difficult, also but this one sounds worse. However, the Rubinstein is a great piece of music, IMO. This one by Henselt is pretty mediocre musically speaking. Just my opinion, FWIW.
Thanks for uploading, I did not know this composer. The pianist and the Orchestra do a great job. I thought from the description it might be like Chopin, now I think it's more like Liszt. I can listen to Chopin pianoconcerti over and over again, but I will not repeat listening to this. I feel the melodies are no where as good as Chopin's and it has a lot of pompous full ornamentals and unnecessary drama going on without the substance to back it up. Does not surprise me that it did not stand the test of time. Still, it is a monumental composition. But not great.
I can't believe people canstill listen to this . Strauss got it right in his Burlesque and yet the late Romantic concerto was already gone . Martucci,Rubinsein Henselt,Arensky just burned into embers .
and Chopin modelled his e minor concerto on parts of Hummel's excellent 2nd Piano Concerto but was able to develop it into something new. Nonetheless, it's worth knowing about some of the concertos which have slipped by the wayside. Eg. Scharwenka's 1st has something (esp. the 2nd Mvt).
@@MorganHayes_Composer.Pianist The Kalkbrenner 2 is a very poor concerto. Hummel by far is a better composer and his a minor concerto is really great, especially the end of the third mov.
@@maleficfig68 There isn't one, since literally no one seems to play this piece nowadays. The thing that comes closest is this video by Grimwood, where he talks about the concerto and plays some of it: ua-cam.com/video/-F32wiGSxNY/v-deo.html Funniliy, he also references the beginning. Grimwood played the concerto live on Henselt's 200th birthday in a festival of the composer's hometown.
The most technically accurate pianist alive, MA Hamelin, ought to perform this live more. Personally, the solo part isn’t too difficult for me and something like Liszt’s Totentanz or Sorabji’s piano concertos make this concerto look like an intermediate level one subjectively. However, this is an extraordinarily beautiful work.
"Robert Schumann wrote glowingly about the concerto, and his wife Clara rushed to perform it shortly after its publication. Liszt and Hans von Bülow, too, would play it passionately. [...]
Liszt accomplished the unheard of: to sight-read the F minor concerto in a rehearsal in Leipzig from its manuscript. Henselt proceeded to record this event therein, adding that this feat never was nor ever will be equalled by anyone. Of such difficulty was the concerto that not even the composer felt satisfied with his own rendition and never publicly performed it." [translated from German]
- Marie Lipsius: Musikalische Studienköpfe. Vol 3 Ch. 2.
gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/musikalische-studienkopfe-dritter-band-jungstvergangenheit-6958/2
sorry to be so offtopic but does anyone know of a trick to log back into an instagram account?
I stupidly lost the login password. I would love any tricks you can give me
@Jax Bradley Thanks for your reply. I got to the site through google and I'm waiting for the hacking stuff now.
Looks like it's gonna take quite some time so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
@Jax Bradley It worked and I actually got access to my account again. Im so happy:D
Thanks so much you saved my ass!
@Raylan Royal happy to help :D
The Schumanns were paying lip service. They knew this was a piece of garbage. How could they not? Every note is contrived and/or stolen. This is an orchestrated harmony exercise, and a lousy one at that.
'Henselt was himself a virtuoso pianist as well as a composer, and Liszt was said to have admired his hands and his divine legato. His fingers had an unusual elasticity that allowed him to achieve a technique most players cannot hope for no matter how much they practise.
So challenging is Henselt’s only piano concerto that only three recordings of it exist, including one by Canadian virtuoso Marc-André Hamelin with the Scottish BBC Orchestra. The other two feature Raymond Lewenthal and Michael Ponti. As quoted in Harold C. Schoberg’s book Great Pianists, Anton Rubinstein himself struggled with the concerto and other Henselt pieces for days, and declared, “It was a waste of time, for they were based on an abnormal formation of the hand. In this respect, Henselt, like Paganini, was a freak.” '
Yes, the extensions in some of Henselt's works are impossible, but I've been able to play a couple of less demanding pieces, even though I have only sparrow's claws compared to Anton Rubinstein's eagle's talons (and of course a birdbrain compared to him as a musician).
Evren Ozel too now
One of the most underrated virtuosi of the romantic era, perhaps even more than Alkan.
Like the feline play on KSS' name.
Astonishing! 👍
Almost criminal that this piece and its composer are not more popular.
I love this concerto, always wondered why it isn't played more often. thanks for posting.
I've lost count of how many times I have listened to this. I rank it just below Rach 3 in my pantheon of favourite piano concerti. Paul Wee is out with a new recording of this that just dazzles.
Oh nice, thanks for doing this! :)
It's a beautiful piece, isn't it? Sorry if I beat you to uploading it ^^
No worries fam. :)
You two should kiss
Thanks for including fingerings. Makes it so much easier.
Are you practicing it?
😃
HaHa kidding, right?
Alesa, Larry Katz’s face is the best answer - he just kidding
Sure.
A fabulous piece in a fabulous performance.
Thanks for posting a sheet music version of this underrated and fantastic concerto!
Semplicemente stupendo.
Grande esecuzione di Lewenthal.
One movement in, already love this
just now exploring Henselt. WOW!
Rachmaninoff recording of "Where I a bird" Op.2 , Poéme d'Amour Op.3
@@SaintSaens0 Thank you for the suggestions! Rachmaninoff's recording is perfection.
The 'oceanic' theme about 3 minutes into the Busoni Piano Concerto seems to me indebted to material from the first movement of this great concerto ...
What a glorious work. Someone should urge Yunchan Lim to take it up. I can imagine him eating up its prodigious technical difficulty.
Tempestuous and brilliant performance. What a fantastically crafted concerto, bravura-infused and High Romantic in style-though I find it stern and somewhat overbearingly turbulent. Perhaps it is not a progressive piece of work, but it certainly doesn't come of as uninspired. For its time, I'm sure this Henselt work is a sufficiently monumental opus by itself. I'm glad the work is somewhat brought out to the light of day again.
Bravo bravo bravo super super super wow wow wow brilliance fantastic grandiose music concerto
I love the plangent passage that starts at 8:11 with the piano. The orchestral line ends serenely in the previous bar, and the piano picks up from the next like you've just recalled some deep tragedy.
Wow! Great piece... and it really explains where Rachmaninoff learned to write for the piano.
Wow, Rachmaninoff German then! He was taught by Taneyev and Arensky in Russia. Henselt was living in Poland at this time. Still, I'm pleased you appreciate this masterpiece.
@@DavidA-ps1qr he meant the pianism has obviously influenced rachmaninoff. Something everybody on the planet said including rach himself. What next? You're going to say that Rach's moment musicaux 4 isn't very very heavily "inspired" by Henselt's Etude 1? Don't know why you're being so obtuse.
@@bitchslappedme Thank you for this, I have learnt something. Having researched further you are absolutely correct. I have to admit I'm very surprised, but having read a thesis written by a Dr. of Musical Arts at the University of Texas in 2020, I am completely wrong. Thank you again for correcting me. David A.
@@DavidA-ps1qr Just to add another example. The opening the Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C-sharp minor is very clearly taken from the bars on minute 15:49 . There's alot of heavy heavy "inspiration" of Henselt on Rach's early works.
Cheers
@@bitchslappedme Just listened to it and you're right again. I'm annoyed I haven't spotted this before. I just didn't connect the two. You know your music that's for sure. :-)
Stunning.
Thank you! Extremely interesting!
Scheduled to perform this piece in February wish me luck friends~ 🎹
Good luck! You got it 😉
Are you performing it with The Orchestra Now by any chance? Came across your comment on this video while trying to write program notes for this piece for the concert :)
How did the concert go?
@@erika6651 He probably lied
@@MrFartyman44 possibly. Folks do love to storytell.
I've noticed a lot of patterns from his etudes showing up here, which is not surprising, but pretty cool.
Absolutely amazing composition.
Now I know how to do CPR.
Good reference!
Haven’t heard this since college!
3:32-3:36 really reminds me of the transition to the second theme in the first movement of Chopin Concerto 2 (but a Godowsky-ified version lol)
Yes -- great get!! It is very much so.
It has everything a piano concerto needs, it deserves more Performances. The score looks similarly diffiicult as the Saint Saens concertos with all those neverending runs, but those are maybe more spectacular than the one by Henselt.
Agreed, the Saint-Saëns runs are very epic
Agreed about more performances, but hardly anyone is good enough to play it!
12:47 - II. Larghetto
19:57 - III.
a perfect compromise between Brahms, Chopin and Rachmaninoff
It would be a memorable night to see Yuja Wang perform this concerto.
Yes a dream come true.
27:10
Did Liszt really sightreaded this?
Yes
Yes to be expected of the best pianist known to man. I think alkan could do it with ease to tho
Of course he did not. Liszt was a formidable virtuso, but let's be serious and realistic: nobody can sightread such a monstrous piece. Liszt's legends are quite exaggerated.
@@p-y8210
The best pianist know to man until the 20th century. Besides, Brahms's pianism was as remarkable as Liszt's.
@@dreamsdreams9493 But actually I've read in an German classical music journal that Brahms wasn't a really big virtuoso. He was ofc very good at the piano but there we're much more better pianist
The additions that Lewenthal makes to the final few bars from 12:29 are hilarious
Thanks for mentioning -- I'm very familiar with this recording and had never realized that the written piano part ends without that!!
@Gavin Yerg It's just Mr. Lewenthal revelling in his own virtuosity. It's not at all serious (and doesn't need to be), and I happen to find it quite funny. It doesn't make me rate the recording any lower.
He's being true to the tradition of concert pianists adding embellishments over the score.
Thanks for noticing that. I hadn't, but I wasn't following the score. Actually, the flourish works & is quite idiomatic. @@vaclavmiller8032
@@ReichthoffActually, you're right!
15:49 Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C-sharp minor lol.
Great catch. Also add Rach's moment musicaux 4 and Henselt's Etude 1. And you see that young Rach was a big Henselt fan
@@bitchslappedme there is a very seemed Czerny etude from his etudes caracteristiques
@@bitchslappedmeIn his explication of this concerto on the disc accompanying this Lp, Lewenthal makes the same observation.
some passages of the 1st movement remind me of Chopin‘s 2nd piano concerto in Fm
During the last six bars of the first movement the performer plays flourishes where the sheet music says he should be silent. Does anyone know why? Are there several editions of the work?
2:27 I guess they didn't feel like playing that chord?
They must have a different score
The upper part of the screen is the piano.
Hamelin's recording on Hyperion is soooooo much better.
Sounds like Chopin.
7:00
the 4 staffs in the Larghetto seem pretty excessive, i mean he could've easily put everything in 2 staffs and it would have looked fine, likely even better.
@Rónálðór Dáviðson not talking about the composition but the sheet music
Henselt knew better than you
@@therealtruetwelfth798 just an opinion
@@therealtruetwelfth798 Nahhhh henselt just thought it looked cooler (which it does)
I can understand after this concerto why this guy is not famous…
How come??
Why did a metronome suddenly turn on? 3:09-3:16
2nd mov.
Do you know where we can find the full sheet music (with orchestra)?
13:38
15:22 on - !!!
I wouldn't be surprised if Henselt was the first to use 4-staff writing for the piano like that. At least I don't know of any instances before this.
Although I appreciate the technical aspects of this work and it would be fun to play through it a few times this work suffers from a fundamental lack of catchy melodies or themes. I'm not saying it doesn't have moments but generally it's just a lot of arpeggios and octave runs we've all heard an played a thousand times before. Technically brilliant, musically mediocre.
I'm glad somebody pointed that out. It disappeared from the repertoire not just because of its difficulty.
How do you use this rhythm for CPR? Its all over the place.
What
What is cpr
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation
@@adamhall7227 I thought you might be talking about something else. IDK what you mean the rhythm is straight forward.
Heroically
The Anton Rubinstein 4th Piano Concerto is supposed to be extremely difficult, also but this one sounds worse. However, the Rubinstein is a great piece of music, IMO. This one by Henselt is pretty mediocre musically speaking. Just my opinion, FWIW.
Rubinstein's 4th barely gets out of the shadow of mediocrity. If you like a good tune, Henselt's concerto is loaded with them
Thanks for uploading, I did not know this composer. The pianist and the Orchestra do a great job. I thought from the description it might be like Chopin, now I think it's more like Liszt. I can listen to Chopin pianoconcerti over and over again, but I will not repeat listening to this. I feel the melodies are no where as good as Chopin's and it has a lot of pompous full ornamentals and unnecessary drama going on without the substance to back it up. Does not surprise me that it did not stand the test of time. Still, it is a monumental composition. But not great.
If you associate this to liszt you certainly need to know more of his lol
I can't believe people canstill listen to this . Strauss got it right in his Burlesque and yet the late Romantic concerto was already gone . Martucci,Rubinsein Henselt,Arensky just burned into embers .
spot-on
This isn’t late Romantic music. It was written before Liszt even published the 1st of his concerti. What are you on about?
Chopin e minor concerto? These guys really were all copying the man
Where is the concerto being referenced exactly?
and Chopin modelled his e minor concerto on parts of Hummel's excellent 2nd Piano Concerto but was able to develop it into something new. Nonetheless, it's worth knowing about some of the concertos which have slipped by the wayside. Eg. Scharwenka's 1st has something (esp. the 2nd Mvt).
@@MorganHayes_Composer.Pianist Chopin modeled his e minor after kalkbrenner concerto 2, some Hummel, but more Kalkbrenner
@@SaintSaens0 a very tangible influence for sure! I wasn’t aware of him. The Hummel is the greater piece I’d say . There’s real substance there .
@@MorganHayes_Composer.Pianist The Kalkbrenner 2 is a very poor concerto. Hummel by far is a better composer and his a minor concerto is really great, especially the end of the third mov.
Those opening octaves got me quaking
Probably one of the hardest openings for a piano concerto, especially since the pianist has to play them completely cold
Alensa I’ll say! And do you know if I can find a video of it live?
@@maleficfig68 There isn't one, since literally no one seems to play this piece nowadays. The thing that comes closest is this video by Grimwood, where he talks about the concerto and plays some of it:
ua-cam.com/video/-F32wiGSxNY/v-deo.html
Funniliy, he also references the beginning. Grimwood played the concerto live on Henselt's 200th birthday in a festival of the composer's hometown.
The most technically accurate pianist alive, MA Hamelin, ought to perform this live more. Personally, the solo part isn’t too difficult for me and something like Liszt’s Totentanz or Sorabji’s piano concertos make this concerto look like an intermediate level one subjectively. However, this is an extraordinarily beautiful work.
For a duck, it would’ve gotten them quacking
6:35