Henselt, Adolf (EN)

Henselt, Hänselt, Adolf Georg Martin von, *2 May 1814 Schwabach (Bavaria), †10 October 1889 Warmbrunn (Cieplice Śląskie), German pianist and composer. He studied piano with J.N. Hummel in Weimar (1832) and music theory and composition with S. Sechter in Vienna. He gave concerts in Germany and Russia, where, after an extraordinary success in St. Petersburg, he settled permanently in 1838. He became a court pianist and teacher in the Tsar’s family, and general inspector of music schools for girls in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kharkov, Kiev, Kazan and Odessa from 1857. He was appointed a state councillor in 1876. He was a professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1887–88.

Henselt’s compositions, although they represent genres typical of salon music, have a deep emotional expression. His etudes are a type of song without words (e.g. Liebeslied op. 5 no. 11). Poème d’amour presents a type of nocturne – with a variational allegro and an arpeggiated coda of a concertante character. Some of Henselt’s harmonic solutions are close to the music of Brahms (Romance op. 10) and Wagner (Wiegenlied). Sometimes the composer used more elaborate means, such as basso ostinato and imitations. Henselt achieved mastery of playing the piano thanks to his strong fingers and special exercises for stretching the hands (he embraced the eleventh note with his hand), and relied solely on finger technique. He strove for a broad, melodious legato and for sustaining sounds in arpeggios or chords – as much as possible – without using the pedal. He was an excellent performer of C.M. Weber’s pieces. He played Weber’s Polonaise in E major in his own arrangement in St. Petersburg before Liszt and published Invitation to the Dance there in his own arrangement. Because of stage fright, he performed in public less often than other great pianists, but he gained the recognition of Schumann and Liszt, among others, both as a virtuoso and as a creator of a small romantic form with a delicate sound saturated with expression.

Literature: R. Podberski Muzyka nowoczesna. Klub pianistów współczesnych (F. Chopin, L. Meyer, A. Henselt, F. Liszt), “Tygodnik Petersburski” 1842 no. 2; W. Lenz Die grossen Pianoforte-Virtuosen unserer Zeit aus persönlicher Bekanntschaft: Liszt, Chopin, Tausig Henselt, Berlin 1872 (1899?), English transl. M.R. Baker, Kessinger Publishing 7 December 2009; G. V. Amyntor (D. v. Gerhardt) Adolf von Henselt und dessen Sohn Alexander, in: Das Skizzenbuch meines Lebens, part 1, Wrocław 1893; N. Findejzen Adolf Henselt, “Russkaja Muzykalnaja Gazieta” 1899 no. 37; W. Bessel Tri wielikich pianista: F. Liszt, A. Henselt i An. Rubinstein, “Russkaja Muzykalnaja Gazieta” 1902 no. 45; R. Eitner Henselt Adolf, Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB), vol. 50., Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1905; Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. G. Grove, J.A. Fuller, London Macmillan 1906, (t. I, F–L), Mailand 1907; Backer’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, ed. T. Baker, A. Remy, New York, G. Schirmer 1919; H. Krauss Ein deutscher Altmeister der Tonkunst. Henselt – Erinnerungen, “Die Heimat” 1939; R. Davis Henselt, Balakiriev and the Piano, “The Music Review” XXVIII, 1967; G. Puchelt Verlorene Klänge. Studien zur deutschen Klaviermusik 1830–80, Berlin 1969; M. Geck Henselt Georg Martin Adolph, Neue Deutsche Biographie 8 (1969); R.B. Davis Adolf von Henselt – The Life, © 2000 & 2003.