Ernst Herttrich

The circumstances in which these poetic 'Soirée Pieces' (thus their original title) came into being are quite surprising. In 1849 Dresden was seized by violent political turmoil that ultimately forced...

'As far as the Scenes from Childhood are concerned, I owe them one of the liveliest pleasures of my life.' These words were uttered by none other than Franz Liszt. In the evenings he often enjoyed pla...

Combining these two Schumann bestsellers seemed very natural: both of the titles not only reflect their inner association but the technical demands on the pianist are for once not so great (see the le...

The circumstances in which these poetic 'Soirée Pieces' (thus their original title) came into being are quite surprising. In 1849 Dresden was seized by violent political turmoil that ultimately forced...

Although Schumann had learnt the cello for a while in his youth, he only began to compose for this instrument in later life. Apart from the cello concerto, only his Five Pieces op. 102 have survived a...

Mendelssohn's viola sonata is one of his many early works which remained unpublished in his lifetime. The autograph is dated 'd. 14 Febr. 1824'. Thus Mendelssohn was 15 years old when he completed the...

Schumann's Papillons op. 2 has been a best-selling item in Henle's catalogue for decades. What is special about our revised new edition? First, the musical text has been painstakingly compared once ag...

Schumann's turbulent love-affair with the barely eighteen-year-old Ernestine von Fricken, though strong enough to lead to a secret engagement, lasted only a few months. Nevertheless, it managed to giv...

The 'Davidsbund' - a group of artists who had joined forces in a revolutionary struggle against the backward structures in the artistic world, amongst whose members he counted both real and imaginary...

Schumann's great C-major Fantasy, op. 17, was originally intended to be published as a 'Sonata for Beethoven' entitled 'Ruins, Trophies, Palms. Grand Sonata.' Although he eventually abandoned this pla...

Composed in Vienna in 1838 along with several other shorter pieces, Schumann's Arabesque has found a permanent place in the general piano repertoire. It may owe its lightness and grace to Schumann's u...

Mendelssohn is considered a self-critical composer, who repeatedly reworked a number of his pieces until he deemed them worthy to be published. The path to his first Piano Trio was particularly rocky:...

After the great success of his first Piano Trio in d minor op. 49, some five years passed before Mendelssohn set to work on a new composition for this formation. But then the c-minor Trio came into be...

It is hardly imaginable today, but the Viennese public of Mozart's time was unable to appreciate the beauties of Mozart's Piano Quartet K. 478. It was not accustomed to the dramatic g minor character...

Piano trios belong among the great genres of Classical chamber music, and Brahms , too, turned his attention to this genre early on. He wrote his opus 8 in fall and winter 1853/54, thus at the age of...

The composition cost him his sleep. In October 1842, when Schumann had finished his piano quintet in a short period of time, he was physically and emotionally drained. The work in no way reflects this...

This is Mozart's only piece of chamber music for the oboe - and no oboist would want to be without it! Like the Clarinet Quintet, the Oboe Quartet of 1781 was written for a friend: Friedrich Ramm, a m...

No romantic poetry and no concrete fairytale figure occasioned Schumann to write this composition. Today, we can assume that the title of the pieces, originally entitled 'Romances', was merely suppose...

Although Schumann's first attempts at composing for this supreme form of chamber music in 1838/39 were only fragments, the three String Quartets op. 41 in a minor, F major and A major were written in...

When Günter Henle founded his Urtext publishing company in 1948 he began his catalogue with a two-volume edition (HN 1 and HN 2) of Mozart's 18 piano sonatas. These sonatas remain part of the core rep...

When Günter Henle founded his Urtext publishing company in 1948 he began his catalogue with a two-volume edition (HN 1 and HN 2) of Mozart's 18 piano sonatas. These sonatas remain part of the core rep...

Gloomy premonitions plagued Schumann whilst he was working on his latest composition in 1839. The news that his brother Eduard was dying had deeply shaken him. 'Writing a 'Corpse Fantasy' since Monday...

The Sonata in D major is the last of the Six Sonatas K. 279-284 that Mozart had in his luggage when he set off for Paris in September 1777. He had already successfully performed this music in Munich,...

'I wish to do it to reflect the character of Mad:selle Rose,' Mozart replied when asked how he intended to set out the Andante of his Sonata in C major. In autumn 1777 he had got to know Rosina Cannab...

With the 'Introduction and Concert Allegro', composed in 1853 and dedicated to Johannes Brahms, we have completed our editions of Schumann's works for piano and orchestra. The famous Piano Concerto in...