Ernst Hettrich

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...

When Günter Henle founded his Urtext publishing house in 1948, the first work in the catalogue was the two volume edition of all of Mozart's piano sonatas. Even today they still bear our numbers HN 1...

Who doesn't know Mozart's 'Sonata facile' of 1788? Yet those who practice this extremely popular piano sonata in C major will realize that it is by no means so 'easy' to play. Its nickname does not co...

'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...

When Günter Henle founded his Urtext publishing house in 1948, the first work in the catalogue was the two volume edition of all of Mozart's piano sonatas. Even today they still bear our numbers HN 1...

When Mendelssohn learned from his publisher Nikolaus Simrock that he was to receive an additional honorarium for a part of his 'Lieder ohne Worte', he effusively thanked him for this gift. However, th...

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...

This dark and tragic sonata in A minor, composed in Paris in 1778, tends to be linked with the death of Mozart's mother on 3 July 1778. While this of course cannot be ruled out, not a single concrete...

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...

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...

When Mendelssohn learned from his publisher Nikolaus Simrock that he was to receive an additional honorarium for a part of his 'Lieder ohne Worte', he effusively thanked him for this gift. However, th...

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...

Bassoonists are eagerly awaiting the new Urtext edition of this work, which is widely beloved for its virtuoso passages and inventive richness. Not only does this edition offer a carefully prepared te...

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...

The three piano sonatas K. 330-332 were probably written in Vienna or Salzburg in summer 1783, thus many years later than previous Mozart scholarship had assumed. This F-major sonata K. 332 was publis...

Like many other nineteenth-century musicians, Robert Schumann wanted to settle down in the musical capital of Vienna. Though these plans came to naught, his stay in Vienna in 1839 gave rise to an enti...

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...

Schubert composed the Wandererfantasie in November 1822. Though generally designated as a year of crisis, an entire series of Schubert's important works were created precisely at this time, when the W...

Eighteen piano sonatas survive from Mozart's pen, composed during his mature years between 1775 and 1789. They are usually grouped according to their first editions: (1) six sonatas K. 279-284 (2) thr...

Mazurkas, nocturnes, waltzes and polonaises constitute the core of Chopin's expressive world. However, he also moved comfortably beyond such genre cycles, and pieces of this sort are brought together...

Scholars have long been trying to figure out the mystery of Chopin's one and only solo Fantasie. The highly individual form is a puzzle to all who prefer more traditional genre concepts. Is it a sonat...

Through the amiable genre of the sonatina, generations of piano pupils have slowly and cautiously approached its 'big sister', the sonata. With the aid of our three-volume selection of sonatinas from...