Henselt: Piano Works Sergio Gallo

• Adolf von Henselt (1814-1889)
• 1 Wiegenlied, Op. 45 04:08
• 2 Petite Romance 01:24
• 3 10 Pieces, Op. 13: No. 2. Etude, La Gondola 02:07
• 4 2 Nocturnes, Op. 6: No. 1. Schmerz im Gluck 03:04
• 5 No. 6 in F-Sharp Major, Si oiseau j'etais, a toi je volerais! 02:04
• 6 No. 3 in B Minor, Exauce mes voeux! 03:11
• 7 No. 4 in B-Flat Major, Repos d'amour 01:32
• 8 Valse Melancolique, Op. 36 05:28
• 9 No. 1 in F Major 02:34
• 10 No. 2 in C Major 03:08
• 11 Waltz (arr. A. von Henselt for piano) 01:27
• 12 6 Romances Russes: No. 6 in D Minor (after Dargomizhsky) 02:57
• 13 No. 3 in A Minor, Hexentanz 01:52
• 14 No. 9 in A Major 02:28
• 15 12 Etudes Caracteristiques, Op. 2: No. 2 in D-Flat Major, Pensez un peu a moi, qui pense toujours a vous! 02:57
• 16 12 Etudes de Salon, Op. 5: No. 6 in A-Flat Major, Danklied nach Sturm 07:21
• 17 Erinnerung und Freundschaft, Op. 4: No. 1. Rhapsodie 02:20
• 18 Aufforderung zum Tanze (Invitation to the Dance), Op. 65, J. 260 (arr. A. von Henselt for piano) 09:05
• Total Runtime 59:07

Info for Henselt: Piano Works

Bavarian-born Adolf von Henselt was one of a galaxy of star pianist-composers of a similar age that included Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Thalberg. A student of Hummel, Henselt developed a breathtaking, idiosyncratic virtuoso technique but stage fright drew him away from performance and more towards composition and then teaching. Moving to St Petersburg in 1838, he established, with Anton Rubinstein, a truly Russian school of pianism. His piano works embrace ferocious technical studies as well as romantic salon pieces that led Schumann to dub Henselt ‘the Chopin of the North’.

„Adolf von Henselt is one of those shadowy figures in the world of music, his works admired and acclaimed by the cognoscente, but little know by the world at large. That fact was largely due to stage fright that caused him to disappear from the public for long periods, while those who knew of his performances placed him in the realms of Chopin and Schumann as a poet of the keyboard. Liszt was said to have found his playing reckless in its search of attaining the impossible task of playing widely spread chords with his one hand rather than resorting to the use of the sustaining pedal. Born in Bavaria in 1814, he had created a performing career when he suffered his first breakdown at the age of 22, but he was then to meet and marry the daughter of a Weimer court physician. They moved to St. Petersburg where they were befriended by the Tsar’s daughter, which lead him into Royal circles where he taught the piano and continued to compose. By the age of 40 he had almost totally withdrawn from public appearances, and was helping Anton Rubinstein to establish a Russian school of piano playing. He became quite prolific as a composer of keyboard music, though, as this disc will show, he was essentially a writer of cameos, these short pieces being brought together to form more substantial scores, such as we find in his groups of Etudes. Throughout we have the feeling that Sergio Gallo has developed a great affection for the music, and that he is intent on persuading the listener to join his delight.“ (David Denton, David’s Review Corner)

Sergio Gallo, piano

Sergio Gallo
A Steinway artist, Sergio Gallo specializes in the repertoire of the Romantic period, especially Liszt and his contemporaries, including Schumann, Henselt, Brahms, and Chopin. He has also championed the work of composers in Brazil, the nation of his birth. Gallo has recorded several acclaimed CD's for Eroica, with forthcoming projects committed to the Naxos and Naxos Grand Piano labels. His recordings have received high praise from Gramophone Magazine (of his most recent Villa-Lobos recording: "splendid playing of a lively programme… [a] nuanced performance… played with exceptional artistry") and American Record Guide ("it is hard to imagine a pianist leaving me with a more intense feeling of nobility"). In 2011, Gallo won the Global Music Awards "Award of Excellence" for his album, Mostly Villa-Lobos: 20th Century Piano Music from the Americas.

Gallo has performed with orchestras throughout the Americas and worldwide. In the last decade, he has performed in Turkey, Brazil, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Serbia, Portugal, Korea, Taiwan, Canada, and China, as well as in recitals given across the United States. Since his Brazilian national radio debut in 1986 (Radio Cultura, São Paulo) and his European radio debut in 1988 (Radio France, Paris), Gallo's work has been regularly played on classical music radio outlets around the world. His performances of Liszt's Hungarian Fantasy L.123, Schumann's Concerto in A minor, Op.54, and Tchaikovsky's Concerto No.1 in D-flat Minor, Op.23 were highlighted in 2011 Atlanta symphonic performances.

Sergio Gallo is the winner of concerto competitions of the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra and of the University Symphony in Santa Barbara. He has received a grant from the Henry Cowell Incentive Funds at the American Music Center in New York, New York, to record works by the composer, and this recording has been featured in the program Piano Matters with David Dubal. Gallo twice toured North Dakota with a Challenge America Fast-Track Grant award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Gallo earned the Diplôme d'Excellence at the Conservatoire Européen de Musique de Paris (1987), a Post-Graduate Certificate at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest (1992), an M.M. and Artist Diploma at the University of Cincinnati (1994 and 1995 respectively), and the Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of California, Santa Barbara (1998). Among his further training and involvement in professional workshops, Gallo participated in the Daniel Berenboim Workshop for Pianists and Conductors at Carnegie Hall (2000), the Orchestra Stabile Summer Festival (Bergamo, Italy, 1991), the Sergei Rachmaninoff International Courses in Piano Performance (Tambov, Russia, 1988), and the Seminaire Jean Fassina (Paris, 1986). He lives in the United States where he is Associate Professor of Piano Performance at Georgia State University in Atlanta, and is appointed to the affiliated artist staff of the Rocky Ridge Music Academy in Estes Park, Colorado.

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