Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Piano Music
PHILIP MARTIN
CONTENTS
ENGLISH page 4
FRANÇAIS page 9
DEUTSCH Seite 13
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HENRI HERZ
(1803–1888)
Recorded in All Saints Church, East Finchley, London, on 19 and 20 October 2006
Recording Engineer JULIAN MILLARD
Recording Producer MARTIN COMPTON
Piano STEINWAY & SONS
Booklet Editor TIM PARRY
Executive Producers SIMON PERRY, MICHAEL SPRING
P & C Hyperion Records Ltd, London, MMVIII
Front illustration: The Reluctant Pianist (detail) by William A Breakspeare (1855–1914)
Reproduced by courtesy of Fine Art Photographs, London
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H EINRICH (HENRI) HERZ was born in Vienna on
6 January 1803. A child prodigy who had his first
lessons from his father, he was giving concerts by
the age of eight, among which was an appearance in
Coblenz when he played Hummel’s Variations on an
to have made any recordings (eleven titles, ten of which
were issued, for the French Fonotopia label in 1905 and
1906). In 1874 Herz relinquished the post he had held
since 1842 as professor of piano at the Paris Conserva-
toire. He died in 1888. (A fuller account of Herz’s career
‘oberländische Melodie’ Op 8. After studies with Daniel can be found in the booklet for Hyperion’s recording of
Hünten, the organist father of the more famous Franz, his piano concertos Nos 1, 7 and 8—CDA67465.)
Herz won admission to the Paris Conservatoire in April Few music reference books have a kind word to say
1816. His first compositions—Air Tyrolien varié Op 1 about Henri Herz, that is if he merits a mention at all. This
and Rondo alla Cosacca Op 2—appeared two years later. was written while he was still alive: ‘The works of Herz are
During the 1820s and ’30s he established himself noted chiefly for their extremely brilliant and difficult
as one of the most brilliant pianists and sought-after features. None of them are very likely to outlive the pre-
teachers of the day. His music was ubiquitous, outselling sent century’ (James D Brown: Biographical Dictionary
all his peers, Liszt and Chopin included; he built a 500- of Musicians, 1886). Sir George Grove, writing in the first
seat concert hall, Salle Henri Herz, in the Rue de la edition of his Dictionary, concludes that ‘Herz was the
Victoire (long since vanished), and went into partnership Gelinek of his day, and like that once renowned and
with a piano manufacturer named Klepfa producing about popular Abbé, is doomed to rapid oblivion’ (Josef Gelinek,
400 instruments a year. This last venture proved a costly 1758–1825, combined a career as a priest, pianist and
failure. In order to obtain more capital and recoup his prolific composer).
losses Herz headed for America, becoming the first These views are representative of a general tone
important European pianist to tour the country, recording prevalent to the present day. One wonders to what extent
his travels in an entertaining memoir eventually their writers were fully acquainted with Herz’s music. Had
published in 1866 as Mes voyages en Amérique. He they heard or played any of his eight piano concertos, his
remained there until 1851, returning home, like many Variations on ‘Non più mesta’ or any of the other works
pianists after him, an extremely wealthy man. on the present disc? Or were they routinely echoing
By the early 1850s, however, musical tastes had Robert Schumann, whose influential and published deri-
changed. The public had heard more of Liszt and Chopin, sion of Herz’s music was, to a large extent, the cause of its
virtuosos like Clara Schumann had dropped bravura demise. Schumann, incidentally, played Herz’s finger
display pieces from their programmes in favour of Bach, exercises as a child in Zwickau. Later, in 1831, inspired by
Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Schumann. Herz’s heyday the young Clara Wieck’s success with Herz’s Bravura
was over and, though he continued to compose, his Variations, he worked hard on another set of Herz’s
energies were directed to his (now successful) piano variations, Op 38. Unlike Clara, his future wife, he did
business and teaching at the Paris Conservatory. Among not have the pianistic equipment for such music, and
his pupils were Adolphe Fétis, Berthe Goldschmidt, Henri thus resorted to dismissing it in his journalism; he even
Rosellen, Marie Jaëll, Charles Salaman and Maria Roger- composed a Phantasie satyrique (nach Henri Herz) in
Miclos (1860–1950), the latter being the only Herz pupil 1832 as a spoof of Herz’s supposed ‘theatricality’.
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Our more eclectic age has greater tolerance of such bar Herz offers an ossia with higher notes for pianos with
perceived superficiality. After all, it is hard to argue that
the music of some Baroque masters is any more or less
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the luxury of seven octaves). Still in the tonic, Variation 2
is in 8 and marked Lo stesso tempo, grazioso tranquillo.
profound than that of the Parisian salons of the 1830s
and ’40s. Minor composers of earlier periods of musical
2
Variation 3 retains the triplets but these are now vivo e
leggiero and in 4. The key shifts to A flat major for the
history have been accorded a scholarly attention that is yet lovely Chopinesque fourth variation, modulating back to
to be granted to those of Herz’s era. Indeed Vivaldi, now a the home key for a concluding alla polacca and a con brio
central figure in the core classical repertoire, was largely finale. The work is dedicated to Madame Henry Shellon.
unknown until his rediscovery in the late 1940s. No one The Variations on ‘Non più mesta’ from Rossini’s
could pretend that Herz is a major composer; neverthe- La Cenerentola Op 60 is Herz’s best-known work.
less, it is fascinating to return to the forgotten music of a Sometimes known as the Rondo Aria, ‘Non più mesta’
previous era and hear what captivated audiences before (‘No longer sad beside the fire’) is the pyrotechnical aria
tastes changed, and gain a fuller picture of the musical sung by the eponymous heroine at the end of Rossini’s
world in which greater composers operated. opera, premiered in 1817. Rossini had composed the
There is growing interest in the music of Herz and his tune a year earlier for Count Almaviva’s final aria, ‘Ah! il
ilk. Before the appearance of Howard Shelley’s recordings più lieto, il più felice’ (‘Ah! of all loving hearts mine is
of six of Herz’s piano concertos in 2003 and 2004 the happiest’), in The Barber of Seville, a number that is
(Hyperion CDA67465 and CDA67537), there had been generally omitted from productions nowadays.
only five recordings of any of Herz’s music, that is apart Several composers were attracted to this show-stopper,
from the many versions of Liszt’s Hexaméron to which including Chopin (his flaccid variations for flute and
Herz contributed the fourth of its six variations. More piano were written at the age of fourteen), Franz Hünten,
recently, his Grande valse Op 211 ‘Les perles animées’, Diabelli and Burgmüller, but Herz’s response is surely the
Marche et rondo sur la Clochette, Paganini’s Last finest, as witty and agile as the original. The introduction,
Waltz, Rondo de Paganini and Grande fantaisie sur la theme, six variations and finale remain resolutely in C
Romanesca Op 111 (arranged for four hands by a certain major while Herz throws all manner of digital challenges
Richard Wagner) have all made their CD debuts. That at the performer, including left-hand skips of tenths and
said, the present volume is the first recording devoted twelfths, rapid scales and repeated notes for the right
exclusively to the solo works of Henri Herz. hand, broken octaves and, in Variation 5, a dolcissimo
quasi glissando in thirds.
* * * Herz—described on the cover as ‘Pianiste de S. M.
The Deuxième thème original avec introduction et le Roi de France’—offers this blindingly obvious note
variations Op 81 begins with a stormy Introduzione in at the head of the score of the Trois Nocturnes
G minor (Allegro con fuoco), before Herz presents his caractéristiques Op 45: ‘To play these Nocturnes in the
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theme, a Donizetti-like cavatina in G major. The brilliant
first variation in 4 features an ‘umpah-umpah’ left hand
manner intended by the composer, one must endeavor to
make the piano sing and to draw from it a sweet and
more familiar from early ragtime compositions (in one melodious sound’.
5
The Première Ballade Op 117 No 1, in D flat major,
owes rather more to a Chopin nocturne than a Chopin
ballade. After four introductory measures, Herz intro-
duces a cantabile theme of a type familiar from the
preceding Nocturnes, but this time given in octaves. It is
sentimental, effective and not too difficult (though the
more animated central section in F minor might give
some pause), a prime example of the kind of work that
made Herz’s music sell in unrivalled quantities in the
1830s and ’40s.
Philip Martin follows this dream-like sequence with a
rarity—Le mouvement perpétuel Op 91 No 3. Not only
is the printed music obscure (Martin might well be the
first pianist to play this piece in over a century) but the
form is far from common in keyboard literature. Its only
precedent would seem to be the most famous moto
perpetuo for the piano, the final movement of Weber’s
Piano Sonata No 1 in C major, Op 24. Mendelssohn wrote
a perpetuum mobile for his friend Moscheles in 1826 (his
Op 119), clearly modelled on Weber’s, but this was not
published until 1873. Alkan, Busoni and Godowsky left us
HENRI HERZ isolated examples, but others are few and far between. So
Herz’s note-spinner, though it too is derived from Weber,
La dolcezza is a Bellini-like aria in A flat major (its deserves our attention. It is also a tour de force—and fun.
central section modulating to B major) and at the very The full title of the Fantaisie dramatique Op 89
least worthy of revival as an encore. La melanconia, in as printed on the cover is Fantaisie dramatique sur
G minor and marked Moderato parlante, has a similar le célèbre choral protestant intercalé par Giacomo
wistful vocal quality which Herz rounds off with a gentle Meyerbeer dans Les Huguenots. Those expecting a
flurry of arpeggios and a final sighing chord in the major. bravura Herzian treatment of ‘the celebrated Protestant
La semplicità, to be played con certa espressione par- chorale’—Luther’s setting of Psalm 46, ‘Ein’ feste Burg
lante and dolce semplice innocentemente, employs the ist unser Gott’—will be disappointed, as will anyone
same device of a simple, single-note melody with flowing expecting a virtuoso paraphrase on the opera’s themes as
accompaniment, rather in the manner of a nocturne by in Thalberg’s two stupendous fantasies Op 20 and Op 43,
John Field. All three are well within the reach of the or the three different versions of Liszt’s Réminiscences
amateur and, one assumes, of their dedicatee, the des Huguenots. In fact, it appears, there is nothing of
wonderfully named Mademoiselle Eudoxie Cordel. Meyerbeer at all in Herz’s sixteen-page score.
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Robert le Diable (1831) was Meyerbeer’s first major nation. The cadenza is reminiscent of those in Mozart’s
success and laid the foundations of his fabulous wealth. Fantasia in D minor, K397.
His next triumph, Les Huguenots (February 1836), was The Fantaisie et Variations sur des Airs nationaux
greatly anticipated and saw the phenomenon, in the words américains variés Op 158 is an early (the earliest?)
of Arthur Loesser (Men, Women and Pianos), of ‘an example of the many sets of variations on American
eminently erethic merchandise label, likely to provoke little national airs composed by visiting European pianists with
haemorrhages of money from almost anyone … Through the aim of ingratiating themselves with their audiences. It
this chink the smooth Henri Herz thought he could squirm seems that, like Gottschalk a decade or so later, Herz was
himself into a little fresh, if forbidden, sugar.’ Unable to inspired to write a work wherever he visited, for there is
compose a fantasy on the themes from Les Huguenots, also a Fantaisie mexicaine Op 163, La Californienne
since he and Schlesinger, the opera’s publisher, were Op 167 and La Brésilienne Op 195.
sworn enemies, Herz published the above-titled work Herz sets the scene for his Fantaisie and Variations
weeks before Schlesinger’s publication date, ‘providing it with a maestoso introduction, a cadenza and a senti-
with a homemade introduction and a gratuitous air de mental music-box theme before arriving at his first
ballet as an epilogue’. Crafty. No Meyerbeer—and ‘Ein’ American national air entitled ‘Jackson’s March’. Assi-
feste Burg’ had been in the public domain for centuries. duous research has failed to unearth any source or score
The piece is dedicated to Mademoiselle Marie Saladin de for this tune, though there is an obscure folk song of this
Prégny. name with the alternative title of ‘Chapel Hill Serenade’. It
The Deuxième Ballade Op 117 No 2 appeared is not one of America’s best-known national airs. ‘Hail
elsewhere—with an added minor-key introduction, as Columbia’, on the other hand, which follows, is one the
well as the subtitle ‘La mélodieuse’—as No 1 of the Deux country’s most recognizable anthems. It was composed
Ballades Op 117. Philip Martin plays the version without for, and played at, the inauguration of George Washington
the introduction, so we have used the numbering adopted in 1789 and is attributed to the German-born Philip Phile
by that edition, both for this piece and for the ‘Première (1734–1793). Herz sets this in F major following it with
Ballade’ on track 6 (which in the alternative edition is a strange tremolando interlude in D flat major that
listed as No 2 and subtitled ‘L’harmonieuse’). leads into a brief fugato section in A major. After a vapid
Listening blind to this Deuxième Ballade, one might scale passage we arrive in the home key of E major
reasonably guess its composer as Gottschalk. There is no for ‘Yankee Doodle’ (or ‘Dondle’ as the score prints it), a
doubt that Herz exerted a strong influence on the Ameri- tune familiar since pre-Revolutionary days and sung to
can boy wonder and the chromatic phrase immediately various different lyrics. Three brilliant variations follow
after the opening theme’s repeat is similar to passages in before Herz combines ‘Yankee Doodle’ and ‘Jackson’s
several of Gottschalk’s works. It is an altogether grace-
ful confection with its cantabile espressivo melody (in
2
in 4 and the left in common time (c). Forceful octaves
March’ by the unusual expedient of scoring the right hand
B major) and its later runs of demisemiquavers requiring and brilliant arpeggios bring the drama to a rousing
the most delicate touch and sensitive tonal discrimi- conclusion.
JEREMY NICHOLAS © 2008
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PHILIP MARTIN
Dublin. He has performed these concertos in Ireland, the
United Kingdom and abroad, with all the BBC orchestras,
the Hallé, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the City of
Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra,
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and the major
London-based orchestras.
Philip Martin’s performances of Gershwin’s Piano
Concerto in F and of other American concertos have met
with particular critical acclaim. He has recorded an eight-
volume set of CDs for Hyperion of the music of the colour-
ful nineteenth-century American composer Louis Moreau
Gottschalk, as well as a critically acclaimed recording
© Robert Carpenter Turner
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HENRI HERZ Musique pour piano
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HENRI HERZ Klaviermusik
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