‘Liszt, Chopin and Henselt are continents, Tausig, Rubinstein and Bülow are countries,’ Wilhelm von Lenz wrote 150 years ago. Following John Field, Adolf Henselt (1814‑89) – Bavarian-born, Hummel-polished, St Petersburg-domiciled – keyed the foundations of Russian Romantic pianism. Premiered by Clara Schumann at a Leipzig Gewandhaus concert conducted by Mendelssohn (5 October 1845, Weber’s Der Freischütz Overture and Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony bookending a protracted programme), his F minor Concerto was long a Golden Age staple. If Clara was scathing (‘patched together’ virtuosity, ‘not a single beautiful, fresh motif except for the first’), Scriabin, Busoni, Petri and Leginska (at the 1906 Proms) were not. Like Godowsky, Rachmaninov – hewing his C sharp minor Prelude out of the bass line of the opening flourish – learnt well from its figurations and parameters. Recordings are few: just three of the finalised 1847 edition (Ponti, Lewenthal, Hamelin) plus Robert Schumann’s ‘provisional’ version for Clara (Vinocour – RCA, 2010).

At one with the work’s muscular and digital geography, elegantly clarifying its chameleonic mesh of notes, pedallings, overtones and sub-voicings, Paul Wee argues a stratospheric case. Edging out Hamelin emotionally (Hyperion, 1993), the sculpted retransition/reprise of the first movement, the supple caress of the ‘starlit’ D flat Larghetto (an abbreviated transcription of which Busoni’s pupil Michael Zadora recorded c1930) and the transcendental steeplechase of the finale are blue-ribbon moments to be cherished.

Footnoting history but for Liszt’s Second Concerto (which he premiered as a young man under the composer), Hans Bronsart von Schellendorf (1830-1913) published his post-Grieg/pre-Tchaikovsky F sharp minor narrative in 1873. Insofar as structural weight and proportion are invested in the first movement, there’s a passing resemblance with the Schumann/Henselt model (minus slow interlude). Less so otherwise. Wee, in his booklet essay, suggests it’s a score ‘rousing, intimate and electrifying by turns … the richness [and solo fantasies] of its orchestration matched by an uncommonly brilliant piano part [requiring] a soloist to unashamedly embrace its superheated Romantic language if its passions are to take flight’. From the opening quasi cadenza (Brahmsian trills en route), power and exaltation to grace and dream, Wee is the man for the moment, no obstacle insurmountable. A balladeering white-water ride, Emmanuel Despax’s 2017 Hyperion card notwithstanding. Impeccable recorded sound (Örebro Konserthus) and precision ensemble from the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Michael Collins pliantly responsive at the helm, bronze the encounter.

Bronsart Piano Concerto in F sharp minor, Op 10 Henselt Piano Concerto in F minor, Op 16

Paul Wee pf Swedish Chamber Orchestra / Michael Collins

BIS BIS2715 (SACD)

This review originally appeared in the Summer 2024 issue of International Piano. Never miss an issue – subscribe today