Musical Portraits for the Piano
Anselm Hüttenbrenner, a friend and fellow student of Franz Schubert and a respected pianist himself, left an impressive oeuvre of piano music. Picking up initially on the style of Viennese Classicism and of Schubert, he developed an independent musical language of extraordinary quality and of great diversity of style, which is characterized especially by expressive harmonic progressions.
In his inspired character studies Tableaux Musicales from the year 1822, Hüttenbrenner gives musical form to seven different „figures“. Contemporary reviewers attested to this cycle “originality, noble spirit and depth of feeling” and recognized a completely new, poetic-lyrical conception of the cyclical sonata form in this musical work.
In the piano pieces from the years 1856 and 1857, whose titles are first names and which are published here for the first time, Hüttenbrenner portrayed primarily friends and members of his family in a harmonically sophisticated, subtle manner. Some of these pieces from his last period are characterized by a slightly melancholy atmosphere and leave a deep impression particularly because of their unostentatious style.
This present first edition fulfils all the requirements of musicology and musical practice. It provides a clear musical text, along with a comprehensive preface and detailed critical remarks, both in German and English.