Adolf von Henselt - Valse mélancolique,

After request, here is a wonderful compositon (and the first of him in this channel) by Henselt. I only knew him as composer of extremely difficult and demanding pieces for piano, I think somebody once said his piano concerto is up there with the most difficult ones ever composed (speaking of technique). Often the required techniques are quite unforgiving for the fingers. But who was this composer Henselt? He was born in Schwabach Bavaria, which is actually about 100 kilometres from my own hometown (in Germany). At the age of three he began to learn the violin, and at five the piano. His concert debut was at the Odeon in Munich, where he played the opening Allegro to one of Mozart’s C Major concertos, a free fantasy with variations on a theme from Weber’s Der Freischütz, and a rondo by Kalkbrenner. It was through Flad’s influence with Ludwig I of Bavaria that Henselt was provided the financial means to undertake further study with Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837) in Weimar in 1832 in for some mo