HENSELT, ADOLF VON (1814–1889)

A Steinway artist, Sergio Gallo specializes in the repertoire of the Romantic period, especially Liszt and his contemporaries, including Schumann, Henselt, Brahms, and Chopin. Gallo has made several acclaimed recordings for Eroica, and a recent release with Naxos of Liszt’s transcriptions of opera by Meyerbeer, which was critically acclaimed by BBC Magazine: “Gallo makes a good case for Liszt’s honouring of the operatic originals” (Naxos 8.573235). Gallo has performed with orchestras throughout the Americas and worldwide. He is the winner of concerto competitions of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and of the University Symphony in Santa Barbara. He holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of California, Santa Barbara (1998) and is Associate Professor of Piano Performance at Georgia State University in Atlanta.

Adolf von Henselt was born in the Bavarian town of Schwabach on 9 May 1814. Praised by Liszt for his unequalled cantabile playing, Henselt belonged to a galaxy of star pianists who were all of a similar age. These included Chopin, Schumann, Thalberg and, of course, Liszt. Although Henselt began his musical studies on the violin, he soon changed to the piano and made spectacularly rapid progress. It was as a child that he developed a strong and permanent affinity with the musical Romanticism of Carl Maria von Weber.