Adolph Von Henselt - any fans out there?

I am the only person who thinks that Henselt is one of the best composers? People seem to make excuses for why he's not around anymore. Such as - he did not write enough music, no one wants to play him because it's too hard etc.

Well, those are just not valid reasons why his music should not be in music stores around the world. No one can disagree that his music is most beautiful. I have done alot of research on Henselt over the years. I learned that he wrote a lot more music than most people would find out about just out of searching the internet about him. I decided to deticate a website to Henselt. I just started it. I will have writing about his music, about his history. But as of now, I just put links to 3 personal recordings of his music. Impromptu III, Etude no5 op11, and another extremely rare pieces - no opus #. Many many more recordings to come. Please visit this website and support it by sending me an email letting me know you've been there. www.angelfire.com/empire/adolph_henselt Thanks

Yes, indeed, I am a long-time Henselt fan - he is one of the few 19th c composers other than the established great masters with a truly individual voice. Indeed, if I remember correctly, Wilhelm von Lenz who knew many of the great pianists of the mid-19th c wrote in his book 'Die grossen Pianoforte-Virtuosen unserer Zeit' (Berlin 1872; English translation, The Great Piano Virtuosos of Our Time, New York 1899)that he preferred the music of Henselt to that of Chopin and Liszt.

The reason his piano music (especially the studies) is not more played is, I think, that much of it requires exceptionally large stretches between the fingers of each hand, which you can either do or not do. Although I have average-sized hands and can stretch a tenth, there are some of Henselt's studies that I would never be able to play up to speed for this reason. This style of writing, and use of wide ranging arpeggio figures, had a big influence on the Russian piano school (esp. Balakirev, Liapunov,Rachmaninov) which seems to have received little comment.