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Henry Holden Huss
Piano Music
Brian Kovach, piano
HENRY HOLDEN HUSS (1862-1953)
Henry Holden Huss was born in Newark, New Jersey on 21 June 1862, but when he was two his family moved to New York City, where he became a life-long resident. His maternal ancestry includes Oliver Holden (1765-1844), the prolific colonial composer best known for his hymn tune Coronation. His father, George (1828-1904), was a composer, church organist, and music teacher with whom Henry began his studies at age six.
Of his early training, Huss once said, "You see I began to study music almost in the cradle. My father was intent upon my musical education, and I rememberbeing taken by him to call upon [Anton] Rubinstein. He knew my father well, and he also knew that I had been set apart for a musical career by him." Huss later worked in theory and instrumentation with Otis Bardwell Boise.
From 1882 to 1885 Huss studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Munich. His principal teachers were Josef Giehrl (piano), a pupil of Liszt, and Josef Rheinberger (organ, composition). While in Munich, Huss made his debut as an orchestral soloist in Beethoven's G Major Concerto, and his orchestral work Wald-Idylle, G. 370, was given its premiere.* His graduation thesis, the Rhapsody for piano and orchestra, G. 371, was presented to the faculty in the summer of 1885. Besides this performance, the honor graduate also performed the Sonata in C Minor, Op. 111, by Beethoven and had "the rare distinction" of being asked to perform some piano improvisations.
Such improvisations became an important feature of Huss' recital appearances. A review of his 26 October 1952 recital included the following description:
For us, however, the amazing feature was the appearance on the stage of Mr. Huss, whocalled for three notes at random from the audience and proceeded to improvise a five-minute waltz on them. The improvisation was thoroughly expert, well-planned and beautifully played, with fluency, ease and no wrong notes. It was an astounding exhibition.
Upon his return to New York City in the fall of 1885, Huss resumed his work as a private teacher, begun at age 16, continuing his composing and building a career as a concert pianist. He quickly became known in American music circles and developed friendships over the years with such luminaries as Richard Aldrich, Mrs. H.H.A. Beach, David Bispham, Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, Arthur Foote, Rafael Joseffy, Franz Kneisel, Henry Krehbiel, Edward MacDowell, the Mason family in Boston (especially Daniel Gregory Mason, II, Edward Mason, and William Mason), Artur Nikisch, Ignaz Paderewski, Isidor Philipp, Maud Powell, Raoul Pugno, Wassily Safonoff, Anton Seidl, Frank Van der Stucken, and Eugène Ysaÿe.
Examples of his involvement in musical affairs in New York City include his interaction with three renowned musicians. During the 1887 American debut recital series of Josef Hofmann, themes for improvisation were provided by Walter Damrosch, Huss, and an unknown other musician. In 1891, Tchaikovsky arrived in New York City to help dedicate Carnegie Hall, and Huss was part of the hospitality committee as well as the pianist in a performance of the Russian's A Minor Trio. Two years later, he assisted Dvorák in a lecture-recital to discuss the latter's New World Symphony.
Among the names which are always mentioned when there is a muster of American composers who have achieved distinction in the serious departments of the art is that of Henry Holden Huss. (New York Tribune, 1896)
Huss' music was frequently heard in the larger Western world, beginning with his Romanze and Polonaise for violin and orchestra, G. 383, which was performed at the Paris Exposition by Willis Nowell and an orchestra under the direction of Van der Stucken in 1889. In 1891 Felix Arens gave a series of American music concerts in Germany that included this same work. Three years later, the premiere of his Cleopatra's Death for soprano and orchestra, G. 377, was sung by Clémentine Sapio in Sydney, Australia. His Piano Concerto, G. 382, was presented in Europe by a number of soloists, and Huss himself gave a number of performances during his 1910 tour there.
When the American composer is spoken of, and indeed, when any modern writer is thought of, the name of Henry Holden Huss naturally presents itself to mind, as he is among the foremost musicians and composers of the day. [When] his works have been played beside the masterpieces of modern and classical music, they have not suffered by comparison.
[As a] pianist he ranks with the best of the day. [In] recitals he holds a unique position, as he interprets Beethoven in a manner that is both educative and genuinely delightful, and he has few equals in the romantic music of Chopin and Schumann. He is perhaps the most superb exponent of Bach in this country....
[Huss] is a teacher of the most exceptional qualities. Indeed it were absolutely futile to look in Europe or in America for his superior. (The Musical Leader and Concert Goer, 1904)
Huss also concertized extensively in the greater New York City area and around the Huss summer home on Lake George in upstate New York. He also performed as soloist at numerous musical conventions and on tours east of the Mississippi River, a highlight of which various recitals was his 1904 White House program for President and Mrs. Roosevelt. His was the last artist recital given in the Old Steinway Hall and the first public concert given in the New Steinway Hall, both in 1925. His Piano Concerto served as his vehicle for performances with orchestras in Boston, Cincinnati, New York, Pittsburgh, St. Paul, and Detroit. In general the reviews for the concerto performances were
mixed, particularly in regard to Huss' playing, though as a recitalist his playing was generally highly rated.
Huss clearly understood the financial instability inherent in a career as a composer, pianist, and private teacher, which concern was heightened by added responsibilities due to his marriage to soprano Hildegard Hoffmann in 1904. He therefore found security in teaching appointments at various institutions, resulting in long-term relationships with Hunter College in New York City and with The Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, New York, among others. In 1896, however, he lost to Edward MacDowell, a childhood acquaintance, in an attempt to secure the music professorship at Columbia University. During the Depression years, Huss was active in the Federal Music Project of the Works Progress Administration.
From a description appearing in the 5th edition of The International Who is Who in Music (1951) we learn that Huss had "blue eyes, white hair, [weighed] 140 [pounds], and [was] 5'10 1/2" in height." His principal form of recreation was given as reading, and he was also described as "Presbyterian and Republican."
On 23 June 1953 Huss gave his final known performance in a birthday tribute broadcast over WNYC. Huss died in New York City on 17 September 1953.
* * * * *
The accuracy of any Huss worklist is compromised by his predilection for giving the same work different titles on different occasions, by his use of pseudonyms, and by his haphazard assignment of opus numbers. Furthermore, while Huss' piano music is a mixture of recital pieces for the mature professional and didactic works for the student, it is difficult to separate the music cleanly into these two categories because Huss would sometimes use as a recital work what would otherwise seem to be a didactic piece.
In 1912, Walter Kramer wrote a review of the Six Pieces for the Pianoforte, Op. 23, G. 230, commenting, in part, that
The "Etude Romantique"is a tone poem in the truest sense, conceived for the piano by one who knows its possibilities to the minutest detail. [It] has been built with the very essence of that quality which we call "romantic" in the fine arts. It is extremely difficult technically.
With bold and massive strokes Mr. Huss has painted his dance in the "Polonaise Brillante," fully Lisztian in its demands on the player and in its effect. The themes are melodic, stirring in character and fitting to the composition. There is every kind of opportunity offered the player, chords, octaves, passage work, thirds and the many other devices of modern pianistic art, and all is carefully handled with mastery. A thrilling octave passage, five measures long, closes the piece brilliantly.
Let it be recorded here that no American composer has within a considerable time written six pieces for the piano that contain as many solid musical ideas originally set forth, with interesting harmonies, as these of Mr. Huss.
A 1917 review of Three Pieces for Piano, Op. 26, G. 232, described them as "unique and distinguished...the expression of a man whose individuality is always distinct"
Lake Como by Moonlight (Barcarolle), G. 246, is contained in a set of didactic works, but it was often played in recital by Huss. This piece was his most commercially successful work, selling over 3000 copies. Perhaps because of this popularity, in 1932 Margaret Anderton offered a discussion of the work in her column "How to Study/How to Teach" in The Musician. Huss is known to have made a Duo Art piano roll of Lake Como prior to 1928, but the roll is lost or destroyed.
In contrast to the Albumblatt, which no one, including Huss, apparently ever performed, the Étude Mélodique from the same set (G. 199) was a very popular work. Huss played it on programs as late as 1938, including his White House recital, and it was one of his works performed then that especially pleased Theodore Roosevelt. The work's didactic value was recognized in the Report of the Committee on Piano Curriculum, which had been compiled from the recommendations of piano teachers in several cities who had been requested to create a list of "from fifty to a hundred pianoforte pieces and studies important for use in teaching" and which was then submitted to the 1908 Music Teachers National Association convention. Besides the Étude Mélodique, other Huss works included in the report were exercises from his Condensed Piano Technics, G. 222, the Quatre Preludes en forme d'Études, Op. 17, G. 214, Menuet, Op. 18, No. 1, G. 215, La Nuit, G. 220, "The Rivulet" Etude, G. 200, and the Three Pieces for Pianoforte, Op. 20, G. 219.
Notes by Gary A. Greene
Brian Kovach
Brian Kovach, the pianist whom Jerome Lowenthal called "an outstanding artist of imagination, intelligence and sensitivity," and of whom Virgil Thomson has written, "I admire him and believe in him," is a prominent Philadelphia chamber musician and soloist. He has appeared with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia and the New Philadelphia Quartet, is a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra's keyboard pool, and has accompanied such diverse artists as Pablo Casals and Kathleen Battle.
Brian Kovach was born and raised in Pittsburgh, where his first private teacher was Elsa Stockmann. Kovach was one of the accompanists for Pablo Casals' Master Classes in Pittsburgh during Casals' Guest Lectureship. His Master of Fine Arts Degree in Piano Performance was acquired at Carnegie Mellon University, where he studied with Harry Franklin. Additional studies were pursued with Lowenthal, Seymour Lipkin, and Agi Jambor.
Brian Kovach is a mentor, with private students of his own. He is an expert in course development, particularly for ensemble techniques. As Associate Professor of Music he has established and directed student Fine Arts and Baroque Ensembles as well as a Concert Series at the Community College of Philadelphia. Mr. Kovach was instrumental in establishing the institution's Music Curriculum at its inception.
Mr. Kovach's enthusiasm for turn-of-the-century composers whose work is too often overlooked has led to a prior recording of "Edgar
Stillman Kelley, Complete Works for Piano" for Albany Records.
Executive Producer: Matthew H. Phillips · Engineer: Michael E. Harmon ·Editing & Mastering: Howard Fievel ·Music Actuator: Jacqueline Kovach ·Music Advisor: Gary Greene ·Piano: Steinway Grand ·Piano Technician: Alexander Sargis · Recorded December 22, 1997 at Studio-K, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Cover Photo: Henry Holden Huss at about age forty. From A Portrait Catalogue of American Compositions (Boston: Arthur P. Schmidt, n.d.), p. 26. Courtesy of Special Collections in Performing Arts, The University of Maryland, College Park.
Henry Holden Huss
Brian Kovach, piano
Polonaise brillante, No. 6 of Six Pieces for the Pianoforte, Op. 23, G. 230. Published by G. Schirmer in 1912. (6:29)
Menuet Rococo, No. 1 of Three Pieces for Piano, Op. 26, G. 232. Published by G. Schirmer in 1917. (2:54)
Lake Como by Moonlight (Barcarolle), No. 9 of Happy Days, G. 246. Published by Carl Fischer in 1923 (1:53).
"The Brooklet" Étude, No. 3 of Three Pieces for Piano, Op. 26, G. 232. Published by G. Schirmer in 1917. (2:53)
Étude Mélodique, No. 1 of Drei Bagatellen für das Pianoforte, G. 199. Published by A.P. Schmidt in 1889. (2:47)
"The Optimist" Prelude, No. 1 of Seven Sketches for Piano, Op. 32, G. 228. Published by Carl Fischer in 1927. (2:12)
Sans Souci, Op. 25, No. 2, G. 233. Published by G. Schirmer in 1915. (2:14)
Menuet, Op. 18, No. 1, G. 215. Published by G. Schirmer in 1901. (4:17)
"On the Lake" Étude, No. 2 of Three Pieces for Piano, Op. 26, G. 232. Published by G. Schirmer in 1917. (3:39)
Three Intermezzi, G. 203. Published by J.B. Millet in 1894 in Half Hours with the Best Composers.
"Allegretto con Grazia" (2:17)
"Andante molto tranquillo ma non troppo lento" (with the subtitle Le Crepuscule) (2:00)
"Allegro moderato e giojoso" (1:54)
The Joy of Autumn (Concert Prelude), No. 7 of Seven Sketches for Piano, Op. 32, G. 228. Published by Carl Fischer in 1927. (1:17)
Valse, No. 1 of Three Pieces for Pianoforte, Op. 20, G. 219. Published by G. Schirmer in 1904. (4:51)
"The Rivulet" Etude, No. 2 of [Two Piano Pieces], G. 200. Published by A.P. Schmidt in 1891. (1:40)
Albumblatt, No. 2 of Drei Bagatellen für das Pianoforte, G. 199. Published by A.P. Schmidt in 1889. (1:47)
Impromptu, No. 4 of Six Pieces for the Pianoforte, Op. 23, G. 230. Published by G. Schirmer in 1912. (2:43)
Menuet Mignon, No. 1 of [Two Pieces] For the Piano, Op. 27, G. 234. Published by Oliver Ditson in 1917. (2:36)
Valse Petite for Piano, G. 288. Published by Theodore Presser in 1937. (1:44)
Intermezzo in B-flat ("Brahmsianer"), No. 2 of Six Pieces for the Pianoforte, Op. 23, G. 230. Published by G. Schirmer in 1912. (1:46)
Intermezzo in G ("Brahmsianer"), No. 3 of Six Pieces for the Pianoforte, Op. 23, G. 230. Published by G. Schirmer in 1912. (1:16)
Valse Intime, No. 2 of [Two Pieces] For the Piano, Op. 27, G. 234. Published by Oliver Ditson in 1917. (4:49)
Étude Romantique, No. 1 of Six Pieces for the Pianoforte, Op. 23, G. 230. Published by G. Schirmer in 1912. (4:42)
TOTAL TIME = 66:00
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