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Henri Herz: 12 Récréations illustrées, Op.215: Book 4,

729 views · Published 1 June 2014 · 8:01 · Indexed 28 September 2026

Channel: PSearPianist · 2014 · Music

10 - Ronde de nuit; 11 - Danse Havanaise; 12 - Le petit démon.
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Austrian composer Henri Herz (1803-88) was one of the foremost travelling piano virtuosi of the first part of the 19th century. His compositions were very popular in the salons and drawing-rooms of Europe and the Americas. In 1872 he self-published four books each of three illustrated 'recreations' - pieces designed to be played at home by young ladies with small hands, but strong fingers - presumably trained on studies by Czerny and Herz himself. These are really charming, and full of humour and musical interest. Each book is really a mini-suite with fast-slow-fast pieces, and each piece is prefaced by an illustration, somewhat in 17th century woodcut style, and I have reproduced these pictures before each of the pieces in my videos. The final book opens with 'The night patrol' - a popular 19th century image of the arrival and departure of soldiers checking out the streets, made famous, of course, in Bizet's 'Carmen'. The second piece is a Cuban dance. It is headed 'la despedida' - which may mean 'the farewell' and might well be a genuine Cuban theme. In the middle of the piece, guitars and castanets are evoked.

Closing the set is the 12th piece - the 'little demon'. Actually this is a naughty boy, who is pictured just about to throw a doll (his sister's?) to the ground - which he does in the last bars of the piece. He is obviously throwing a tantrum and becomes more and more agitated as the piece progresses.

Thumbnail image created with Wombo Dream ( t.ly/zhJa ).

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Henri Herz: 12 Récréations illustrées, Op.215: Book 4,

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