Moritz Ernst - Swan Hennessy: Selected Works For Piano

The world premiere recording of Swan Hennessy�s beautiful piano pieces, performed by Moritz Ernst.

Swan Hennessy is a real discovery for lovers of impressionistic piano music from France. Swan Hennessy was born in Rockford, Illinois, of Irish origin and grew up in Chicago. Swan Hennessy's music before 1900 was heavily influenced by his conservative education and his teachers' predilection for the music of Robert Schumann.

Around the time of his move to Paris, he also been an admirer of Max Reger. Although his later music shows the influence of several contemporarystylistic directions, he never shook off this profound influence of the German Romantics.

During the period 1907 to 1913, Hennessy wrote increasingly in an Impressionist style, with a prolific series of piano works and art songs in adescriptive and programmatic style inspired by sounds in his environment including nature, traffic, and industry. He also excelled in humoristic andsatirical pieces, similar to but independent from Satie.

One contemporary critic wrote, Il fut un humoriste d'une verve drue dont la dr�lerie �tait faite � la fois d'observation et d'invention, de fantaisie et depsychologie. (He was a humourist of great verve whose humour derived from observation and invention, fantasy and psychology).