Herbert Henck

Pianist Herbert Henck specialized in 20th century music and had a substantial recording catalog on such labels as <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22ECM%22">ECM</a> and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Wergo%22">Wergo</a>. He was also notable for his large collection of writings about music. Henck was one of <a href="spotify:artist:73s17iW5LTtXRMVoofi9sU">Charles Ives</a>' leading non-American interpreters and recorded Ives' Piano Sonata No. 1 in 1996. He also devoted several albums to the music of <a href="spotify:artist:1Z3fF5lZdCM0ZHugkGoH8s">John Cage</a>.

Henck was born on July 28, 1948, in Treysa, now part of the city of Schwalmstadt in central Germany. His father, Wilhelm Heinrich Helmut Henck, was a physician. Henck attended the Mannheim Conservatory and then went on for further work in Stuttgart and Cologne. Among his principal teachers were <a href="spotify:artist:3mabOGxmXQo74MHWrzsJlz">Aloys Kontarsky</a> and Wilhelm Hecker. After earning a concert diploma in 1975, he began working as a freelance pianist and pursued that career for the rest of his life. An early Henck recording was Keys of Life: Piano Music from Celestial Harmonies (1983). Henck was also a composer; that album contained his piano work Hymns from a Great Temple. In 1987, he moved to the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Wergo%22">Wergo</a> label and released an album of music by <a href="spotify:artist:5PkKmEWhfJ9jHVHXbZl0Ks">Karlheinz Stockhausen</a>, Klavierstücke 1-11.

Henck concertized internationally, and his concerts were devoted almost exclusively to 20th century music. Within that field, however, his tastes were catholic, ranging from <a href="spotify:artist:777ILKUd9KdXnQq0UX9G36">Charles Koechlin</a> to <a href="spotify:artist:1Z3fF5lZdCM0ZHugkGoH8s">John Cage</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:00iJnnUu476m1HX16e3por">George Antheil</a>. He often programmed music by <a href="spotify:artist:73s17iW5LTtXRMVoofi9sU">Ives</a>. Henck wrote at least seven books, including Karlheinz Stockhausen's Piano Piece X. History, Theory, Analysis, Practice, Documentation, edited the yearbook Neuland, which he self-funded, and lectured widely. He was also in demand for master classes. Henck recorded multiple albums for the prestigious <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22ECM%22">ECM</a> label in the 1990s and early 2000s; his final recording, in 2007, was Johann Ludwig Trepulka, Norbert von Hannenheim: Klavierstücke und Sonaten. He remained active as a scholar. Henck died in Zeven, Germany, on January 17, 2025. ~ James Manheim, Rovi