Piano Forum

Worth mentioning since i have not plugged it in a while, theres two volumes of Heino Eller preludes that straddle the tonal and melodic worlds of Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Medins, and Szymanowski.  Luckily there has been a resurgence to recirdhis considerable piano output championed by Sten Lassman w Tocatta, now several volumescd are releasedw work ongoing to completion.
here is the first book, there is boound to besime here that appeals to op amd aficonados that crave that late romantic premodern sound




(1887-1970) Eller composed the preludes in his first book between 1914 and 1917 while still studying in St Petersburg. Pianist is the late Vardo Rummesen (1947-2015).

Prelude no 1 in b minor: 0.10.
Prelude No 2 in f minor: 3.36.
Prelude No. 3 in b flat minor: 6.28.
Prelude No. 4 in c sharp minor: 8.06.
Prelude No. 5 in c sharp minor: 10.29.
Prelude No. 6 in E major: 14.18.
Prelude No. 7 in d minor: 18.00.

* * *

Heino Eller was a major Estonian composer who is remembered for his innovative style in the musical landscape during the first period of independence and as a stellar pedagogue under whom many of the most famous Estonian composers (Such as Jaan Rääts, Eduard Tubin and Arvo Pärt) studied. He was one of the first to bring influences from impressionism and expressionism to Estonian music and the teacher whose students became new innovators on the musical scene in turn.

"The preludes in the first book have been envisioned as a cycle by the composer himself. Already in the first book one can see a search for new means of expression, that was characteristic of his early style, and a musical language that would appear in his orchestral and chamber music only by the 1920s. Similarly to the preludes by his contemporaries Rudolf Tobias and Mart Saar, these works play an important role in the development, enriching and renewal of the means of expression in Estonian piano music. In the first book the 1st, 6th and 7th preludes are the most complex in style. Influences from other composers can be found (Grieg, Scriabin, Debussy), but dominating is the purely eller-esque dense, harmonically colorful, rhythmically varied and polyphonic expression.

The texture of Ellers piano works is demanding for the player, especially in regards to polyphonic differentiating in the voices. The sheet music for Ellers piano pieces resembles a score, where every voice has a different articulation and phrasing, denoted by many slurs. These bear many different meanings. Sometimes denoting articulation, sometimes a single phrase, often an imagined bow-stroke as per string instrument playing."

- Mart Humal, Eller scholar.

More info on the composer:

https://emic.ee/heino-eller