Heino Eller - Preludes, II book
Performed by Vardo Rumessen.
Buy the album: https://www.amazon.com/Heino-Eller-Co...
The first book of preludes can be found here: • Heino Eller - Preludes: First book (s...
00:00. Prelude no. 1 in A minor.
01:21. Prelude no. 2 in F sharp major.
04:11. Prelude no. 3 in C sharp minor.
06:19. Prelude no. 4 in G flat major.
08:07. Prelude no. 5 in B minor.
10:25. Prelude no. 6 in D flat major.
12:34. Prelude no. 7 in G minor.
The second book of preludes was composed between 1913 and 1920, when Eller was still in St. Petersburg. These piano works represent early Eller at some of his most experimental. While the first set of preludes had more of an extroverted and passionate late-romantic mood to them, here the tone is more contemplative and focused on finely tuned nuances.
The first prelude is particularly striking in it's "home" chord being a very dissonant second inversion of a minor 11 chord, ostensibly in a minor, but lacking the tonic note. The constant suspension of the voices generates a feeling of atonality for the entire prelude.
The second prelude is a lyrical theme with a rustic-folkish b section. It is the earliest in this set, composed in 1913 and bears similarities to a few preludes from the first book.
The third prelude is more varied, featuring a rather assured main theme that explodes with emotion. Contrasting that is a theme that almost reminds one of salon music with a particularly jazzy middle section. The themes are quite developed.
The fourth prelude is a sentimental and introverted theme.
The fifth begins with an augmented chord. It is a shifting capricco that in it's chromaticism also skirts atonality with shifting and uneven phrasing.
The sixth is the most extroverted of the preludes in the second book. A spirited and passionate main theme, with angular, forceful and perhaps folkish open fifths accompanying it.
The seventh prelude is is perhaps the most mystic and dark Eller got in his piano literature.
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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 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.
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