Description
Instrumentation: piano
Edition: score
Editor: Sontraud Speidel
Difficulty: medium difficult
From Sontraud Speidels’s preface:
The piano suite composed in 1956 by the 20 year-old Barbara Heller is a major accomplishment. Within this work Heller already establishes herself as a composer who possesses and demonstrates a clear sense of form, as well as a feel for creating arcs of tension and contrasts.
Stylistically, the work belongs to the “moderate modernist” trend, which arose sometime after Hindemith. However, this piano suite has charms of its own; at times it is the emphatic shaping of phrases, which bring about moments of dissonance and occasionally, it is the harsh and unwilling gestures. The charm of this piece also lies within its deep-rooted earnestness and its frequent “seasoning” of humour.
The work is pianistically challenging, even though it fits the hands well. It requires, in particular, careful listening with regard to the structures and harmonic sequences. This thoroughly entertaining piece of music is set to benefit both up-and-coming musicians and concert pianists, and deserves to be included in the standard repertoire.
First recording on CD: Weiße Tasten, schwarze Tasten. Sontraud Speidel spielt Barbara Heller. organo phon/Classical Artists Records (90140)2011
