SibeliusPIANO MUSIC

Eero Heinonen

6 Impromptus Op.51 No.1 in G minor (Moderato) 2’292 No.2 in G minor

(Lento-Vivace) 1’503 No.3 in A minor

(Moderato/Alla marcia) 2’294 No.4 in E minor (Andantino) 2’175 No.5 in B minor (Vivace) 3’176 No.6 in E major (Comodo) 2’49

Sonatina in F sharp minor Op.67/17 I Allegro 2’338 II Largo 3’079 III Allegro moderato 1’36

5 Morceaux Op.75 ”The Trees”10 No.1 När rönnen blommar/

Kun pihlaja kukkii/When the Mountain Ash is Blooming (Allegretto) 1’46

11 No.2 Den ensamma furan/Yksinäinen honka/The Solitary Fir Tree (Grave) 2’37

12 No.3 Aspen/Haapa/The Aspen (Andantino) 2’20

13 No.4 Björken/Koivu/The Birch (Allegro) 1’39

14 No.5 Granen/Kuusi/The Spruce (Stretto-Lento) 4’40

10 Piano Pieces Op.2415 No.1 Impromptu in G minor

(Vivace) 4’0716 No.2 Romance in A major

(Andantino) 6’0117 No.3 Caprice in E minor

(Vivace) 2’4918 No.4 Romance in D minor

(Tranquillo) 3’2119 No.5 Valse in E major

(Vivace) 2’0120 No.6 Idyll in F major

(Andantino) 3’1421 No.7 Andantino in F major 2’5522 No.8 Nocturno in E minor

(Andante) 3’2723 No.9 Romance in D flat major

(Andantino) 3’4224 No.10. Barcarola in G minor

(Moderato assai) 4’38

JEAN SIBELIUS 1865–1957

Eero Heinonen piano

PIANO MUSIC

Recordings: 31 October–2 November 2015, Sello Hall, Espoo, FinlandRecording Producer: Seppo SiiralaRecording engineer: Enno MäemetsFinal Mix & Mastering: Enno Mäemets, Editroom Oy, HelsinkiPiano Technician: Matti KyllönenCover: Yrjö Ollila, Landscape in Korpilahti, 1913 – Finnish National Gallery, Herman and Elisabeth Hallonbladin Collection.℗ & © 2020 Brilliant Classics

SIBELIUS PIANO MUSIC

‘I know that they have some future, although today they are almost entirely forgotten.’ (Jean Sibelius about his piano compositions)

Jean Sibelius’s music has been present in my life since childhood. His music was heard at our home on the radio, and some of the piano pieces were played by my elder sister. As a teenager I had stirring experiences listening to his symphonies and other orchestral works time and again in concert. I was surprised to discover later that the composer had written an extensive œuvre of piano works. It consists of 115 pieces in 19 opus numbers, to which must be added the numerous works without opus number and transcriptions of his own orchestral works. Over the years I developed an intense relationship with his piano pieces, learning all of them.

The composer’s own instrument was the violin, and he was and is considered above all an orchestral and symphonic composer. Sibelius did say that he sometimes wrote piano pieces just to put food on the table, and that his career should be judged on the basis of his orchestral works.

But Sibelius was a composer guided by an inner ethic, and the quality of his creations is more or less independent of the circumstances in his life. When faced with an external need to write music, Sibelius put his professionalism into play with an enormous capacity for concentration, the ability to delve into his creative imagination at a specified moment, much like a performing artist.

of pedal Sibelius can be unconventional: his piano sound often includes an orchestral hum and a spectrum of overtones that does not detract from the clarity of counterpoint. The combination of powerful expression and intimate delicacy requires the performer to explore, but the experience is wonderfully rewarding. In the piano works the composer created an inimitable world of his own.

Six Impromptus, Op.5Sibelius’s first published piano work, Six Impromptus, Op.5, was written between 1890 and 1893. In the nineteenth century, Finnish piano music was something of a rarity. Sibelius himself had written a number of piano pieces while studying at school and at the Music Institute. Often they reflect a great and original talent rather than compositional skill.

The form in Op.5 is much akin to that of the impromptus of Schubert and Chopin. These manifestations of spontaneous inspiration are cast in a solid and clear form. However, Sibelius’s Impromptus are written in an idiom that is a far cry from the traditions of Central European piano music.

The first four Impromptus contain echoes of Finnish and Karelian folk music, identifiably the work of the composer who had just written Kullervo. No.1 in G minor is like a prelude that sets the fundamental mythical tone of the collection. Its severe melancholy theme is like a rough-hewn rock. No.2, also in G minor, is a fiery Karelian dance, a trepatshka. In No.3 the stern martial theme in A minor is balanced by a trio section in F major, youthful and lucid, evoking the sound of Finnish national folk instrument, the kantele. No.4 in E minor is the clearest example of the composer’s interest in ancient runo singing, the singing style of Kalevala.

Sibelius wrote a melodrama for recitation, soprano and piano trio for

Sibelius’s piano output is a diverse body of music, demonstrating the extensive education and curiosity towards all aspects of life that he maintained throughout his life. It is also the work of an exceptionally sensitive artist. There are stories of Sibelius going around with his violin when he was young, ‘fantasizing’ in music on what he saw and experienced in the natural environment and around him. Those who heard his improvisations were amazed by the composer’s memorable ability to conjure up wonderfully effective moods on his instrument. This ability is strongly sensed in the piano works too.

Some of Sibelius’s miniatures could be compared to Beethoven’s bagatelles in the sense that they contain a musical nucleus that needs no development. Their austerity, which has sometimes been seen as a shortcoming alongside the richness of the more extensive works, is a result of the capacity for simplicity often characteristic of great artists in all art forms.

The musical inspiration for Sibelius’s piano pieces stemmed from a diverse range of sources. In his early period, we can identify the Kalevala, the national epic of Finland, and National Romantic poets as influences. There is also a hint of the Slavic tradition. Compared to Tchaikovsky, he was more Northern, more rugged and more mythical from the beginning of his career. The influence of Grieg is apparent in the Nordic colouring of the lyrical material. Sibelius’s middle and final periods produced genuine ‘Sibelian’ miniatures that display an array of influences from various periods and countries. He hardly ever wrote salon music proper; he was a symphonic composer who thought symphonic thoughts even in his smaller pieces. This is essential also for the performance.

I find the texture in Sibelius’s piano pieces sonorously innovative and colourful, and difficult to compare to any other keyboard style. In the use

tonally ambiguous; but in the Largo the great hymn that emerges from the improvisatory meditation at the heart of the work is ennobling and with a strong spiritual message.

The Sonatinas have also found favour not only with numerous Finnish performers but also with international pianists. According to numerous first-hand accounts, Wilhelm Kempff gave unforgettable performances of the Sonatina in F sharp minor, also in the presence of the composer.

Five Piano Pieces, Op.75, ‘The Trees’‘The Trees’ is Jean Sibelius’s most popular piano opus by far. The original titles are in Swedish, and Granen (The Spruce) is probably his best-known single piano piece.

Sibelius’s close relationship to the Finnish natural environment is evident in ‘The Trees’, where nature is alive and breathing. Trees as living beings seem to have been particularly dear to him; he seems to have understood their language and to have been able to capture the essence of trees in a simple keyboard texture so that they are tangible and identifiable yet mystical.

Op.75 was written in 1914, but for some reason, the cycle was not published until seven years later, by which time the composer had revised Granen.

The first piece, När rönnen blommar (When the Rowan Blossoms), has a flavour of Tchaikovskian melancholy and the lights and scents of early summer. The piece opens with the whisper of leaves in a polyphonic texture that explores different keys in light and shadow and finally focuses on a poignant melody.

Den ensamma furan (The Solitary Fir Tree) is a stark tree portrait where Symbolist traits have been identified: it has been variously described as a patriotic portrait of the destiny of the nation and Sibelius’s self-portrait. The

festivities at the Helsinki Music Institute on February 1893, and from this music he later fashioned the two final Impromptus. The text of the melodrama was J.L. Runeberg’s poem Svartsjukans nätter (Nights of Jealousy).

The lines the Impromptu No.5 originally accompanied were: ‘But now, now a heavenly tone rang out again, / And suddenly all the strings of the lute resounded, / A rich, festive harmony, which was soon / Filled with the melody of a woman’s voice.’In the final Impromptu in E major, the presence of the natural environment is palpable: in the poem the landscape emerges from the mist, viewed from the top of a hill at dawn in spring.

Sonatina No.1 in F sharp minor, Op.67 No.1Sibelius dedicated his Three Sonatinas to Martha Tornell, his daughters’ piano teacher. They were completed in 1912, at about the same time as the Fourth Symphony, and they share the same austere idiom and introvert nature. Every note in them is pregnant with meaning, often mysterious and tentative. In the Sonatinas, Sibelius avoids grandiose tones and virtuoso textures; the music in this extremely concise sonata-form seems dictated by an inner compulsion. It would be impossible to change or delete a single note, and the pieces compel the listener to listen attentively until the very end.

In terms of sonority the Sonatinas are among the most demanding pieces to perform in all of Sibelius’s output: they contain a myriad nuances of tone colour, and the use of pedal and the resulting overtones are of central importance.

The Sonatina is delicate, clear and gently melancholic, restrained and

several repeats of the theme, the piece ends abruptly.The opus contains no fewer than three Romances. The first of these, in

A major (1895), was taken up fresh off the press by famous Russian pianist Alexander Siloti. The piece is a great poem, and Sibelius clearly had strings and brass in mind when writing it, although the texture provides romantic pianistic grandeur.

The Caprice brings to mind Paganini’s violin pieces, which Sibelius had studied as a young violinist. The opening unison might be a string solo, except that its compass exceeds that of any string instrument. A virtuoso element dominates, until an innocent, childlike melody in G major emerges.

The second Romance, in D minor, is melancholy in Slavic colours, and its melodic turns seem to hark back to Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onegin.

The Valse in E major makes charming fun of the waltz rhythm by having triple time in the right hand and duple-time hemiolas in the left. The middle section resembles waltzes played by wind bands at pavilions in small towns on summer evenings. I cannot help picturing to myself the composer playing dance music at home for the fun of his numerous daughters.

The Idyll in F major is like a pastoral poem with dramatic elements: its harmonious and beautiful swaying theme dozes off, and an ominous chromatic passage in the left hand creates a sound like distant thunder. The theme appears in a passionate form, recalling the slow movement of the Violin Concerto: the left hand plays the theme in orchestral fashion, while the right hand describes violin arabesques.

The Andantino in F major is like a sketch for string orchestra whose polyphonically charged theme contains a foreboding of the Classical nobility and simplicity, that we find later in Andante festivo for string orchestra. The

grand orchestral C major chords, the ascetic mood and occasional gusts of wind sketch an image of a lonely tenacity and strength against an external threat.

Aspen (The Aspen) is a delicate Impressionist study with branches and leaves rustling gently in the breezes. The light of Finland’s summer night is present in its harmonies. The mystical voice of the tree can be heard towards the middle, only to subside into silence at the end.

‘So white it rises’, said Sibelius of Björken (The Birch). The piece seems bathed in summer sunlight, with leaves murmuring in the wind. The final misterioso recalls Leos Janáček’s On an Overgrown Path; the piece ends with two superimposed fifths.

In the final piece, Granen (The Spruce) the sombre, dissonant harmonies are heavy and profound. After a burst of storm in the treetops, the meditative theme recurs only to disappear into the twilight of an early evening in Northern winter.

Ten Pieces, Op.24Sibelius’s Ten Pieces, Op.24, were written between 1895 and 1903. The composer assembled separate pieces written over a long period of time for this collection. The genres he used are typical for the salon music of the era, but the pieces in Op.24 can scarcely have been suitable for music-making in the home, since many of them are expansive, concertante and technically demanding.

The Impromptu is in G minor like the first piece in Op.5, and there is something of the same world in it too: the grandeur and ruggedness of Nordic forests. It begins with a relentless vivace ostinato leading into a theme resembling Valse triste. The pathos of the music finds no rest and, after

EERO HEINONEN

Eero Heinonen has played numerous solo evenings dedicated to Sibelius’s piano music in Finland and abroad, e.g. Stockholm, Berlin, Paris and London.

He has been awarded the medal of the Sibelius Society, Hämeenlinna.He has played as a soloist with several Scandinavian and European

Symphony Orchestras and performs in Finland e.g. with the Radio Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic and Lahti Philharmonic. He appeared with

fragmented middle section is like a series of unanswered questions, and the piece concludes in a solemn meditation of the utmost gravity.

The Nocturne in E minor is music of a late summer night, and has a sombre yet defiant melody. The oppressive melancholy occasionally bursts into polyphonic development with grand pathos.

The Romance in D flat major is written slightly later than the other Romances. Its melodic beauty, dramatic culmination and nobly sounding texture have made it one of Sibelius’s most popular piano pieces.

The Barcarola in G minor is Nordic in character. The piece was written in 1903, at the time when Ainola, the Sibelius family’s future home, was under construction. Sibelius used to watch the house being built from a rowing boat on Lake Tuusula. It is as if he was looking ahead to his life and, ultimately, his own passing in that house. The piece’s rowing rhythm and dark melody suggest the brooding presence of death.

Eero HeinonenTranslation: Jaakko Mäntyjärvi and Andrew Barnett

internationally renowned conductors, such as Paavo Berglund, Okko Kamu, Leif Segerstam, Hannu Lintu, Klaus Mäkelä, George Malcolm, Arvid Jansons and Rudolf Baumgartner.

Eero Heinonen’s large concerto repertoire includes the complete Mozart and Beethoven concerti as well as romantic and contemporary works.

Eero Heinonen’s solo recital venues include the Berwald Hall, Stockholm, the St. Petersburg Philharmonia, the Casals Hall, Tokyo, the Wigmore Hall, London and many international festivals. As a soloist and chamber musician he has performed in the Edinburgh, Luzern, Kraków, St. Petersburg and Georgia Festivals, as well as in the Helsinki, Naantali, Kuhmo, Savonlinna, Mänttä and Turku Music Festivals in Finland.

As a chamber musician and lied-pianist he has played concerts with eminent musicians such as Pierre Fournier, Arto Noras, Martti Talvela, Tom Krause and Peter Schreier.

Since 1977 Eero Heinonen works at the Sibelius Academy. He is well sought after as a pedagogue on international music festivals and conducts masterclasses in many conservatories and academies in Finland and abroad.

Eero Heinonen has been awarded the Finland-prize by the Finnish Ministry of Culture in 1999. He became professor of music in 2010.