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Stephen Heller: 24 Nouvelles études, Op.90: 12 - Con moto

704 views · Published 15 March 2017 · 2:28 · Indexed 14 November 2026

Channel: PSearPianist · 2017 · Music

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Phillip Sear plays an impassioned study from a set of 24 'characteristic studies' by Stephen Heller.
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Phillip Sear plays a piano study by the Hungarian pianist, teacher, and composer Stephen Heller (1813–88).
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“Heller's career bridged the era from Schumann to Bizet, and he notably influenced later Romantic composers. Born in Pest, Hungary, he initially was destined for a legal career but chose music instead. Showing extraordinary talent from an early age, he performed a concerto for two pianos at the Budapest Theatre at age nine. Soon sent to Vienna to study music, he was a pupil of Anton Halm after being unable to afford Carl Czerny's fees. His early career involved concert tours across Hungary, Poland, and Germany, though ill health interrupted travel in 1830, leading to patronage by a wealthy family. At 25, he settled in Paris, where he became part of a society of eminent musicians including Chopin, Liszt, and Berlioz, and established himself as a concert pianist and influential teacher, counting Isidor Philipp among his students. During his career, he performed in England and collaborated with prominent musicians like Charles Hallé.​

Heller composed exclusively for the piano, producing over 150 works that include studies, sonatas, character pieces, mazurkas, nocturnes, caprices, and variations, typifying the Romantic style. His compositions combined lyrical melody, harmonic innovation, and expressive nuance. While not reaching the passionate extremes of Schumann, his works were praised for their poetic charm and technical finesse, often surpassing Mendelssohn in imaginative character and differing from Chopin by a simpler harmonic language and clarity of form. Some notable works include four sonatas, several sets of character pieces such as 'Spaziergänge eines Einsamen' and 'Blumen-, Frucht- und Dornenstücke', and a prolific output of etudes known for their pedagogical as well as musical value. He spent the last 25 years of his life in Paris, where his reputation waned toward his death, but his music later regained appreciation, especially for its expressive lyricism and contribution to piano literature.​” (Perplexity AI, November 2nd 2025). 

Note made at the time of upload (March 2016): "Since recording some other studies a few years ago, I have rather neglected the music of the Hungarian pianist and composer Stephen Heller (Heller István (1813--88))—mainly owing to the unfeasibly large hands needed to perform many of his works correctly.  However, this set of studies - written around 1858— doesn't fall into that category.  I'm not sure why Heller called them studies—maybe it was to capitalise on the success of other earlier studies that had already been published.  The original manuscript was annotated with descriptions of the psychological states invoked by the pieces, some of which had titles, but (as I understand it) they were suppressed in the first edition, restored in the second edition, but then suppressed again in later editions! "

Thumbnail image generated by Imagen (within Google Slides).
#hungarianmusic #pianostudymusic 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- Played by Phillip Sear
http://www.psear.co.uk (Email:  [email protected]  
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