Stephen Heller

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Stephen Heller

Stephen (István) Heller (born May 15, 1813 in Pest , Kingdom of Hungary , † January 14, 1888 in Paris ) was a Hungarian pianist and composer .

Life

Stephen Heller's mother Aloysia geb. Bregardsbaum (1784–1844) was married to Hermann Löw for the first time, followed by Ignaz Benedict Heller (1780 - around 1850), Stephen's father, for the second marriage . He was a factory worker and a math teacher.

Stephen Heller showed musical talent at an early age and was initially supposed to be a student of Carl Czerny in Vienna , but then came to Anton Halm . After a successful first concert at the age of fifteen in Vienna, his father undertook a multi-year concert tour with him through Hungary , Poland and Germany . At the end of this trip he fell ill in Augsburg in 1830 , where he stayed until 1838 and lived in the house of the writer and diplomat August von Eichthal (1795–1875). He was the husband of the harp virtuoso Elise Krings (1807-1860).

Then he went to Paris. There he associated with Frédéric Chopin , Hector Berlioz and Franz Liszt .

Writing work (selection)

  • Mémoires inédits de Stephen Heller , in: SIM Revue musicale mensuelle , Jg. 6 (1910), pp. 531–540 ( digitized version), 608–616 ( digitized version ), 685–695 ( digitized version )
  • Stephen Heller, Lettres d'un musicien romantique à Paris , ed. by Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger , Paris: Flammarion, 1981 (digitized)

Works

As a composer, although Robert Schumann gave him a positive assessment, he only gradually gained acceptance. The breakthrough came with the concert etude La chasse performed by Liszt in Paris . His approximately 150 works are composed almost exclusively for piano. Mostly they are shorter genre or character pieces . In addition, Heller wrote opera transcriptions and fantasies and made Schubert songs known in France through his transcriptions. With numerous etudes he has also (to this day) worked as a piano pedagogue. His compositional style is based on German Romanticism (Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy ), his late work already points to French Impressionism.

Works for piano (selection)

  • Thème de Paganini varié op.1 (1829)
  • Les charmes de Hambourg, rondeau brilliant op.2 (1829)
  • L'art de phraser op.16 (1840)
  • La chasse, Etude de concert op.29 (1844)
  • 25 melodic etudes for piano op.45
  • 30 progressive etudes for piano op.46
  • 25 Etudes for Rhythm and Expression, Op. 47
  • Walks of a Lonely One op.78 (1851)
  • Pieces of Flowers, Fruit and Thorns, op.82 (1853)
  • Improvisata on "Flood-rich Ebro" by Schumann op. 98 (1861)
  • A large album sheet and a small op.110 (1864)
  • Etudes for the Young, op.125
  • Freischütz Studies for Piano, Op. 127 (1871)
  • Music book for small and large op.138 (two volumes)
  • Journey around my room op.140 (1875)
  • 4 piano sonatas

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stephen Heller, Lettres d'un musicien romantique à Paris , ed. by Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger , Paris 1981, p. 112 ( digitized version )

Web links

Commons : Stephen Heller  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Heller, Stephen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Heller, Istvan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian pianist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH May 15, 1813
PLACE OF BIRTH Pest , Kingdom of Hungary
DATE OF DEATH January 14, 1888
Place of death Paris