Time was when even Sibelius’ admirers paid little attention to his piano music; when they did, it was usually to express disappointment that he didn’t write anything for the piano on a par with the symphonies. If you judge the piano music by the same yardstick as his orchestral output, you are bound to feel short-changed. Once you judge it on its own terms, you can find much that is very good indeed – even the odd small-scale masterpiece.

Glenn Gould stated that “Sibelius never wrote against the grain of the keyboard. At its best, his style partook of that spare, bleak, motivically stingy counterpoint that nobody south of the Baltic ever seems to write.” I’d put it more enthusiastically: Sibelius’ piano output is full of one gem after another; and they usually hold together as collections, too. He assembled his miniatures with care, considering tonal progressions and variety of expression.

The first five of the 6 Impromptus, Op. 5, written between 1890 and 1893 and his first published pieces for piano, offer good examples. The opening Moderato, in G minor, is a perfect miniature, with a memorable lamenting melody heard over a chordal accompaniment. The second piece, also in G minor, begins similarly but soon bounces into a buoyant, Russian (or perhaps Karelian) trepak. The third Impromptu is a bright Alla marcia in A minor, with a wistful central section in F major, although the pace doesn’t let up. The E minor Andantino opens with a plaintive, elusive – and very beautiful – tune, which he caps in No. 5 with an exquisitely lovely melody. In this company, the last of the Impromptus is slightly disappointing, but this reflects the unevenness of Sibelius’ piano œuvre, which reveals high-order music alongside pieces that are little more than shavings from his workbench. Even so, the fact that it was Sibelius’ workbench should give critics pause.

One could examine the other works here in similar detail (Eero Heinonen does so in his booklet text), but here a summary will suffice. The first of the three Op. 67 Sonatinas is remarkable for its combination of delicacy and darkness, pared down to its simplest gestures. Sibelius’ piano music doesn’t rely on virtuoso excess but achieves real depth of feeling with its sparseness – one might imagine Dostoyevsky writing music that sounds like this. Likewise, the 5 Morceaux, Op. 75, and the 10 Piano Pieces, Op. 24, balance simplicity of manner with profundity of thought.

Eero Heinonen plays with a straightforward approach, letting the music speak for itself. And just in case you’re wondering, since Heinonen recorded a complete set of Sibelius piano works for Finlandia in the 1990s, these are new recordings, made in Espoo in autumn 2015.

SIBELIUS: Piano Music

6 Impromptus, Op. 5; Sonatina in F-sharp minor, Op. 67, No. 1; 5 Morceaux, Op. 75; 10 Piano Pieces, Op. 24

Eero Heinonen (piano)

Piano Classics PCL10220

This year, the PianoEspoo Festival (4–14 November, 2021) celebrates its 30th anniversary. On 14 November, Eero Heinonen, one of the artists at the very first festival, performs Franz Liszt’s Harmonies poétiques et religieuses in his recital.