Heinz Tiessen: 5 Klavierstücke op.21
This site presents my effect on the re-premiere of the "5 Klavierstücke op.21" (1915) by Heinz Tiessen (1887-1971)
The 5 Klavierstücke op.21 by Heinz Tiessen have an interesting history. Composed in 1915 and premiered a year later by the famous composer and pianist Eduard Erdmann. After that Heinz Tiessen either withdrew the work or the manuscript got lost, but whatever happened as a result the composition became no part of the official work catalogue of Heinz Tiessen and he reused the opus number for a different composition.
But in 2019 the manuscript was offered at an auction of the auction house Schmolt in Germany. I bought the manuscript, typeset the work and published it the same year. My publication rose the interest of German conductor and scholar Christoph Schlüren who noticed the importance of my discovery. He informed the renowned US pianist Beth Levin about the emergence of the long lost composition by Heinz Tiessen. Beth Levin studied the work and finally performed the re-premiere of the work - after 108 years of no performance - on 12 March 2024 in Berlin (Germany). On the right side one can see the flyer of the announcement for this concert. Two further performance followed a few days later in Munich and Vienna.
The performance in Berlin received a hailing review by Sara Blatt on the website "The New Listener" (roughly translated by me):
"Beth Levins performed Tiessen's music between contemporary Schönberg and somewhat earlier Strauss, between Scriabin/Busoni and Berg/Bartok in a breathtakingly expressive, lyrically internalized, orchestrally powerful, vocally hypnotic manner and transformed the audience into an almost enchanted state. She is also an amazing master of architecturally coherent design, something you might not expect given the explosive spontaneity of her presentation. In the Schwartzsche Villa, music history was truly written that evening, with what had been marginalized for so long due to ignorance and convenience finally given its due in a perfect performance."
