Work
Hiller’s vast musical output is now more or less forgotten. It contained works in virtually every genre, vocal, choral, chamber and orchestral. Musically he is perhaps best remembered as the dedicatee of Schumann’s Piano Concerto. He is also the dedicatee of the three Nocturnes, Op. 15, by Chopin.
He composed among other works six operas between 1839 and 1865, and a violin concerto.
His large output of chamber music includes several quartets for strings with and without piano beginning with his piano quartet opus 1 in B minor, published by Haslinger of Vienna in the 1830s, and at least three string quartets, a string trio published posthumously as opus 207 in 1886 by Rieter-Biedermann of Leipzig, sonatas for solo piano (opus 47, published in 1852 by Schuberth of Hamburg and opus 59) and for piano with cello (at least two – opus 22, published by Simrock, and opus 174, published by Cranz), and a piano quintet (opus 156), among other works. The fourth of his piano trios has been recorded along with the early piano trio of Max Bruch.
Hiller's three piano concertos are No. 1 in F minor, Op. 5 (Allegro moderato; Adagio; Allegro moderato e con grazia), No. 2 in F sharp minor, Op. 69 (Moderato, ma con energia e con fuoco; Andante espressivo; Allegro con fuoco), and No. 3 in A flat major, Op. 170 ('Concerto Espressivo': Allegro con anima; Andante quasi adagio; Allegro con spirito).
Hiller wrote at least four symphonies; one by 1831, another, in A minor also by 1831; also Im Freien in G major, given in London June 28 1852, and one in E minor published by Schott as his opus 67 in Mainz in 1865.
He was also a very successful lecturer and a forceful writer, his contributions to reviews and newspapers having been since collected in book form. He also published among others: Musikalisches und Persönliches (1870), Wie hören wir Musik? (How do we hear music?, 1880); Goethes musikalisches Leben (Goethe's musical life, 1880); and Erinnerungsblätter (Reminiscences, 1884). He published an account of his friendship with Mendelssohn in 1874. Part of his vast correspondence with other musicians and artists of his period, which is in itself an important historical archive, has been published in seven volumes.
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