Anton Heiller

Anton Heiller (15 September 1923 – 25 March 1979) was an Austrian organist, harpsichordist, composer and conductor.

Born in Vienna, he was first trained in church music by Wilhelm Mück, organist of Vienna's Stephansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral).

He then combined work as répétiteur and choirmaster at the Vienna Volksoper with further study at the Vienna Academy of Music under Bruno Seidlhofer (piano, organ, harpsichord) and Friedrich Reidinger (music theory and composition) while serving in the military, mostly as a medical aide.

1937 – Drei frühe Choralvorspiele – für Orgel

1938 – Die Bäume blühn und duften – für gemischten Chor a cappella

1938 – Christus factus est – für gemischten Chor a cappella

1940 – Sonatensatz in D für Orgel

1940 – Passacaglia in C für Orgel

1941 – Zwischenspiel E-Dur für Orgel

1941 – Toccata für Klavier

1941 – Fantasie und Fuge in F für Orgel

1942 – Drei Lieder nach Gedichten von Anton Wildgans – für Mezzosopran und Klavier

1943 – Klavierstück

1943 – O du fröhliche – Choralvorspiel und Choral für Orgel

1943 – Toccata Zwei Klaviere zu vier Händen

1943 – Intermezzo – für Klavier

1944 – Ave Maria – für Sopran, Violine und Viola

1944 – Es ist ein Ros’ entsprungen (Kleine Partita für Orgel)

1944 – Messe in mixolydisch g – für gemischten Chor a cappella

1944 – Sonate für Orgel

In 1945, he both graduated from the Academy and was appointed organ teacher there.

1945 – Wen Gott liebt – Spruch für Gesang und Klavier

1945 – Das Marienkind – Musik zum gleichnamigen Legendenspiel

1945 – Lux fulgebit nos – für vier Knabenstimmen

1945 – Der Heiland ist erstanden – Choralmotette für gemischten Chor a cappella

1946 – Kammersinfonie

His two Haydn Society LPs, from the early 1950s, of Joseph Haydn's Symphonies 26 ("Lamentation") and 36 and Symphonies 52 and 56, are distinguished for their forthright conciseness and straightforwardness, without gratuitous ritardandi or other tempo changes not requested by Haydn in the score.

In 1952 he won the International Organ Competition in Haarlem, Netherlands, and toured both Europe and the United States, where his organ recitals at Harvard University (on the then new C.B. Fisk instrument in Memorial Church) — still available on a 4-CD boxed set — were particularly appreciated.

A few years before this, he had released a set of recordings for Vanguard of many of Bach's larger organ works on a majestic Marcussen instrument in Sweden.

He was promoted to professor in 1957.

Heiller's career after World War II is an uninterrupted list of concerts, lectures, records, jury service at contests, and professional honors.

Successive Austrian governments bestowed on Heiller every artistic award in their power, including the Vienna Culture Prize (1963), the Vienna Cross of Honor for Arts and Science (1968) and the Grand Austrian State Prize (1969).

Offered the conductorship of the Vienna State Opera he declined in order to concentrate on keyboard playing, although near the end of his life he said he was looking forward to conducting more.

Heiller recorded most of his large repertory, which ranged from Giovanni Gabrieli and Dieterich Buxtehude through Bach to Max Reger and Heiller's good friend Paul Hindemith.

Romantic works interested him much less than Baroque and 20th-century material.

In whatever works he performed he displayed formidable technique, immense rhythmic strength and, in particular, a rare talent for clarifying and maintaining the momentum of the most complex polyphonic passages with what sounded like effortless ease.

He also composed from his teens onward.

His works, influenced by Hindemith and Frank Martin, were often dodecaphonic, and never achieved anything like the acclaim of his performances, but he was prolific and composed much music for his own instrument, including an organ concerto (1963) and what may be the only concerto ever written for organ and harpsichord (1972).

He died unexpectedly and prematurely in Vienna at the age of 55, collapsing after choking on food, from what was thought to be a heart attack.

His notable pupils include Monique Gendron, Wolfgang Karius, Jan Kleinbussink, Douglas Lawrence, Brett Leighton, Peter Planyavsky, Michael Radulescu, David Rumsey, David Sanger, Sibyl Urbancic, Jean-Claude Zehnder, and Miriam Clapp Duncan.