In any account of modern Estonian music, Heino Eller occupies a central position both creatively and culturally, his substantial output mirroring the troubled history of his nation. This third volume of piano music features one of his most imposing works, the Ten Lyric Pieces (1942-43), subsuming a range of expression within its nominally Griegian archetypes and culminating in a Theme and Variations which (contrary to Sten Lassmann’s conviction in his detailed booklet-note) takes the competing emotional strands through to a logical culmination. Never before recorded in its entirety, this is major statement of intent in the face of adversity.

The other works provide a conspectus of Eller’s piano music over four decades. Written at the close of the First World War, the Three Studies find the composer toying with aspects of French impressionism – which, in the Five Preludes of a decade later, has extended to the more elliptical thinking of Roussel and even late Satie. Most substantial is the Fourth Sonata (1957-58), a powerful reassessment of the classical format proceeding from a tensile sonata Allegro, via a whimsical yet eloquent Andante, to a Vivo finale that energetically combines rondo and variation elements on its way to a resolute close. A musicological expert on this music, Sten Lassmann is no less authoritative as an interpreter and benefits from warm as well as wide-ranging sound. Those who have yet to investigate Eller’s piano output should certainly begin here.