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Nikolai MEDTNER
(1880-1951)
Complete Piano Sonatas: 1
Sonatina in G minor (1898) [7:29]
Sonata no.1 in F minor, op.5 (1895-1903) [35:26]
Sonata-Reminiscenza in A minor, op.38 no.1 (?1919-22) [15:27]
Paul Stewart (piano)
rec. Chapelle Historique du Bon-Pasteur, Montreal, Canada, 20-23
December 2011. DDD
GRAND PIANO GP617 [58:22]
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Nikolai Medtner's Sonata-Reminiscenza is one of eight
substantial pieces published as his opp.38, 39 and 40, with
the overall title of Forgotten Melodies. That would almost
make a pithy hic jacet for a composer whose deeply imaginative,
poignantly beautiful piano works make his historical neglect
as bizarre as it is scandalous.
Canadian pianist Paul Stewart sets out to right some wrongs
with this first of four volumes on Grand Piano dedicated to
Medtner's fourteen Piano Sonatas. In his informative, well researched
notes he points up both the diminutive nature of the Medtner
discography and the fact that some recordings "are based on
editions that contain misprints and other errors".
For his recital Stewart, a long-time champion of Medtner's music,
plays a restored period Steinway actually performed on by the
composer himself in 1929 in Montreal. Its tone is well worth
hearing, especially in the fine audio on offer here, and Stewart's
even more so: he gives an authoritative, expressive and thoroughly
listener-friendly reading of Medtner's works, leaving a strong
sense of anticipation for the remaining volumes.
Though an early work, the First Piano Sonata in F minor is a
glorious, passionate work of writhing melodies and wistful harmony,
quite possibly an ode to his brother's, and his own future,
wife. The Sonata-Reminiscenza in A minor is Medtner's
Tenth Sonata, and his most performed. Rightly so too: like much
of Medtner's piano music, it calls to mind a less sombre, more
emotionally 'stable' Rachmaninov - who referred to him, incidentally,
as "the greatest composer of our time". Flowingly imaginative,
the nostalgia of the title morphs into haunting melancholy -
no coincidence that Medtner was about to leave his native Russia
for good. The brief Sonatina is a bagatelle by comparison, but
very agreeable in a similar kind of way. It was not published
until 1981, and its two-movement structure suggests that Medtner
had not quite finished with it.
This CD, like all those released by Grand Piano in its first
year, features a cover painting by the Norwegian artist Gro
Thorsen, which if nothing else adds to the collectibility of
the series. One minor complaint about Grand Piano, however:
for emphatically full-price discs, the running times are often
on the short side. Another 22 welcome minutes' worth of Medtner
would have fitted on here.
Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at artmusicreviews.co.uk
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