Nikolai MEDTNER (1880-1951)
Songs
Six Poems by A Pushkin, Op 36 (1918-19)
Five Poems by Tyutchev and Fet, Op 37 (1918-20)
Four Songs, Op 45 (1922-24)
Sieben Lieder, Op 46 (1922-24)
Sofia Fomina (soprano)
Alexander Karpeyev (piano)
rec. 2018, Wyastone Hall, Wyastone Leys, Monmouth, UK
Texts and translations included
CHANDOS CHAN20171 [56:40]
Step by cautious step, the Medtner songs are brought stumbling out of obscurity into the light. At one stage there were, to all intents and purposes, only the songs recorded by Schwarzkopf for Legge, EMI and the Maharajah of Mysore; leave aside, for now, various Russian LPs from the 1950s onwards. Delphian have issued a very enjoyable duo set and Brilliant Classics give every sign, across (so far) two separate CDs (each playing for more than 70 minutes), that they might tackle all of the songs in a single edition, across perhaps 5 or 6 discs.
As for Chandos they are not at all new to delving into and letting us hear Medtner songs. They have plenty of discs invested in him as composer across the genres but we should not lose sight of their two Medtner lieder collections as well as various discs, with Eleonora Bekova, in mixed Russian melody anthologies. In 2004 there was their Susan Gritton/Geoffrey Tozer disc (no less than 78 minutes) of the Goethe Lieder etc. Before that there was the hour-long collection by Milla (Ludmilla) Andrew and Geoffrey Tozer again (CHAN 9327). Andrew (Canadian, of Russian parents) broadcast some Medtner songs on BBC Radio 3 in 1979 with Geoffrey Parsons.
Rather like the two (so far) Medtner song collections from Brilliant Classics these Chandos selected songs are not cherry-picked across Medtner’s various song sets but presented systematically, group by opus-numbered group. The songs (22 of them) are sung as set in Russian and in German but all with side-by-side translations in English. In the booklet there is no Russian transliteration (only Cyrillic). Credit to Simon Eadon, producer, and Mark Brown, engineer, for the sound captured projecting these two artists’ complete engagement with the music. I should add that pianist Karpeyev is no stranger to Medtner. He included some of this composer’s solos in his ‘Russian Émigré Composers’ on Claudio in 2017 and for Somm ‘Composers at the Savile Club’.
Sofia Fomina is excellently balanced with Karpeyev and her words are always clear as in ‘When Roses Fade’ (tr. 3), a song in which there is a touch of the vocalise (and again in the last song of op. 36) we came to expect from the Gritton-sung songs. The darkness in her voice is resonantly put across in the ‘Spanish Song’ (tr. 4) among the settings by Pushkin. Karpeyev is a mete partner, and to give just one among many illustrations listen to the deeply impressive glinting wispy staccato at the end of ‘The Angel’ (tr. 1) and ‘Prelude’ (tr.16).
From about the same time as the Pushkin group come the five songs apportioned across Op 37 among the poems of Fet and Tyutchev. About all them is a sort of familiarity you may recognise through Rachmaninov’s songs and Tchaikovsky’s Tatiana arias from Onegin. ‘The Waltz’ from
Op 37 picks up on the atmosphere of the ballroom but juxtaposes to poetically jarring effect with the graveside; how very Russian. The Four Songs
Op 45 open with ‘Elegy’ - a lengthy Pushkin poem and one steeped in kindling romance. In ‘The Wagon of Life’ (Op 45) Fomina’s artistry is on show in singing not just with attention to technical matters but also with mood-expression. Here the mood is nicely put across with a snarl in the voice. These songs so often transcend the drawing room with operatic hauteur and flickering passion and other perhaps more subtle emotions. Even when they don’t, they handle with tender care more gentle zephyrs as in ‘Hallowed Place ‘(tr. 17), one of the Goethe songs. The short song ‘In the Forest’ (tr. 19) trips along playfully, unlike the cold funereal shades of ‘Winter Night’ (tr. 20) - a good contrast. The final song (to a poem by Chamisso) will appeal to all captivated already by Warlock’s ‘In an Arbour Green’. The Medtner is a song with greater complexity but has that same light-suffused airiness.
A minor point, but it is a shame that the CD medium was not used a shade more openhandedly. This disc plays for a couple of minutes short of an hour. Everything, otherwise, is done with Chandos’ usual platinum chartermark. A most satisfying and extremely well documented entry among what is becoming a pleasantly crowded field.
Rob Barnett
Contents
Six Poems by A Pushkin, Op 36 (1918-19) [13:40]
1. 1 The Angel [1:57]
2. 2 The Flower [2:25]
3. 3 When roses fade [1:55]
4. 4 Spanish Romance [2:07]
5. 5 Night [1:56]
6. 6 Arion [3:19]
Five Poems by Tyutchev, Fet, Op 37 (1918-20) [13:25]
7. 1 Sleeplessness [4:42]
8. 2 Tears, Lamentoso [1:48]
9. 3 Impromptu, Impetuoso [2:40]
10. 4 The Waltz [2:37]
11. 5 Night Wind [1:37]
Four Songs, (after poems by Pushkin, Tyutchev), Op 45 (1922-24) [13:55]
12. 1 Elegy [5:21]
13. 2 The Wagon of Life [2:33]
14. 3 Night Song [3:00]
15. 4 Our Time [3:00]
Sieben Lieder, (Seven Songs) (after poems by Goethe, Eichendorff, Chamisso) Op 46 (1922-24) [15:46]
16. 1 Praeludium (Prelude) [1:59]
17. 2 Geweihter Platz (Hallowed Place) [3:02]
18. 3 Serenade ('Aussicht'/'Prospect') [1:19]
19. 4 Im Wlade (In the Forest) [1:27]
20. 5 Winternacht (Winter night) [3:37]
21. 6 Die Quelle (The Spring) [1:46]
22. 7 Frisch gesungen (Sing out!) [2:33]
