Medtner: Complete Piano Sonatas, Forgotten Melodies / Hamelin [Box set]

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Nikolai Medtner's chums at the Moscow Conservatory included Scriabin and Rachmaninoff. Like them, he was a brilliant pianist. Also like them, he composed an extensive body of distinguished piano music, most of which is relatively unknown. Its style resembles that of Rachmaninoff (who greatly admired it), although it lacks the latter's memorable melodies. Technically, it is just as difficult, requiring not only great fluency and endurance but also a wide range of colors. Marc-André Hamelin's prodigious technique makes him an ideal interpreter of Medtner's strong, clearly chiseled structures. His ability to play even the most complex and difficult passages at an even pace helps delineate and clarify them. Excellent recorded sound. --Paul Turok

Tracks:

Sonata In F Minor Op. 5: Allegro
Sonata In F Minor Op. 5: Intermezzo: Allegro
Sonata In F Minor Op. 5: Largo divoto
Sonata In F Minor Op. 5: Finale: Allegro risoluto
Zwei Marchen Op. 8: Andantino
Zwei Marchen Op. 8: Allegro
Sonaten-Triade Op. 11: No. 1 In A Flat Major
Sonaten-Triade Op. 11: No. 2 In D Minor (Sonata-Elegy)
Sonaten-Triade Op. 11: No. 3 In C Major

Tracks:

Sonata In G Minor Op. 22: Tenebroso, sempre affrettando - Allegro assai - Interludium (Andante lugubre) - Allegro assai
Sonata-Skazka In C Minor Op. 25 No. 1: Allegro abbandonamente
Sonata-Skazka In C Minor Op. 25 No. 1: Andantino con moto
Sonata-Skazka In C Minor Op. 25 No. 1: Allegro con spirito
Sonata In E Minor 'Night Wind' Op. 25 No. 2: Introduzione: Andante - Allegro
Sonata In E Minor 'Night Wind' Op. 25 No. 2: poco e poco Allegro molto sfrenatamente, presto

Tracks:

Sonata-Ballada In F Sharp Major Op. 27: Allegretto
Sonata-Ballada In F Sharp Major Op. 27: Introduzione: Mesto
Sonata-Ballada In F Sharp Major Op. 27: Finale: Allegro
Sonata In A Minor Op. 30: Allegro risoluto - Allegro molto
Vergessene Weisen (Forgotten Melodies) Op. 38: No. 1 Sonata-Reminiscenza: Allegretto tranquillo
Vergessene Weisen (Forgotten Melodies) Op. 38: No. 2 Danza graziosa: Con moto leggiero
Vergessene Weisen (Forgotten Melodies) Op. 38: No. 3 Danza festiva: Presto
Vergessene Weisen (Forgotten Melodies) Op. 38: No. 4 Canzona fluviala: Allegretto con moto
Vergessene Weisen (Forgotten Melodies) Op. 38: No. 5 Danza rustica: Allegro commodo
Vergessene Weisen (Forgotten Melodies) Op. 38: No. 6 Canzona serenata: Moderato
Vergessene Weisen (Forgotten Melodies) Op. 38: No. 7 Danza silvestra
Vergessene Weisen (Forgotten Melodies) Op. 38: No. 8 Alla Reminiscenza: Quasi coda

Tracks:

No. 1 Meditazione: Introduzione, quasi Cadenza - Meno mosso - Meditamente
No. 2 Romanza: Meditamente
No. 3 Primavera: Vivace
No. 4 Canzona matinata: Allegretto cantando, ma sempre con moto
No. 5 Sonata tragica: Allegro non troppo
Sonata In B Flat Minor 'Sonata Romantica' Op. 53 No. 1: Romanza: Andantino con moto, ma sempre espressivo
Sonata In B Flat Minor 'Sonata Romantica' Op. 53 No. 1: Scherzo: Allegro
Sonata In B Flat Minor 'Sonata Romantica' Op. 53 No. 1: Meditazione: Andante con moto
Sonata In B Flat Minor 'Sonata Romantica' Op. 53 No. 1: Finale: Allegro non troppo
Sonata In B Flat Minor 'Sonata Minacciosa' Op. 53 No. 2: Allegro sostenuto
Sonate-Idylle In G Major Op. 56: Pastorale: Allegretto cantabile
Sonate-Idylle In G Major Op. 56: Allegro moderato e cantabile

Amazon.com

Nikolai Medtner's chums at the Moscow Conservatory included Scriabin and Rachmaninoff. Like them, he was a brilliant pianist. Also like them, he composed an extensive body of distinguished piano music, most of which is relatively unknown. Its style resembles that of Rachmaninoff (who greatly admired it), although it lacks the latter's memorable melodies. Technically, it is just as difficult, requiring not only great fluency and endurance but also a wide range of colors. Marc-André Hamelin's prodigious technique makes him an ideal interpreter of Medtner's strong, clearly chiseled structures. His ability to play even the most complex and difficult passages at an even pace helps delineate and clarify them. Excellent recorded sound. --Paul Turok

Customer Reviews:

Wow!.......2007-07-14

Excellent (if you like Medtner's music). the piano is clear and wonderful.

Martin

Medtner's piano music is a strong, major addition to the piano standard repertoire, for both listener and performer. Beautiful........2007-05-02

When this 4CDs-album came out in 1998 I was one of the first in the states to purchase a copy, and even without knowing whether Medtner is my taste or not. I loved Hamelin's Scriabin-sonatas album so I didnt care about the high price of this Medtner-sonatas album. And I was right. With the first scanning of each disc I fell more and more in love with this gorgeous, rich, imaginative, romantic, melodic&rhythmic, intense, serious, profound, passionate...simply *beautiful* music. Medtner does not seem to strive for creating something extraordinary, innovative, modern, interesting per se but for pure musical intent. What you hear is pure (and absolute?) music by a genuine musician (Medtner) as natural and pianistic as one could imagine, with nothing else intended or presumed.
For comparative listeners, Geoffrey Tozer's boxed Medtner-sonatas set includes the complete Forgotten Melodies (I-III), not only I and II (Hamelin), but in the sonatas Hamelin plays with much more verve, drive, energy and speed. However, in the past years I tend to listen more of TozerPlayingMedtner...simply because he has been recording the complete Medtner solo music (prospected 9 volumes on Chandos) and I really enjoy the wealth of non-sonata music by Medtner which is less complex, of lighter content and much easier to understand. Many pianophiles whom I borrowed the Hamelin album thought that these sonatas were way too dense and heavy, yet in the end they fell in love with Medtner, too, when listening to his non-sonata pieces (Fairy Tales, etc.). They have become Medtner fans, yes!
As for my part, after having listened to Medtner sonatas for almost ten consecutive years, I somehow obtain the feeling that his other solo piano music is more enjoyable on a long-term basis. I cant listen to the sonatas nearly any more but I experience still lots of pleasure, fun and enjoyment listening to his other pieces. So thanks Hamelin for the convincing introduction to Medtner's world, and even more thanks to Tozer on Chandos (and Hamish Milne on CRD) for making this world my new home.

but it IS unjust;.......2006-10-03

that such beautiful music should be ignored! i never understood why rachmaninoff enjoyed more popularity than his more ingenious colleague, scriabin. i similarly don't understand why rach is deemed greater than medtner. perhaps it was sergei's larger-than-life presence as a pianist and conductor? i deem rachmaninoff one of the greatest pianist-conductors in history, but as a composer he ranks below both scriabin and medtner.
listen to medtner's music and be blown away by the intricacy and intimacy of his music. the density, the poignant lyricism. counterpoint unfolds and reveals music that is ten times more dense than rachmaninoff's (possibly excluding rach's 2nd and 3rd piano concerto).
you hear explosive genius, innovations, and emotions. a different trajectory from scriabin's music - not apocalpytic, but more rustic. more pastoral and fairy-like, if not as charged with pathos.
if you are a fan of piano music, or just keyboard music as a whole, if you're looking for something sexy, medtner's sonatas are the answer.
and hamelin's playing, i presume, does not need my vouching.

the war is Iraq is unjust.......2004-09-08

Medtner is a trult great composer and Hamelin is a truly great pianist, not just a technician.

contra drollere.......2004-06-23

Just a few words for those of you who are considering this set but have been given pause by the dissenting opinion in drollere's review, below.

I can understand that on first listen this music (like a great deal of classical music) may be difficult to parse -- to break into meaningful paragraphs and sentences, so to speak. And I know first-hand that when one can't yet hear the phrase structure in a piece of music, it tends to sounds like, yes, a long drum solo; it sounds like the music is attempting to express itself solely through superficial, local effects. drollere's review is actually a lovely, well-written description of the experience of listening to music without knowing how to parse it. One hears only "chords," "scales," "arpeggios," "melodies," and is aware that things seem to "change...every 20 seconds or so." In fact, listening to music this way - a bit like listening to the rise and fall of an actor's voice without being able to make out the words - often tends to give one an exaggerated impression of the surface effects, which I think must account for drollere's belief that this music is best characterized as "virtuosity for its own sake." Assessments like "the kinetic equivalent of serialism" and "a musical rubik's cube" really have nothing to do with Medtner - they just describe the general phenomenon of a piece of music being meaningless to a listener, in the truly musical sense of the word "meaning."

I was struck by these things, reading drollere's review, because they were so familiar to me: I am often frustrated by how long it takes me to come to terms with the form (and through it, substance) of a new musical work; sometimes it seems like I can listen to a piece 20 times and not yet know how to parse it. Frustrating indeed, because I, unlike drollere, know that at that point I'm still not qualified to form an opinion of the music. In a very real sense, I still haven't heard it. I might form an opinion about the fact that the music is still opaque to me (e.g. "I'm putting in an attentive, good faith effort to make sense of this music, so I declare that if I still don't know what's up after 20 listens, the composer isn't doing his/her job") but I'm simply not in a position to say anything about the composer's musical or aesthetic intentions or accomplishments. The composer didn't write the "drum solo" that I hear - it's just the raw data stream, not yet decoded by my brain, and as such isn't a work to be reviewed.

The irony of drollere's review is that the most outstanding aspect of this music, in exact opposition to what drollere says, is its "emotionally or imaginatively involving musical structure." Medtner's handling of sonata form is astounding - if you don't believe me or can't hear it, get a copy of the score and give yourself the assignment of breaking down the structure of one of the longer movements - the first piece I encountered was Op. 22, which is a good warm-up for the really sprawling ones, Op. 25/2 and Op. 53/2. I promise you that by the time you've gone through the purportedly tedious task of actually identifying the different themes and their recapitulations, noting thematic relationships, etc. etc., you'll realize how strong these pieces are, how exquisitely they fuse profound, heartfelt emotion with ingenious development - and then you'll be ready to listen again and hear it all. Or at least more of it. "What are the rewards of repeated listening?" indeed. Perhaps since July 28, 2003, drollere has found out the answer to that question, in which case I hope s/he will return and clean up around here. I just hate to think that anyone will be turned off to Medtner by a well-written but utterly rash review. Trust me: this is the real thing. The music is, if anything, better than the hype. Do not be dissuaded.

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