Medtner Op.39 Nr.5 - Work in progress

[quantum]

This was recorded from a practice session.  It's unedited, and not intended as a finished interpretation.

I'd like your comments please.

[rachfan]

Hi quantum,

I just listened to this "Sonata tragica" twice, as I am not familiar with it, quite frankly.  For a long time very little of Medtner's music has been recorded, unfortunately.  His idiom in the neo-romantic tradition is as complex, demanding, innovative and appealing as the music of Rachmaninoff and Scriabin, but Medtner has lingered somewhat in the shadows.  This sonata is not even listed in the major repertoire guides.   So I had to dig the score out to gain a better visual appreciation, while listening you play.

Although you call your rendition a "work in progress" (actually all of our repertoire pieces are life-long works in progress), you play this piece with a great deal of flair.  There are a couple of spots perhaps where you're a bit tentative as to what, exactly, you want to do with your interpretation, but otherwise your playing exhibits thorough preparation, exactitude in articulation, a sense of direction, confidence, and artistry.  I notice that this piece contains many technical challenges: melody shifting to the left hand, an extreme variety of touch, florid passagework in the left hand, long flutter pedals, figuration full of double notes, stacatto wrist octave passages, long passages of chords requiring voicing of the melodic line, voice leading between the hands, short cadenzas, etc.  I thought a three-page coda was a bit unusual too.

You handle all the technical difficulties seemingly with ease, and you couple that with a highly developed sense of musicality.  I think you bring a wonderful lyricism to the cantando sections in particular.  Everything throughout the sonata is played with total clarity, and you leave no doubt as to what is foreground and background.  Where we get to hear little of Medtner, I'm unaware of the performance practices for this piece, but my ear tells me that your rendition stands tall in its own right.  I have no doubt it will be at performance level very shortly.

Congratulations on all your hard work, musicianship, and success in this recording.  Also, thanks for posting a lesser known work here.  Not only is it a pleasure to hear, but educational too for those of us a bit unfamiliar with Medtner's compositions.       

[Mozartian]

I've never heard the piece before but your performance sounds great to me. Just gorgeous.

[pianistimo]

this music 'speaks.'  i enjoy it.

[tompilk]

  this is excellent 10/10
I wish I could play like this...
Tom