Medtner Concerti

[arensky]

Like 'em. hate 'em. SOUND OFF!!!!!

About the pieces, recordings, performances! Where else can you talk about Medtner!

This makes me so happy, I have an outlet! My wife is sick of hearing about Medtner.....

Now I can talk to youse guys!!!



 

[prometheus]

I voted no.2 but I already regret not voting no.3 : (

I like Alexeev and Demidenko.

[arensky]

I voted #1, but really like #3 too, so I understand. I don't care for the 2sd too much, though I like it's slow movement; heard Andre Watts play the Concerto on the radio about a month ago; very good!

For #3 I like da man himself: Medtner recorded #2 and #3 in the late 40's. For #1 I like Igor Zhukov with the U.S.S.R. Radio and TV Large Symphony Orchestra (the best name for an orchestra ever . It get's better....

recorded 1973 for Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga, Moscow Radio Archive Recordings; MK417087

[arensky]

I'm getting the Medtner 1st Concerto score, mwhamwha mwha mwha mwha mwha mwha
MWHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so manaiacally HAPPY!!!!!

                                                                   

[stevie]

the 1st has struck me the most, maybe just because its the most immediately appreciable of the 3, but it really kicks ass nevertheless.

[jehangircama]

where can i get a recording of them?

[fred smalls]

Wow.. I was just going to start a thread like this and i saw this one! You are reading my mind...

i LOVE the first movement 2nd concerto!!!! amazing piece!!!

[frederic]

How do you guys overcome the fact that they are so hard to listen to and understand at first hearing? Or the 56th hearing in my case...

[arensky]

How do you guys overcome the fact that they are so hard to listen to and understand at first hearing? Or the 56th hearing in my case...

The first one I was familiar with was the 3rd Concerto; I didn't get it at all, but the piano writing and the harmonic language fascinated me, and the tunes are interesting so I just kept listening, and finally it dawned on me that he was using sonata, rondo and variation form at the same time. It's most evident in the 1st Concerto (my favorite) and the 3rd Concerto . The one I still don't get is the 2nd Concerto, I love the slow movement but the rest of it eludes me. I will figure it out at some point probably.  I presume you like Medtner too, if you've listened to it 56 times! Keep listening I think he's worth the effort...

[frederic]

Yes, the 2nd concerto is the one i've heard most.
Let me see....just slighty too random and a TAD restless? 

[prometheus]

Hard to listen to? Huh?

[arensky]

Hard to listen to? Huh?

Not at all, he uses lush chords a la Rachmaninov, folk like melodies, and is always tonal in the I-IV-V-I way that everyone is used to.  It's hard to get your head around everything he's doing with these conventional materials at once (see my last post above), which is all the more bizarre because the materials are conventional.

BTW thank you for sending me that Sorabji site (unfortunately down now)with the music samples!  I think his music is very cool and not at all difficult to understand, although it may be a little long in it's full form. But if that's what he needs to do, that's OK. It's cool stuff, thanks again.

[prometheus]

Try to get your hands on the fourth sonata or Toccata No.1 by Powell. The music is very complex. I cannot recognise the variations in the passacaglia and things like that. Or recognise all the themes that are played at the same time in his coda-stretta's.

[arensky]

Mel Powell the jazz pianist/classical composer? His music is fascinating, and very complex, but I know there's something going on, it's not just smoke and mirrors like a lot of "modern" music...

[prometheus]

No, I was talking about those Sorabji pieces.

[Etude]

No, I was talking about those Sorabji pieces.

Which reminds me, these pieces have actually been recorded by none other than G. D.  Madge.  But, these performances, like his other recordings, also suck badly.

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005Q44Y/qid=1128537939/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl15/002-7399276-4652057?v=glance&s=classical&n=507846

[JCarey]

Which reminds me, these pieces have actually been recorded by none other than G. D.  Madge.  But, these performances, like his other recordings, also suck badly.

I think you're giving him too much credit...

[Etude]

Perhaps, I'm just such a generous person...   

[Etude]

I learnt just today (from a random google group of about 9 years ago) that he had earned the nickname "Geoffrey Douglas Smudge."   

[arensky]

                         bump....HA!!!!! surprised u..   maybe? 

[tolkien]

Is the Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga recording available for purchase online? So far, I can't seem to be able to find it.

For no.3 Ponti's performance is also quite interesting, more lively than average. I like his style, he doesn't let the music stagnate and he's not lacking in the lyrical moments.

[arensky]

Bump!

[tolkien]

The Zhukov performance of the First Concerto is quite something. Hard to get by, though...

A highly anticipated BIS release will couple Medtner's and Tchaikovsky's First Concertos, played by Sudbin. Sudbin said he's going to record eventually all three Medtner concertos for BIS and couple them with better known ones. A solo Medtner recital disc is also in order.

[ahinton]

No, I was talking about those Sorabji pieces.

And, of course (as all those who know about the subject already realise), you were referring to JONATHAN Powell.

Sorabji, as you may know (but others may not) thought very highly of all three Medtner concerti and indeed reviewed the première of the last one.

I, too, find all three to be truly individual and wonderful. I was commissioned several years ago to compose - of all unimaginable things - a cadenza for the third one (to be placed between its second and last movements) for its Italian première; it took an awful lot of soul-searching before I could even begin to think why the piece should even have one and quite a bit more to figure out how, if it did, it would come across as anything other than a blot on his highly personal musical landscape, but I eventually plucked up suifficient courage (or foolhardiness, or something) to overcome this and went ahead and wrote it - only to find that the performance was cancelled (albeit not because of my cadenza, I'm relieved to report) and I don't believe that the piece has been played in that country to this day...

Best,

Alistair

[Ruro]

After someone ranted about the greatness of the Second's First Movement, I'm indulging right now and listening more carefuly... and I wish there was more piano! It's simply presenting some pretty sweet, beautiful and catchy tunes
I always play my "sets" of music from the beginning, so naturally I'm fine tuned with the First Concerto, I'm still so unfamiliar with the other 2 :/ I'll have to put them on my Mp3 for listen at college
I think Medtner will soon be my new favourite Composer!

[jre58591]

medtner's 2nd and 3rd concertos have to be some of my favorite piano concertos ever. tozer is the best interpreter of these concertos. he seems to ahve the firmest grasp of the concepts that medtner employs in each concerto. it may take a while for one to warm up to medtner, but i still love his music.