Favorite Medtner Sonata

[phil13]

Let us take a ubiquitous topic and give it a different spin...

My current favorite was once Night Wind, but it is now Sonata Romantica.

Phil

[jre58591]

sonata romantica takes my vote. i still have a heart for the night wind, sonata reminiscenza, and sonata minacciosa, though. btw, i dont think this poll will get too many participants, for it doesnt seem that many are familiar with medtner here.

[ahinton]

The ones that I find the most rewarding of all are Ballade, "Night Wind", Romantica and Minacciosa - wondrous monuments of the piano sonata literature well worthy of consideration alongside the very finest works in the medium by other luminaries.

Best,

Alistair

[mephisto]

I haven't heard them all but my favourite among those I have heard(romantica, night wind, opus 22 and tragica) the romantic one is my favourite.

Does any of them contain a fugue?

[phil13]

Does any of them contain a fugue?

Yeah, Sonata Minacciosa has one, I think.

btw, i dont think this poll will get too many participants, for it doesnt seem that many are familiar with medtner here.

Perhaps not, but maybe it will inspire those who aren't aware of his music to go out and find some to listen to or play.

Phil

[arensky]

My favorite is the "During the War" Op.30 Sonata, closely followed by the Sonata-Ballade. I haven't  absorbed the later Sonatas as fully as I have the earlier ones, so who knows, my favorite might change. I also think the first Sonata in f minor Op.5 is a great work, overshadowed by it's later companions. Medtner is a great composer but I don't know if he'll ever catch on with the majority of classical music listerners. A musician friend recently described her reaction to hearing many of his pieces as " wait, what was that?" and that for that reason she was skeptical about his potential for greater popularity with the listening public. Perhaps in a century people will be able to digest and understand his music without effort.

[mephisto]

Indeed the Sonata's have a habit of sounding about 10 times better the second time you hear them.

Luckily Medtner wrote many short pieces wich sound great the first time you hear them too.

[quantum]

I can't say at the moment.  I've been listening to the sonatas for about a year.  Yes they are hard to digest at first.  I found out that the more you listen in closely the more the music reveals itself to you. 

When you go to the piano and learn his music, his quality craftsmanship is even more apparent. 

[ahinton]

I have to say that Medtner's sonatas - each one of them, including the three for violin and piano - hit me squarely between the ears on very first acquaintance, although I have often heard it said (as indeed it has been here several times) that they yield up their manifold secrets only gradually. That fact, let me assure you, does not mark out my perceptive faculties as anything special but instead merely reflects that, temperamentally, I felt immediately drawn to these works. The fact that they have, for the most part, taken so long to enter into the consciousnesses of musicians and listeners cannot be denied, although I find it very sad; Medtner was a serious force to be reckoned with - a master craftsman, a wholly individual thinker and a fabulous pianist, too. Rather like Chopin and Brahms before him, he seemed almost to arrive on the scene as an already mature composer. The best of his songs, too, are on a par with the finest by his predecessor Tchaikovsky and his friend and colleague Rakhmaninov.

Best,

Alistair

[kreso]

I just got Hamelin's CD complet with all Medtner sonatas and my favourite is op.5 in f minor. but I also like so much op.38 no.1. All sonatas are great pieces and what a pity that they are not played so often..

[tompilk]

I just got Hamelin's CD complet with all Medtner sonatas and my favourite is op.5 in f minor. but I also like so much op.38 no.1. All sonatas are great pieces and what a pity that they are not played so often..

oh dear i accidentally and automatically voted for 25 no2 when i meant 25 no1! boohoo!
Tom

[jre58591]

oh dear i accidentally and automatically voted for 25 no2 when i meant 25 no1! boohoo!
Tom

you like the sonata-skazka more? wow, i would have thought that the night wind would be your pick.

[phil13]

What surprises me even more is that the accidental vote is, so far, the only one for Night Wind.

Phil

[tompilk]

you like the sonata-skazka more? wow, i would have thought that the night wind would be your pick.

i did mean the night wind! sorry for the confusion... i meant the first movement of it... but that, i think is still op 25 no2! an amazing piece! Have you heard Berezovsky playing it? he attacks it and it's rather a mash... not nice... hamelin's is much better...
Sorry again!
Tom

[opus10no2]

The first mvt of the 1st sonata is my favourite, but then the whole reminiscenza is beautiful, and the scherzo-like mvt of the Romantica is awesome too.

Still in the process of absorbing the others.

[opus10no2]

The first mvt of the 1st sonata is my favourite, but then the whole reminiscenza is beautiful, and the scherzo-like mvt of the Romantica is awesome too.

Still in the process of absorbing the others.

Well having absorbed them all, the Night Wind is undoubtedly the most rewarding in a labyrinthine way, and also has attractive melodic features which I was drawn to immediately.

Of the very top Tier - I rank the NW, Minacciosa and the G minor as the most rewarding to repeatedly listen to.

Medtner has slowly over time crept up my favourite composer rankings to maybe even take the top spot.

His music is the perfect desert island Music - it's so perfectly logical and emotionally resonant - but takes repeated listens to fully appreciate.

The reason for this is his use of unusual phrase lengths, melodies that are thoroughly unpredictable, and to me his Music represents perfectly the dichotomy of chaos vs. order in music.

It makes absolute sense - completely ordered, on it's own terms, yet is also in contrast to other composers so individual and 'chaotic' if we are to expect all of the usual tropes of romantic piano literature.