Medtner - Fairy Tale op.14 no.2 March of the Paladin

[andhow04]

this was from a lecture-recital given to a piano teachers association... recorded only by myself with my amateur equipment, so nothing special. 

this piece was in particular beloved by rachmaninoff, and in many ways it is similar to his etude op.39 no.4 in b minor, which i believe i have uploaded here before (and is my favorite rachmaninoff piece).  it is pretty spare texture, and all the notes that you play have some strict contrapuntal place... but the music is so thrilling and so fun to both play and listen to, you dont even realize how strictly it is composed.

i believe rachmaninoff referred to this as a "miracle."

[scottmcc]

excellent work as usual, and I'm particularly glad to hear you playing more Medtner!  I'm becoming something of a fan of his works, and wish that I had the technique to attempt some of them.  sadly, it will be a great number of years before it's even worth trying, but in the mean time, I'm glad you are playing his works so proficiently.  keep up the great work!

by the way, I'm very interested to hear more details about this lecture series, do tell more.

[andhow04]

excellent work as usual, and I'm particularly glad to hear you playing more Medtner!  I'm becoming something of a fan of his works, and wish that I had the technique to attempt some of them.  sadly, it will be a great number of years before it's even worth trying, but in the mean time, I'm glad you are playing his works so proficiently.  keep up the great work!

by the way, I'm very interested to hear more details about this lecture series, do tell more.

thanks, i love medtner and always play more and more of the music.. not much is easy but he wrote some pieces for "the young" which i haven't looked at but which i assume would be easier than the rest..

this is one of those kind of pieces that once you start practicing you just can't stop, it really is a miracle..

the lecture series was actually just a one time thing used as a promotional event for the concert, the concert series gathered together piano teachers from around and invited them to lunch and to hear an hour long event, then it was annouced that students could go to the concert for free.. so i played this, and some other pieces from the program, and talked about why i picked them and about the piano repertoire in general...

[rachfan]

Hi andhow,

That was truly a wonderful performance of Medtner' march.  It is so incredibly intricate!  Congratulations on this fine achievement.

Rachmaninoff once said that Medtner was the greatest genius of the living composers of the era.

[andhow04]

thank you!  i just love this piece so muhc.

i never heard that quote from rachmaninoff but i am not surprised... someday when i have the time i will try and learn the night wind sonata op.25 no.2 whch is dedicated to rachmaninoff.. tho i dont think rachmaninoff ever played it!

[rachfan]

I think that the "Night Wind Sonata" was Medtner's very best sonata.  It's an amazing piece!

[nystul]

I really like this.  I was not familiar with the piece, but it is quite a gem.

[scottmcc]

I returned to this recording today after spending half an hour fighting through the first page at the piano.  goodness!  it's even harder than I thought just listening to it, and you've done a very masterful job of keeping the contrapunctal elements distinct.  maybe 10 yrs from now I'll have sufficient technique to make it through...maybe.

[andhow04]

I returned to this recording today after spending half an hour fighting through the first page at the piano.  goodness!  it's even harder than I thought just listening to it, and you've done a very masterful job of keeping the contrapunctal elements distinct.  maybe 10 yrs from now I'll have sufficient technique to make it through...maybe.

yes, it is very hard, and deceptively so, because there are not that many voices going on. but the rhythm is always a challenge, and voicing in medtner is just plain difficult... sometimes i think unncessarily so... but a piece like this which is actualy more simple than a lot of his other pieces, is so satisfying to learn and practice.

as i said earlier, it goes well with rachmaninoff op39 no.4, they could be practiced together

[emill]

Hi Nathan,

May I just say nice .... really NICE!!
Many of the exchanges in posts here at pianostreet is
quite educating for a non-piano schooled like me. THANKS!

emill

[andhow04]

glad you like it!  these days, i include something of medtner on every program.  partyl to increase my own repertoire of his music (now I play 16 pieces of his) but also so people will eventually get used to it. 

you see a lot of his music these days in europe, but less in the states, though the tide is turning ever so slowly.  i think he is a great addition to the sort of viennese-germanic traditions, esp. for those who don't want to play atonal music like schoenberg or webern (which i happen to love!)

also medtner is surprisingly versatile when it comes to programming his music, you can put him next to bach, mozart, haydn, beethoven, schumann, brahms, grieg, or liszt, rachmaninoff, scriabin, etc.  i think it's great and everyone should play something!