Medtner?

[fnork]

I recently heard one of Medtners fairy tales, and it was really really beautiful. I'm considering bying the sheet music to all of them, but I'd like to know a bit more about them. I haven't found them on CD yet. Are they good in general?
Also, are there any special compositions by Medtner that I should hear? I don't know much about him really, but he seems to have written lots of piano music. Many sonatas.

Also, is there sheet music of the fairy tales on the internet somewhere? Or excerpts of them?

Any help is appreciated.

[Motrax]

Though I'm not familiar with Medtner's other music (besides the three cocnertos), the fairy tales are very unique. Medtner certainly has his own style, and although none of the fairy tales strikes me as a masterpiece, they all feel very much like little stories. They are lovely, and certainly worth learning. There are a number of recordings of Mednter's pieces from the Russian (Soviet) label Melodya. I don't know if they publish CDs anymore though - they might've gone extinct by now.

[Regulus Medtner]

Which one did you listen to? They are really worthwhile pieces and to my opinion small masterpieces. The nickname “Fairy Tales” is an unfortunate misnamer, as a more accurate translation of the Russian Skazki is Tales or Legends. That is to say, they are not generally light pieces, the majority of them bearing a great variety of mood and character, from the heroic, whimsical, ironic to the romantic, depending on the scenario in the composer’s mind.

Medtner’s output was mainly for the piano, and generally of very high and consistent quality, so don’t let early opus numbers fool you.   Even his op.1 Mood Pictures give a measure of his calibre as a composer (its prologue being one of my favourite pieces ever). Tales like Op.20 no.1, op.14 no.2 “March of the Paladin”, op.26 no.1, op. 48 no.1 “Dance Tale”, the “campanella” (I forget the opus number) for example are impressive and exquisite masterpieces.

Tozer on chandos, Milne on CRD, Demidenko and Hamelin on Hyperion have recorded much of Medtner’s music. Horowitz has recorded the Tale op.51 no.3, it’s on the complete series CD somewhere, I think on volume 10 with Rachmaninov and Scriabin pieces.
Other Medtner pieces you should certainly investigate are the sonatas and the 2 improvisations.

[Radix]

I recently fell in love with his music...the tales and the sonatas are all fantastic.  Does anyone happen to have the sheet music to the "March of the Paladin" tale that they could send me?

[Schumann Lover]

Medtner is a life-changing composer. He was not as charismatic and outgoing as his dear friend, Sergei Rachmaninoff, so not many people know his music, even among musicians. The two composers respected and admired each other's compositions. Rachmaninoff dedicated his fourth piano concerto to Medtner and Medtner, in return, dedicated his Night Wind Sonata to Rachmaninoff. In fact, Rachmaninoff gave Medtner a standing ovation after a performance of the Night Wind Sonata and applauded until the lights went on in the hall.

He was very much a piano composer; he wrote 3 piano concertos, 14 piano sonatas, 37(?) tales, a piano quintet, and a sonata for violin and piano. He also wrote beautiful songs for voice and piano. Night Wind Sonata is probably the best work of Medtner; it is in the same league as monumental works such as Liszt Sonata in B minor, Chopin Second Sonata, etc. Dover publishes the complete piano sonatas and tales in three volumes. As for recordings, there is a beautfiul recording of Gilels playing Sonata Reminiscenza, and other recordings by Hamelin, Tozer, Milne, Wild, Horowitz, and Viardo.

My personal favorites/recommendation:

Sonata in E minor, op. 25, no. 2 "Night Wind"
Sonata Reminiscenza in A minor, op. 38, no. 1
Sonata Tragica, op. 39, no. 5
Three Hymns, op. 49
Tale in F minor, op. 26, no. 3
Song "Sleeplessness" op. 37, no. 1
Concerto no. 2 in C minor


 

[Regulus Medtner]

Actually, Medtner dedicated his 2nd piano concerto to Rachmaninov (the most "Rachmaninov-like"  of his three concerti) in return for being the dedicatee of Rachmaninov's 4th concerto. They were both writing them at the same time and had a long and interesting correspondence about them during that period. You can even hear echoes of Medtner's quirky rhythmic style in Rachmaninov's concerto. The "Night Wind" sonata, also dedicated to Rachmaninov, is truly a monumental epic. It's an extraordinary gift of Medtner to write music so imaginative and complex, yet being able to control his argument within the strictest of forms and yet making it sound spontaneous, even improvised. His music 's momentum, and especially in this piece, is breathtaking. Once it starts, it never lets go.

I don't agree that Medtner was not as charismatic, unless you mean in social circles. He seems to me that in some respects his music is more profound than Rachmaninov's. He was not quite as good an orchestrator, though, that's for sure.