Medtner: Complete Piano Sonatas, Vol. 2 Paul Stewart

• Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951): Sonata-Triad, Op. 11:
• 1 No. 1 in A-Flat Major 11:04
• 2 No. 2 in D Minor, Sonata-Elegy 07:22
• 3 No. 3 in C Major 10:05
• Märchen-Sonate in C Minor, Op. 25 No. 1:
• 4 I. Allegro abbandonamente 05:54
• 5 II. Andantino con moto 03:43
• 6 III. Allegro con spirito 04:02
• Sonata-Idylle in G Major, Op. 56:
• 7 I. Pastorale: Allegretto cantabile 04:18
• 8 II. Allegro moderato e cantabile (sempre al rigore di tempo) 08:55
• Total Runtime 55:23

Info zu Medtner: Complete Piano Sonatas, Vol. 2

“Inspiration comes when thought is saturated in emotion, and emotion is imbued with sense” (Nikolay Medtner) Part of the joy of Medtner is the joy of discovery: a large body of little-known but magnificent works of rare beauty and power. Three piano concertos, numerous miniatures, chamber music, over 100 songs... and 14 piano sonatas, the most significant achievement in this genre by any major composer since Beethoven. Along with a Sonata Vocalise for voice and piano and several unpublished scores, they span Medtner’s career, from early triumphs in Russia, to disillusionment and exile in England in the 1930s.

Nikolay Karlovich Medtner was Moscow born-and-bred, although his ancestry was German. As a child he showed musical promise, and studied piano with his mother until his acceptance into the Moscow Conservatory at the age of twelve. Medtner’s teachers during these years included Vasily Safonov for piano, Anton Arensky for harmony and Sergey Taneyev for counterpoint, the latter having a particularly strong influence on his musical development. Taneyev instilled in all his students a respect for the old masters – Palestrina, Bach, Mozart and especially Beethoven – and stressed contrapuntal and structural command as essential to any composer’s craft.

Medtner graduated from the Conservatory in 1900 with a Gold Medal in piano. After achieving success in the Third International Rubenstein Competition in Vienna, a career as a concert pianist seemed inevitable. A European concert tour was planned but abandoned when, against the advice of his parents and teachers, he decided to eschew the life of a travelling virtuoso and dedicate himself to his true calling: composition. Medtner continued performing throughout his life, but with rare exceptions – he was a celebrated interpreter of Beethoven – played only his own works in public.

The success of Medtner’s First Piano Sonata, Op. 5 (1904) brought the composer’s name to the attention of many prominent musicians of the day, the most important being Sergey Rachmaninov who became his lifelong friend and greatest supporter. Between 1904 and 1906, Medtner concentrated on shorter works for piano and several settings of poems by Goethe. One poem considered was Aussöhnung (Reconciliation), the conclusion of Goethe’s Trilogie der Leidenschaft, but instead of a vocal setting, Medtner decided to append the final stanza to the score of his own “trilogy of passion”, the Sonata-Triad, Op. 11.

Paul Stewart, piano

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