NIKOLAI MEDTNER PIANO CONCERTI definitive performances with a great Orchestra
The Nikolai Medtner piano concerti are big, powerful works. They should be in the concerto repertoire and I am pleased to note that a growing number of younger pianists are in fact performing and recording them.
The apparent difficulty is that they are in a sense oddities for their straddling of the Romantic and Modern eras. While giving every appearance of being romantic piano concerti, they do not offer the melodic richness found in the Rachmaninov concerti, with the exception of the 4th, which would suffer similarly were the first three concerti, and Rachmaninov himself, not so immensely popular.
But they are indeed mature works of great wonder and merit, and as with all good music, repeated listening will make this apparent.
The first concerto, a war time work written between 1914 and 1918, is essentially in one movement which can be diveded into four sections. With nods to Liszt and Brahms as well as to the modern, the structure is very convincing, though complex, and requires a degree of familiarity to appreciate.
The second concerto (1920-1927) is dedicated to Sergei Rachmaninov, who reciprocated by dedicating his own fourth piano concerto to Medtner. It is in the same key as Rachmaninov's second concerto and begins every bit as dramatically, though in a very different fashion. This concerto is more accessible than the first from the initial measures. The opening Toccata is gripping, and the influence of Rachmaninov more apparent. However, Medtner's language has also evolved and one never has the impression of listening to a derivative work.
Instead of melody, this Nikolai Medtner concerto uses rhythm to get the listener's attention, and it is successful in accomplishing just that. Like a great wine, there are brief hints of other flavors, Rimsky-Korsakoff, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, of course, even Carl Nielsen and Richard Strauss, and Brahms again.
For those who like to read into things, one could draw a parallel between Medtner and Rachmaninov both of whose first essays in this form were a bit too advanced for their time, and whose second attempts were, in a word, fabulosi.
Nikolai Medtner's Piano Concerto n°3 (1940-43) is another big work, this time in three connected movements. The writing for piano is often more in the language of Rachmaninov and more blatantly melodic as well. This is an unabashedly Romantic Concerto which arrived perhaps too late in Medtner's Lexicon.
Were you to ask me if I believed Nilolai Medtner to be a composer as great as Rachmaninov, I must reply unequivocally that I do not. Nonetheless, Medtner is a first class composer, if of the second rank, and wrote infinitely better music than did the endless parade of deservedly forgotten composers whose works are laid before us at regular intervals.
The fact is that most forgotten composers are deserving of their fate. Nikolai Medtner is decidedly not. It is more than likely that timing was his biggest enemy.
Piano Concerto n°1 in C minor Op 33 George Weldon conducting the Philarmonia Orchestra of London Recorded in 1947
section I Allegro (beginning)
section I Allegro (conclusion)
section II Tranquillo, Mediamente (beginning)
section II Tranquillo, Mediamente (conclusion)
section III Tempo I section IV Coda: Allegro Molto
Piano Concerto n°2 in C minor Op 50 Issay Dobrowen conducting the Philarmonia Orchestra of London Recorded in 1947
i Allegro Risoluto (beginning)
i Allegro Risoluto (conclusion)
ii Romance
iii Divertimento - Allegro Risoluto e Molto Vivace (beginning)
iii Divertimento - Allegro Risoluto e Molto Vivace (conclusion)
Piano Concerto n°3 in E minor Op 60 "Ballade" Issay Dobrowen conducting the Philarmonia Orchestra of London Recorded in 1947
i Con Moto Largamente (beginning)
i Con Moto Largamente (conclusion)
ii Interludium - Allegro, Molto Sostenuto E Misterioso iii Finale - Allegro Molto, Svegliando, Eroico (beginning)
iii Finale - Allegro Molto, Svegliando, Eroico (continuation)
iii Finale - Allegro Molto, Svegliando, Eroico (conclusion)
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