GEOFFREY TOZER Nikolai Medtner (1880–1951)
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CHAN 10266 Front.qxd 7/2/07 12:29 pm Page 1 CHAN 10266 CHANDOS THETHE PIANOPIANO WORKSWORKS OF NIKOLAINIKOLAI MEDTNERMEDTNER VOL. 88 MEDTNER: KLAVIERWERKE, BAND 8 • ŒUVRES POUR PIANO, VOL. 8 GEOFFREY TOZER Nikolai Medtner (1880–1951) Three Arabesques, Op. 7 11:29 1 1 Idyll. Allegretto tranquillo e dolce 3:31 2 2 Tragedy Fragment. Andante con moto – Adagio 4:07 3 3 Tragedy Fragment. Allegro inquieto ma al rigore di tempo 3:52 Two Fairy Tales, Op. 8 9:41 4 1 Andantino 2:57 5 2 Recitato – Allegro agitato – Poco meno mosso – Tempo I – Allegro agitato – Meno mosso – Lebrecht Music & ArtsLebrecht Photo Library Coda. Agitato assai – Meno mosso instantemento 6:43 Romantic Sketches for the Young, Op. 54 27:22 6 Prelude (Pastorale). Allegretto con moto abbandonamente 2:21 7 Bird’s Tale. Allegretto con moto capriccioso e sempre leggiero 2:49 8 Prelude (Tempo di Sarabanda). Andantino mobile 2:33 9 Tale (Scherzo). Allegro vivace 2:22 10 Prelude (Tender Reproach). Allegretto, molto tranquillo e commodo 4:00 11 Tale (The Organ Grinder). Allegro – Poco più tranquillo – Tempo I – Coda. Con moto, ma poco rubato 5:08 12 Prelude (Hymn). Allegretto tranquillo 4:24 13 Tale (The Beggar). Narrante – Vivo – Con moto – Tempo I – Nikolai Medtner, 1905 Vivo, leggiero – Poco più tranquillo – Vivo 3:41 3 Second Improvisation, Op. 47 29:25 Medtner: Piano Works, Volume 8 (In the Form of Variations) Dediée à Marcel Dupré Nikolai Medtner was born in 1880 into a still, in the opinion of most, Medtner’s finest 14 Theme: The Song of the Water Nymph. Andante – 2:34 Baltic-German merchant family. His cultured achievements), as she was an excellent singer. 15 I Meditation. Poco con moto e al rigore di tempo – 1:57 and scholarly father owned a lace factory in Anna went with him into exile after the 16 II Caprice. Capriccioso – 1:28 Moscow. His mother, Alexandra Goedicke, was Revolution, followed by Emil. After the death of 17 III Feathered Ones. Allegro capriccioso – Allegro vivo e risoluto – 2:10 a singer who particularly encouraged her son’s both brothers in London she would return to 18 IV Charms. Allegretto con moto – 1:36 musical development, giving Medtner his first Moscow with all her late husband’s archives. piano lessons. At the age of twelve he was Rachmaninov secured Medtner a tour of 19 V Humoresque. Allegretto sostenuto – 1:43 admitted to the Moscow Conservatory where America in 1924. Programmes of his recitals 20 VI Among the Waves. Lesto – 1:24 he studied with Liszt’s pupil Paul Pabst and survive: alarmingly anti-commercial all-Medtner 21 VII The Roar of the Crowd. Poco a poco vivace – Vivace, risoluto – the great Vassily Safonov. He studied theory evenings in which sonatas are interspersed with Vivo – 1:43 with Arensky, but, much more interestingly, songs and shorter pieces. Rachmaninov, in 22 VIII Into the Forest. Andante sognando – Andante – 1:19 found his way to Taneyev, the supreme contrast, heeded the brutal but accurate 23 IX The Wood Sprite. Allegro ritmico – 0:29 contrapuntalist, studying strict counterpoint managerial advice he received regarding the and assimilating the methods of Palestrina content of his programmes: for example, the 24 X The Elves. Prestissimo – 1:03 and Fux to an unheard-of degree. directive never to play a piece lasting longer 25 XI The Gnomes. Allegro risoluto – 1:08 Medtner graduated at the age of nineteen than seventeen minutes, as that had been 26 XII Invocation. Andante maestoso – 1:58 with the Gold Medal. Having been intended for ‘scientifically proven’ to be the limit of an 27 XIII The Threat. Allegretto tenebroso – Con moto instantamente – a concert career, he stubbornly insisted on American audience’s concentration span. Tempo I 2:49 devoting himself to composition, though he Medtner never adapted himself to such aspects 28 XIV Song of the Water Nymph. Andantino con moto – Agitato – 2:02 was to prove in later years to be more than of touring, and concerts understandably capable of supporting himself as a performer. became infrequent. Esteemed in England, he 29 XV The Storm. Tranquillo, ma poco a poco più mosso e crescendo – He re-entered the Conservatory in 1909 as a settled in London in 1936, modestly teaching, Sempre allegro agitato – 2:14 Professor, and his excellent teaching is still playing and composing to a strict daily routine. 30 Conclusion. Andante – Maestoso 1:38 remembered there. Hardship really hit at the outbreak of World TT 78:06 He married Anna, the former wife of his War II, for his income from German publishers Geoffrey Tozer piano brother Emil, in 1919. Perhaps she was dried up, and ill health became an increasing attracted by his songs (over eighty of which problem. His devoted pupil Edna lles gave him had been published by 1918; the songs are shelter in Warwickshire where he completed 4 5 his Third Piano Concerto, performing it at a be trapped in a terrified crowd – to suggest, garden’. Perhaps it is a ‘night-before’ picture of spirit such as the Sonata, Op. 11 No. 3, the Promenade Concert in 1943. When all seemed rather than to show in the manner of a tone anarchists plotting an outrage, for the second Three Hymns in Praise of Toil, the Sonate- hopeless a miracle happened. In 1946 the poem (for this most formally-minded-to-an- Tale erupts instantly, its story-telling more like Vocalise, Op. 41 No. 1 and the posthumous Maharajah of Mysore, Sir Jaya Chamaraja obsessive-degree composer could not bear to film reportage than wordy description. Formally Piano Quintet. Wadiyar, himself a pianist whose playing had leave any loose ends in his carefully structured it is a sonata movement in all but name. The Preludes, like the Arabesques, take a abruptly ended when he suffered a wartime music). All must be explained, all must fit Somehow the frenzy of the story is rhythmic and melodic pattern and stick to it, injury, founded a Medtner Society with EMI to together in the end. Even themes beautiful in enhanced, not diminished, by Medtner’s strict the Tales are more adventurous. The ‘Pastorale’ record all Medtner’s works. Medtner was themselves are rigidly used as patterns uniting musical design, and, while restless, ceaseless in A flat major is a fresh, sparkling, early- already in declining health but managed to or colliding, and then uniting with other and impassioned, the piece never becomes morning country scene. The ‘Bird’s Tale’ in record all his concertos plus numerous songs patterns so that the music, once grasped and monumental. None of Medtner’s music is. It contrasting C minor begins with pecking, and shorter works before his death in 1951. once familiar, makes a satisfying one – or at might seem baffling at first hearing but no scratching, earthbound music as if the bird is Medtner wrote his Three Arabesques, best two – dimensional whole, but not a matter how long or short a Medtner work may unaware it can fly. When it does take to the air Op. 7 in 1904, and the calamitous events of sculpture in the round: a frieze, or a bas-relief, be, each one seems to me to be the musical the music changes to the key of the ‘Pastorale’, Russian history that unfolded during that year but not a tree, or anything misshapen in nature. twin to the lace made in his father’s factory: the bird gliding gracefully over the landscape must surely provide the clue to the subtitles of The next published work, Two Fairy Tales, intricate, laborious, small stitches making up a of the Prelude, a most beautiful moment. two of the Arabesques: ‘Tragedy Fragment’. Op. 8, the first of Medtner’s tightly controlled satisfying whole, large or small. If only An ethereal ‘Tempo di Sarabanda’ in B major As a set, these three pieces form a descent narrative works with that title, carries forward Medtner’s music had more silence in it the next, written for the most part in the higher from dreaminess through despair to violence the idea of crowds in the streets, of tragic analogy would be exact. It lacks nothing of reaches of the keyboard, followed by a lively and chaos. The ‘Idyll’ is the calm before a events, unease, impending disaster, revolution the strength, only the transparency, of lace. E minor ‘Scherzo’, both composed without a storm, rather than anything peaceful, when and ruin. It is wryly amusing that those who When his German publishers Zimmermann in hint of musical irony, the sort of pieces that heard in context. derided Medtner as anachronistic during his Leipzig begged Medtner for some easier works made most contemporary musicians dismiss The composer’s choice of titles for his piano lifetime were perhaps unaware that during this he obliged with Romantic Sketches for the Medtner as hopelessly anachronistic. works suggests a literary and poetic mind at period all he had to do was look out of his Young, Op. 54, four Tales, each preceded by a The next pair, in A major and D minor work (arabesque, tale, dithyramb, novelette) and window to see events he had already divined Prelude, written in 1932. Hardly music for the respectively, are the Prelude ‘Tender Reproach’ to take them at face value would be to miss a in his music. young to play, the work bears a title that and ‘The Organ Grinder’. The Tale is remarkable lot of the pungent, adult and ironic meaning The first Tale (both Tales are in C minor and suggests something more ironic, perhaps ‘old- for its ragtime content, as if this story unfolds they contain.