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CHAN 9692 Front.qxd 26/10/07 1:41 pm Page 1 Chan 9692 CHANDOS THE PIANO WORKS OF NIKOLAI MEDTNER VOL. 6 GEOFFREY TOZER MEDTNER: KLAVIERWERKE, BAND 6 • ŒUVRES POUR PIANO, VOL. 6 GEOFFREY TOZER CHAN 9692 BOOK.qxd 26/10/07 1:42 pm Page 2 Nikolai Medtner (1880–1951) 1 Piano Sonata, Op. 30 14:08 in A minor . a-Moll . la mineur Allegro risoluto – Poco a poco più mosso – Coda: Allegro molto Forgotten Melodies, Op. 39 27:07 2 1 Meditazione 5:07 Introduzione (quasi Cadenza) Lento – Meditamente Boosey & Hawkes 3 2 Romanza 4:27 Meditamente 4 3 Primavera ‘Frühlingsmärchen’ 3:37 Vivace 5 4 Canzona matinata – 4:12 Allegretto cantando 6 5 Sonata tragica 9:38 Allegro risoluto Forgotten Melodies, Op. 40 29:13 7 1 Danza col canto 4:17 Nikolai Medtner Allegretto 8 2 Danza sinfonica 8:55 Introduzione: Allegro meditamente – Allegro scherzando 9 3 Danza fiorata 2:55 Tempo capriccioso 3 CHAN 9692 BOOK.qxd 26/10/07 1:42 pm Page 4 10 4 Danza jubilosa 2:56 Allegro alla breve e molto sfrenatamente Medtner: Piano Works, Volume 6 11 5 Danza ondulata 3:07 Con moto tranquillo e ondulotorio Nikolai Medtner was born into a still, in the opinion of most, his finest 12 6 Danza ditirambica 6:51 Baltic–German merchant family. His cultured achievements), as she was an excellent Allegro con moto and scholarly father owned a lace factory in singer. Anna went with him into exile after TT 70:37 Moscow. His mother, Alexandra Goedicke, was the Revolution, followed by Emil. She a singer who particularly encouraged returned to Moscow, after the death of the Geoffrey Tozer piano Medtner’s musical development, giving him brothers in London, with all the composer’s his first piano lessons. At twelve he was archives. admitted to the Moscow Conservatoire, Rachmaninov secured Medtner a tour of studying with Liszt’s pupil Pabst, and the America in 1924. Programmes of his recitals great Safonov. He studied theory with survive: alarmingly anti-commercial Arensky, but much more interestingly found all-Medtner evenings with sonatas his way to Taneyev, the supreme interspersed with songs and shorter pieces. contrapuntalist, studying strict counterpoint Rachmaninov, in contrast, heeded the brutal and assimilating the methods of Palestrina but accurate managerial advice he was given and Fux to an unheard-of-degree. regarding the content of his programmes. Medtner graduated at the age of nineteen For example, the directive of never to play a with the Gold Medal. Intended for a concert piece longer than seventeen minutes, as that career, he stubbornly insisted on devoting had been ‘scientifically proven’ to be the limit himself to composing, though he proved in of an American audience’s concentration later years to be more than capable of span. Medtner never adapted himself to such supporting himself as a performer. He aspects of touring, and concerts became re-entered the Conservatoire in 1909 as a understandably infrequent. Esteemed in Professor, and his excellent teaching is still England, he settled in London in 1936, remembered there. modestly teaching, playing and composing to He married Anna, previously the wife of a strict daily routine. his brother Emil, in 1919. Perhaps she was Hardship really hit at the outbreak of the attracted by his songs (over eighty of which War, for his income from German publishers had been published by 1918 and which are dried up, and ill health became an increasing 4 5 CHAN 9692 BOOK.qxd 26/10/07 1:42 pm Page 6 problem. His devoted pupil, Edna Iles, gave returns in the major key, Medtner manages to Primavera in which Spring and life itself with a most appealing freely flowing him shelter in Warwickshire where he convey the hollowness of its jubilation. rushes in. construction that sounds perfectly natural, completed his Third Concerto, performing it The basic cell of the Sonata is heard at Just as the first two pieces are connected although without reference to the score it at a 1943 Promenade Concert. When all the outset; a rising, questioning interval of a through sharing the same material, so are the would be difficult to correctly guess the seemed hopeless a miracle happened. In third followed by a falling fourth, like bugles Canzona matinata and Sonata tragica. metre. 1946 the Maharajah of Mysore, Sir Jaya calling and answering. Medtner is said to have wished these two An Elgarian ‘Pomp and Circumstance’ Chamaraja Wadiyar, himself a pianist whose As the Russian Civil War raged during the pieces to be always performed together, march in miniature, the cheery Danza jubilosa piano-playing was abruptly stopped by a years 1918–20, Medtner’s friends were showing the ‘morn of life’ contrasting with is immensely exhilarating, and very brief. wartime injury, founded a Medtner Society amazed and probably quite scandalized to the ‘realities of life’. He recorded them both Medtner recorded it in 1936. In contrast, the with EMI to record all Medtner’s works. discover that he was writing, as one of them shortly before his death. The Sonata tragica Danza ondulata or ‘wave dance’ is written in Medtner was already in declining health but put it, ‘country dances’. These proved to be is particularly brief and compact, with a an undulating 5/8 again having a fluidity and managed to record all his concertos plus the three cycles of Forgotten Melodies, the monothematic scheme unique among grace that a more conventional metre could numerous songs and shorter works before last music Medtner wrote in Russia. The title Medtner’s sonatas. It ends with a spectacular not achieve. his death in 1951. chosen is revealing, mourning a destroyed coda. The cycle concludes with the Danza The Sonata in A minor, Op. 30 of past rather than pointing to a happier future. The third cycle of Forgotten Melodies, ditirambica, last of all Medtner’s ceremonial 1914–15 was written in time of war, and Years before, Anton Arensky had published Op. 40 is subtitled ‘Tanzweisen’ (Dance Dithyrambs, or exaggerated songs of praise sounds it. At this time Medtner was also in Russia a collection of piano pieces called Tunes), and consists of six dances in three and honour. This one takes the form of a composing his First Piano Concerto, and Studies in Forgotten Rhythms, which perhaps pairs – a dance in flowing irregular metre bright, joyous recessional; surely Medtner’s there are certain parallels between the two helps to explain Medtner’s odd and even followed by one in regular metre. The first of stoic and immensely moving hymn of farewell works. In both of them Medtner chooses an faintly ironical title, especially as the cycles the three dances with unusual time to a vanished world. original and highly effective ‘snow-blanket’ contain his two most frequently played and signatures is the Danza col canto, a ending in which the music is literally blotted best-loved sonatas, the Sonata reminiscenza combination of dance and song in 5/8 that © 1998 Geoffrey Tozer out by great rolling arpeggios in the tonic and the Sonata tragica. effectively combines two different tempi. The major sweeping up and down the keyboard. The cycle of Forgotten Melodies, Op. 39 Danza sinfonica is a weighty symphonic Geoffrey Tozer has been performing since The Sonata, like the Concerto, evokes an is very much connected with the events of scherzo in regular 3/4 time. This is a the age of seven. At fourteen he became, astonishing wartime mood of tension and the recent past, and opens with a curiosity among Medtner’s works as it and remains, the youngest person to be unease, snatched moments of tenderness, magnificently dark Meditazione. Both this and appears to parody the style of a mid- awarded a Churchill Fellowship. This took him wild short-lived celebration and panic. the subsequent Romanza share a wailing, nineteenth century symphonist, and also to from Australia to London where his first Anxiety mounting to fear and panic is deeply sorrowful melody that the Romanza, suggest a piano transcription of an appearance was at the Albert Hall with Sir brilliantly expressed as the harmony hardly lighter in mood than the previous orchestrally conceived score. Colin Davis conducting the BBC Symphony. In disintegrates into tonal chaos in the piece, develops further. Medtner returns to his own style with the 1989 he became one of the seven recipients development section. When the main theme Then comes a total contrast with lovely Danza fiorata, a sinuous dance in 7/8 of the inaugural Australian Artists’ Creative 6 7 CHAN 9692 BOOK.qxd 26/10/07 1:42 pm Page 8 Scholarships awarded by the Australian and in 1994 he performed the complete Government. piano sonatas of Beethoven in a series of Medtner: Klavierwerke, Band 6 In 1993 Geoffrey Tozer made his first tour recitals at the Melbourne International of China at the invitation of the Ministry of Festival. Geoffrey Tozer has an exclusive Culture, giving sold-out concerts in six cities contract with Chandos. Nikolai Medtner stammte aus einer seines Bruders Emil. Sie war eine hervorragende baltendeutschen Geschäftsfamilie. Sein Sängerin und möglicherweise von seinen Liedern kultivierter, gebildeter Vater besaß eine angezogen, von denen bereits 80 bis zum Jahr Spitzenfabrik in Moskau. Seine Mutter, 1918 veröffentlicht worden waren und die Alexandra Goedicke, die Sängerin war, brachte vielfach als seine besten Werke beurteilt werden. Medtners musikaliches Talent zur Entfaltung Anna ging nach der Revolution mit ihm ins Exil, und gab ihm den ersten Klavierunterricht. Als gefolgt von Emil. Nach dem Tod beider Brüder Zwölfjähriger trat er ins Moskauer in London kehrte sie mit dem Archiv des Konservatorium ein, wo er bei Liszts Schüler Komponisten nach Moskau zurück.

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