# Where is the love for Nikolai Medtner?



## ojoncas (Jan 3, 2019)

I've looked here and there many websites, regarding favourite/best Russian composers.
I was shocked to see that ALMOST ALL of them didn't even include him in a top 15/20...

Even a poll on TC doesn't even have it, sigh.
https://www.talkclassical.com/49267-who-best-russian-composer.html

Am I the only one to think he's solid for a top 10, (personally a top 5)?

His Piano Concertos are just so precious.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

I would place him in the Russian top ten. His "Epica" Violin Sonata no. 3 is a favorite of mine.


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

I only discovered Medtner a year or so ago, after hearing this podcast:

http://www.classicalpodcasts.com/bu...reasure-piano-sonatas-of-nikolai-medtner-pt-1


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Medtner's music has been described as "Rachmaninoff without the tunes." That does him an injustice, though it's hard to deny that he lacked a flair for memorable melody, and it points up a likely reason he isn't more popular. Still, he has his own distinctive character, and I've always enjoyed him.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I've been adding Hyperion "Romantic Piano Concerto" discs to my CD shelves since the start of that release program, and I note that the second volume of the series features two Medtner concertos, Nos. 2 and 3, with Nikolai Demidenko (piano), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Jerzy Maksymiuk (conductor). And it was apparently a Gramophone Award Winner for 1992!









Volume 8 of the same collection features Medtner's First Concerto and his Piano Quintet in C:









For a series currently numbering nearly 80 releases, the Hyperion crowd seems to have had great respect for Medtner, issuing four of his major works in the first eight volumes.

You can hear an alternate take on the Piano Quintet from Martha Argerich And Friends on the EMI Classics set _Live From Lugano 2012_. I remain a fan of Argerich and have collected the Lugano discs since their initial release. Though Argerich does not perform on every selection featured on the Lugano discs, she is performing on the Medtner Quintet here.









So, no need longer to wonder "Where is the love for Nikolai Medtner?"


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

I think this article turned me off the piano quintet from the outset. 

p.s. Don't overlook the comments (including one by Steven Isserlis).


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Medtner pops up here at times, but many of the regulars have already posted about him, or are gone. His 3rd Concerto was one of my first 10 LPs or so, since it was recommended as a masterwork in a big, encyclopedic history of classical music by Larousse I had, and has been one of my favourites ever since. Unconventionally, I particularly like the impressionistic flow of that Ponti recording.


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

I have a particular fondness for his Forgotten Melodies, Third Piano Concerto and his Third Violin Sonata "Epic". I agree with Woodduck that the "Rachmaninoff without the tunes" verdict is an injustice, although there's no escaping, for me anyway, that his music is not strikingly memorable (and the garish scoring especially in his piano music does not help). But he is a fine composer, not top-ten necessarily, but quite up there.

As far as Russian piano music is concerned, I tend to enjoy that of Myaskovsky, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Rebikov, Roslavets, Glazunov, Bortkiewicz, even Lyapunov and Balakirev more than that of Medtner. But a performance of music that has the tendency towards the garish or the dense, or self-effacement, can make all the difference in our understanding and appreciation of his art. And with the right advocacy: one with artistry, verve, the ability to articulate the nuances successfully, imagination, his music can be (very) appealing. Pianists who comes to mind in this regard include Milne, Tozer, Hamelin, Demidenko.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

I've had Medtner recommended to me , and I do like some of the Forgotten Melodies. Mostly though, I find my attention wandering, and I suspect others must as well or his music would be played more frequently


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

"Rachmaninoff without the tunes" is a perfect description of how I remember his music, but it's been a while. I'll try again this evening, maybe.


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

SONNET CLV said:


> I've been adding Hyperion "Romantic Piano Concerto" discs to my CD shelves since the start of that release program, and I note that the second volume of the series features two Medtner concertos, Nos. 2 and 3, with Nikolai Demidenko (piano), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Jerzy Maksymiuk (conductor). And it was apparently a Gramophone Award Winner for 1992!
> 
> View attachment 113914


Happening to be listening to this now. An excellent performance (as are so many in that Hyperion series).

As for Medtner's music, somehow it reminds me of Rachmaninoff, only . . .


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

UPDATE: He is better than I remembered, or maybe I've gone softer with age.


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

Rachmaninov without the tunes???

Ok, a bit unfair, but ever since hearing the Second Piano Concerto, I've thought of him as "Rachmaninov with balls". That concerto remains one of my favourite piano concertos, thanks to Demidenko's fabulous Hyperion performance


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Medtner and Rachmaninoff were in fact good friends. Whether the former was ever envious of the latter's melodic gift and popularity I don't know, but I've not heard of any ill-feeling between them.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

isorhythm said:


> UPDATE: He is better than I remembered, or maybe I've gone softer with age.


So, Medtner is "better than [you] remembered"?

Maybe, with age, you've just lost interest in Rachmaninoff tunes?

Just kidding.


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## Dimace (Oct 19, 2018)

I love Medtner. Very good composer in every aspect. The Sonata / Ballade Op.27 his best work. (personal opinion)


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist (Jan 13, 2019)

Not only a great composer, but a fine pianist as well!

He'd be in my Russian top 10; potentially even top 5.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Where's the love? I imagine it's in the Medtner guestbook, just where one would expect it?

Top ten? I don't see him hanging in this company:

Schnittke
Weinberg
Shostakovich
Prokofiev
Myaskovsky
Rachmaninoff
Stravinsky
Scriabin
Tchaikovsky
Mussorgsky
Rimsky-Korsakoff



Dimace said:


> I love Medtner. Very good composer in every aspect. The Sonata / Ballade Op.27 his best work. (personal opinion)


I'll take the Sonata in G minor op. 22.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

EdwardBast said:


> Top ten? I don't see him hanging in this company:
> 
> Schnittke
> Weinberg
> ...


I'd take Medtner over Mussorgsky or R-K.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Bulldog said:


> I'd take Medtner over Mussorgsky or R-K.


I might too, but I don't think he matched the best of their work. I might have tried to work Borodin and Taneyev in there somewhere.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Bulldog said:


> I'd take Medtner over Mussorgsky or R-K.


This preference makes sense to me - if one is not an opera fan. Otherwise, no.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

EdwardBast said:


> This preference makes sense to me - if one is not an opera fan. Otherwise, no.


Although I love much music from operas, I am not a fan of the genre.


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

Bulldog said:


> I'd take Medtner over Mussorgsky or R-K.


no. Medtner is great, but not as great as Mussorgsky or RK operas.


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