Medtner: Arabesques, Dithyrambs, Elegies & Other Short Piano Works

Featuring

Hamish Milne
Nikolai Medtner

Did you know?

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Composition History

Rachmaninov was so moved by the first of Medtner's 'Tragedy Fragments' (part of Op. 7) that he exclaimed, 'Write one such piece and one can die!'

Performer Biography

Hamish Milne, the pianist on this album, studied with Harold Craxton and Guido Agosti, and was deeply impressed by Sergiu Celibidache's classes at the Accademia Chigiana.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Medtner's artistic creed was deeply influenced by Mikhail Lermontov's poem 'The Angel,' which he used as a preface to his book 'The Muse and Fashion,' advocating a return to fundamental natural laws of music.

Composition History

Medtner's 'Prologue' from his Op. 1, inspired by Lermontov's poem 'The Angel,' was so perfectly matched to the poem's rhythm that he later published a vocal version, Op. 1bis.

Critical Reception

Alexander Goldenweiser, a contemporary and authority connected to Tolstoy, praised Medtner's Op. 1 as 'not tentative experiments but the work of a mature and original talent.'

Composer Biography

Nikolai Medtner, the composer, is primarily known for his 38 Skazki ('Tales') for solo piano, which tend to overshadow his other substantial works.

Composition History

Medtner retrospectively titled his virtuosic 'Tragedy Fragment in G minor' (Op. 7, No. 3), completed just before the 1905 Russian Revolution, 'A Presentiment of Revolution.'