Medtner is described as a 'classic-Impressionist' composer, whose extra-musical stimuli were tempered by an organic approach to composition stemming from the inherent classicism of figures like Brahms.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Critic M.D. Calvorcoressi described Medtner as a chief exponent of the traditional classical tendency in Russia, whose music owed nothing to the Nationalist movement or modern tendencies like Scriabin's.
Composer Biography
Serge Rachmaninov, a great friend of Medtner and six years his senior, considered Medtner the greatest living composer in the early 1920s.
Compositional Technique
Like Chopin, Medtner composed exclusively for the piano, and his piano music ranges from short character studies to larger-scaled sonatas.
Performer Biography
Alessandro Taverna, born in Venice in 1983, has won numerous international awards, including 1st prize in the 2009 Minnesota International Piano Competition and the Bronze Medal at the Leeds International Piano Competition.
Composer Biography
Nikolai Medtner, born in Moscow in 1879, was obliged to abandon his professorship of piano at the Moscow Conservatoire and seek a new life abroad after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.
Composition History
Medtner's Sonata Romantica is dedicated to Archibald Martin Henderson, a Scottish-born pianist and teacher who arranged for the sonata's premiere in Glasgow.
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