IDAGIO | Nicolas Medtner: Complete Solo Piano Recordings, Vol. 1 - The Unpublished 1930-1931 Columbia Recordings 5024709155460

Featuring

Nikolai Medtner
Ludwig van Beethoven

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Recording & Production

The 1930-31 Columbia recording sessions for Nicolas Medtner played a vital role in the development of recording technology in the UK, experimenting with new electrical recording systems.

Composer Biography

Nicolas Medtner left Russia in 1921, unable to reconcile himself with the Bolshevik regime, and later settled in London in 1935.

Performer Biography

Nicolas Medtner, a contemporary of Scriabin and Rachmaninoff, was an outstanding pianist who graduated from the Moscow Conservatoire with a Gold Medal.

Recording & Production

Nicolas Medtner's first commercial recordings for Columbia in 1930-31 were never published due to the catastrophic decline in record sales during the Great Depression.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Nicolas Medtner chose to devote his life to composition, following his calling with almost religious dedication and disregard for material success, making the piano the focus of all his creative work.

Composition History

The recording of Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata, a work very dear to Nicolas Medtner, is the only known example of him performing another composer's music on disc.

Composition History

In 1946, the Maharaja of Mysore, an Indian potentate, sponsored the establishment of a Medtner Society to enable the weakened and ageing composer to record his works.