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Medtner is my favorite composer right now. I love the second movement of sonata-skazka, played by evgeny svetlanov (recording on youtube)

This evening I returned to Medtner after an approximate 6 year hiatus. With the recommendation of the 'other' Jason I listened to the Ab sonata Op 11 and TheCannibalHaddock's recommendation of 'Sonata romantica' Op 53/1. All with assistance from my Dover scores. (I'll save 'Night Wind' for another evening.)

I certainly heard a lot more substance after my initial encounters, and this could be the beginning of a new discovery. But most interestingly, after 'Sonata romantica', I went on to 'Sonata minacciosa' and 'Sonate-Idylle'. Those were wonderful, I need to hear them again!

I apologize if the occasional heretical thought crossed my mind 'well, didn't Rachmaninov say this before, a lot more directly?', but more troubling was the nagging feeling that the Medtner sonatas as a whole, for all their technical and formal mastery are somewhat less than the sum of their parts.

One reads here, and in various music periodicals, that Medtner was the equal of Rachmaninov and Scriabin, but why is it that their music is so much more popular? Is this due to ignorance or laziness, or is there something else going on? Just wondering.

Huh, good question Jason. I have wondered that with more than one composer whose work I really loved, when a much more famous composer impressed me less. Some of it seems be be mythos or prestige behind some of the names, and some could just be that a rube like me doesn't have the ears or brain to discern what apparent awesomeness these 'lesser' composers lack

In the end, much of it seems to come down to taste (popular tastes, to be specific), a little bit is decided by the exposure of the musician and still a bit more comes down the the uniqueness, creativity, or exceptional example of a style in a particular piece of music. But I have found that simply because a work isn't exemplary, singularly spectacular, or iconic doesn't mean it can't offer a lovely aural escape nonetheless - and that creativity and catch is exactly what I heard in those Medtner works

I am going to start Op.51 No.2 today.

hey chopin addict, I'm learning op. 51 no. 2 also. Please keep me updated with your progress

I enjoyed it very much so far!

do you sometimes have trouble working out fingerings in Medtner? It seems like I can never bring his music off of the page and onto the keys without a few wonky fingerings.

ceterum censeo Rachmaninoff's 1st better than any of the 15 Medtner's esse...

So far no case has been made to the contrary...

Are you thinking of any particular measures? By the way, are you using the IMSLP version too?

I am looking at it again tomorrow. I went through it twice yesterday on my tablet PC. Today I went to Sydney for a book sale and am terribly tired... I hoped I would find some Medtner at the book sale, but I didn't find much, let alone Medtner!

Actually I was just talking about Medtner in general. Is this your first Medtner by the way?
And no, I don't use the imslp version--I have the book of complete fairy tales

Lucky you! I want to buy it too.
(Yes, it is my first Medtner. )

There are some interesting Medtner recordings available at this website devoted to Medtner. I think his health was not too great at the time these were made, but he still plays extremely well. The site also has historic recordings that don't involve Medtner playing, including one of Oistrakh and Goldenweiser playing the massive and wonderful 3rd Violin Sonata.

I have been somewhat depressed recently, and I couldn't find the motivation to practice. But yesterday, I sat down and listened to Medtner himself playing some of the fairy tales (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Dmu...t=PL24F561D9F516ACBF&lf=results_main)
All of a sudden, I felt like practicing for 8 hours a day! Medtner's playing touched me in a way that Geoffrey Tozer, or Hamelin, or Hamish Milne have never done. This music is really powerful!

P.S. I actually think Hamelin's interpretations of Medtner are really bland, besides maybe some interesting dynamics...

No case has been made either way.

Hoping some posters will go back to the original topic of examples of particular beautiful lyrical pasages in Medtner's works, preferably with Youtube examples included.

Here are some of my favorites:

Sonata-skazka by Evgeny Svetlanov:
part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrS05rGSnt4
part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rAkW8ja0C8&feature=related

Sonata-reminiscenza by Richter:
part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crTSTtKKeXc
part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILqY6T2SBQc&feature=related

Sonata-ballade played by Medtner:
part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGjxy4Q4VCU
part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OjtBysE6ls

Medtner Quintet by Malcolm Binns:
part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMwV...p;playnext=1&list=PL4B2FF089439A1E95
part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM_c7F1RknI&feature=related
part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1A1_d71ed_0&feature=related

Sonata-tragica by Anna Zassimova:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vdu8SY1mvE0

op. 9 no. 1 by Hamish Milne:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e6vk83c2DA&feature=channel_video_title

op. 34 no. 4 by Hamish Milne:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRJaAHlCqP4&feature=related

op 34. no. 3 by Hamish Milne:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qqvWNWYzcg&feature=related

I do enjoy the Fairy Tales I suppose...

Argerichfan, it took me many years to build an appreciation for Medtner's music. I think what did it in the end was the compelling interpretation of Opus. 8 by Hamelin, and even more significantly Demidenko's recordings of the second and third concertos. That ossia cadenza in the first movement of the second concerto gets me every time! Some of the forgotten tales have also grown on me. That said, some of his other compositions (violin sonatas, some of the skazki, etc) sound really awkward.

I recently acquired the complete sonatas and piano works of Medtner as performed by Hamish Milne. I'm listening to the Fairy Tales as we speak. Good show. Very challenging technically. I wasn't familiar with him. I was keeping my fingers crossed hoping that, because he lived through modern idioms such as serialism, 12 tone and so forth, he didn't adopt them. Not that I dislike Berg or Schoenberg, but sometimes they can be a bit much.

Try Yevgeny Sudbin's recording of the 1st concerto. You might have to buy it (I did, that guy's playing is really quite good overall), I've never seen it online before. He makes the technical demands disappear. I haven't even looked through the whole score so I'm not aware of exactly how hard it is, but I'm sure it's extremely difficult. I get the feeling that it is harder to play and learn than any of the standard concertos. But that aside, the Medtner 1st Concerto easily takes the prize of favorite concerto for me, it was convincing upon first listening.

I listened to all the sonatas while following the score a few years ago, and while it's cool to be in awe of all the textures written in, perhaps it's more rewarding to just listen and try to pick things out by ear, because then you think less about how hard it is to learn and whether or not the difficulty is justified.

To me Medtner's music has the most "dimensions" (sorry for the vague undescriptive term). A lot of it doesn't immediately jump out at you the way Rachmaninoff does, but I think that's because there's just more going on, the same way Bach isn't extremely popular. I feel like Medtner's music requires an input of focus from the listener that becomes richly rewarded in a symbiotic way.

If you couldn't tell already, Medtner is my favorite composer, and one of my greatest laments is that his Sonatas aren't published by Dover anymore. Oh wait, what is this I'm seeing on Amazon