A belated thank you for your support, Antonio.

Saturday, February 24, 2018

Nikolai Medtner - Piano Concertos; Sonata-Ballade (Geoffrey Tozer)


Information

Composer: Nikolai Medtner

CD1:
  • (01-03) Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, Op. 33
  • (04-06) Sonata-Ballade in F sharp major, Op. 27
CD2:
  • (01-03) Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 50
  • (04-06) Piano Concerto No. 3 in E minor "Ballade", Op. 60

Geoffrey Tozer, piano
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Neeme Järvi, conductor

Date: 1992
Label: Chandos
https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%209040

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Review

ARTISTIC QUALITY: 9 / SOUND QUALITY: 9

Nikolai Medtner’s three piano concertos, like those of his close friend and countryman Sergei Rachmaninov, call upon soloist and orchestra to be equal partners rather than virtuoso pianist and accompanist. For this reason, the cycle recorded in 1991 by pianist Geoffrey Tozer and the London Philharmonic with Neemi Järvi conducting continues to be your best overall choice, especially since Chandos now reissues it at budget price. Tozer’s full-bodied sonority, long-lined instincts, and marvelously assured fingers favorably compare to Geoffrey Douglas Madge’s heavier, more emphatic traversals, although the litheness and flexibility distinguishing the aged Medtner’s keyboard prowess remains unique.

However, I wouldn’t want to be without Hyperion’s edition of the Second and Third Concertos. While the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra doesn’t quite match its London colleagues’ dynamic heft and pulsating strings, pianist Nikolai Demidenko takes the composer’s frequent expressive and articulation directives closer to heart, and with more volatile, heated results all around. Tozer’s excellent, insightful performance of the Op. 27 Sonate-Ballade (previously reissued in Chandos’ complete Medtner Sonata boxed set) fills out Disc 2 and matches Marc-André Hamelin’s staggering proficiency with a wider degree of harmonic inflection. To sum up, buy Tozer/Chandos for the music, but for the pianism, keep Demidenko/Hyperion in mind.

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday

More reviews:
http://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/medtner-piano-concertos-etc-0
http://www.amazon.com/Medtner-Complete-Piano-Concertos-Nikolay/dp/B000000AOY

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Nikolai Medtner (5 January 1880 [O.S. 24 December 1879] – 13 November 1951) was a Russian composer and pianist. A younger contemporary of Rachmaninoff and \Scriabin, he wrote a substantial number of compositions, all of which include the piano. His works include fourteen piano sonatas, three violin sonatas, three piano concerti, a piano quintet, two works for two pianos, many shorter piano pieces, a few shorter works for violin and piano, and 108 songs including two substantial works for vocalise. Despite his conservative musical tastes, Medtner's compositions and his pianism were highly regarded by his contemporaries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Medtner

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Geoffrey Tozer (5 November 1954 – 21 August 2009) was an Australian classical pianist and composer. A child prodigy, he composed an opera at the age of eight and became the youngest recipient of a Churchill Fellowship award at 13. His career included tours of Europe, America, Australia and China. Tozer had more than 100 concertos in his repertoire, many of which were recorded by him for the Chandos label, beginning with the works of Medtner. Tozer won numerous awards and much recognition worldwide, but suffered comparative neglect in Australia during the last years of his life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Tozer

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