Nikolai Medtner - Songs (Ludmilla Andrew; Geoffrey Tozer)

Information

Composer: Nikolai Medtner

• 23 Songs

Ludmilla Andrew, soprano
Geoffrey Tozer, piano

Date: 1994
Label: Chandos
https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%209327

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Review

Musical Opinion, reviewing the newly published Op. 52 in 1931, concluded that, ''very accomplished musician'' as he undoubtedly was, Medtner could hardly be considered ''a born song writer'': ''These restless, feverish compositions with their incessant chromaticism and modulations are essentially unvocal, though they are dramatic and rhapsodical enough.'' It says something for the achievement of Ludmilla Andrew on this record that the 'unvocal' character of Medtner's writing is hardly evident at all, though, to be fair, the first three songs from Op. 52 are perhaps the very ones in which the voice is most hard-pressed and in which it is even possible to feel that they might do very well as piano solos. In the fourth, the ''Serenade'' (No. 6 in the set), the piano part is an accompaniment, and the singer brings to it a charm and delicacy worthy of its dedicatee, Nina Koshetz.

''We may add [said Musical Opinion] that a pianist who would essay the accompaniments would have to practise hard.'' Geoffrey Tozer has evidently practised to good effect (he is in any case a highly experienced Medtner pianist, as his recordings of the concertos and solo works on Chandos – 4/92 and 11/92 – testify). His playing of ''Winter Evening'', with its evocative rustling start, is superb; but always, along with the sheer virtuosity, there is a responsive feeling for mood and coloration. In his written notes he mentions critics who complain that Medtner's songs are ''sonatas in disguise'', and the balance of recording might have helped to stifle such objections if it had allowed the singer more presence. Certainly there are songs in which the piano takes over (the fifth of Op. 24, for instance). Yet in many the interest is evenly distributed, and these – the last three of the present recital – are among the most delightful in the repertoire, and, as it happens, the very opposite of ''feverish'' and ''restless''.

-- Gramophone

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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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