I just don't like the noise it makes.... (those 'blind spot' pieces)

[Sir Velo]

I've never connected with Medtner. My loss?

Christ, yes! Try the piano sonata the "Night Wind" (starts 0'36" in) for starters.

[kea]

I've never connected with Medtner. My loss?

Well, I love Medtner. But his music can be very introspective and can make rather extreme demands on the listener (as in two of my very favourite Medtner pieces, the 2nd and 3rd violin sonatas) due to a combination of duration and perceived monothematicism (all musical ideas tend to be derived from a basic 'germ'), along with a tendency to be highly meditative in character and to rely more on timbre and colour than pretty much any composer between Berlioz and Ligeti. (This is the main purpose of all the chromatic filigree that tends to obscure his melodic lines—not virtuosity but harmonic colouring of piano resonance.) Much of his music is like a classicized, harmonically expanded extension of the early works of Schumann, with added Russianness.

For more accessible Medtner works you could try the three sets of Forgotten Melodies (Op. 38, 39 & 40), and the Sonata Minacciosa Op. 53/2 which was written in the 1930s and sounds like it.

[edashtav]

I'm happy to play Bass Drum in Sir Velo's Medtner Army - there's an amplitude to his conservative invention that covers the meanness of his melodic material.

[Serial_Apologist]

Well, I love Medtner. But his music can be very introspective and can make rather extreme demands on the listener (as in two of my very favourite Medtner pieces, the 2nd and 3rd violin sonatas) due to a combination of duration and perceived monothematicism (all musical ideas tend to be derived from a basic 'germ'), along with a tendency to be highly meditative in character and to rely more on timbre and colour than pretty much any composer between Berlioz and Ligeti. (This is the main purpose of all the chromatic filigree that tends to obscure his melodic lines—not virtuosity but harmonic colouring of piano resonance.) Much of his music is like a classicized, harmonically expanded extension of the early works of Schumann, with added Russianness.

For more accessible Medtner works you could try the three sets of Forgotten Melodies (Op. 38, 39 & 40), and the Sonata Minacciosa Op. 53/2 which was written in the 1930s and sounds like it.

Excellently put, IIMSS. You didn't once post that you did not like Schoenberg's music, did you now?!

[Serial_Apologist]

I'm happy to play Bass Drum in Sir Velo's Medtner Army - there's an amplitude to his conservative invention that covers the meanness of his melodic material.

I've heard the latter said of Medtner's melodic inventiveness elsewhere, and just listening to the sheer tunefulness of Sir Velo's above link have to disagree strongly. I'm sure that his music would not have so endeared itself to Rachmaninov were this claim to be the case, along with harmonic richness and formal inventiveness.

[Nick Armstrong]

Christ, yes! Try the piano sonata the "Night Wind" (starts 0'36" in) for starters.

I'll see your 'Christ yes' and raise you a 'Gordon Bennett, don't give up on Medtner, verismissimo!'...

Yevgeny Sudbin is a great exponent - in the very generous 'media room' on his website: http://www.yevgenysudbin.com/artist.php?view=media

run down the 'Audio' column and click on:

Medtner, 'Sonata Tragica' (live, London 2003)

&

Medtner 'Sonata Reminiscenza' (live, Gilmore Series 2007)

Some glorious music!

[Roslynmuse]

There are some composers I find I have antipathy to, whilst at the same time enjoying other, not dissimilar composers. Thus, I find a lot of RVW difficult to take but adore Holst; love Sibelius but loathe (a lot of) Nielsen, and suffer from claustrophobia within seconds of attending performances of Bruckner Symphonies (a live No 8 under Herbig was rather special though, and a No 5 under Kurt Masur) but wish often Wagner were longer! Some composers have love/loathe capacity within their own output - Brahms, for example (love 1st Piano Concerto but detest the 2nd - except for the opening of the 3rd mt, the Violin Conc and Double Conc). I love almost all of Chopin apart from the 1st Piano Concerto and lose interest fairly rapidly in the 2nd - but neither of those are masterpieces anyway. The Cello Sonata is, but I don't like the sound it makes. Actually, I think I have a cello blind spot - can't really get on with Don Quixote (there's another love/loathe composer) or the Dvorak Cello Concerto. The RVW is the biggest puzzle and I do keep nagging away with him.

[Sir Velo]

I'll see your 'Christ yes' and raise you a 'Gordon Bennett, don't give up on Medtner, verismissimo!'...

Yevgeny Sudbin is a great exponent - in the very generous 'media room' on his website: http://www.yevgenysudbin.com/artist.php?view=media

run down the 'Audio' column and click on:

Medtner, 'Sonata Tragica' (live, London 2003)

&

Medtner 'Sonata Reminiscenza' (live, Gilmore Series 2007)

Some glorious music!

Thoroughly endorse those sentiments Caliban. In fact, I would recommend them to a newbie ahead of the somewhat astringent Sonata Minacciosa, pace member Kea!

[Nick Armstrong]

Thoroughly endorse those sentiments Caliban. In fact, I would recommend them to a newbie ahead of the somewhat astringent Sonata Minacciosa, pace member Kea!

I think I would too

[Sir Velo]

suffer from claustrophobia within seconds of attending performances of Bruckner Symphonies (a live No 8 under Herbig was rather special though, and a No 5 under Kurt Masur)

If you love the sound a full symphony orchestra makes I can't believe you can't love Bruckner. Hearing an extract of Giulini's Bruckner 9 at the weekend made me fall in love all over again with this piece and the composer. In fact, how anyone who claims to love symphonic music could fail not to be overwhelmed at the glorious, burnished sound Giulini gets from the orchestra at the end of the first movement, is beyond me. But Bruckner must be played loud - no half measures!

[Sir Velo]

but loathe (a lot of) Nielsen.

You've got a treat in store when you get round to hearing CN's 4th & 5th symphonies!

[BBMmk2]

I'll see your 'Christ yes' and raise you a 'Gordon Bennett, don't give up on Medtner, verismissimo!'...

Yevgeny Sudbin is a great exponent - in the very generous 'media room' on his website: http://www.yevgenysudbin.com/artist.php?view=media



run down the 'Audio' column and click on:

Medtner, 'Sonata Tragica' (live, London 2003)

&

Medtner 'Sonata Reminiscenza' (live, Gilmore Series 2007)

Some glorious music!

absolutely, Cali! Hold the flag up for Medtner!! :)

[ahinton]

absolutely, Cali! Hold the flag up for Medtner!! :)

Wholeheartedly endorsed! If I could do a tiny fraction of what he did (albeit obviously very differently to his way of doing it), especially when writing for piano solo, I'd be quite unreasonably proud of myself! Medtner's flag holds itself up to all those who can see it being so upheld!

[Nick Armstrong]

In looking for a previous post about Medtner, I came across a previous post of mine about 'my big blind spot'.... well, Andras's and mine, I should say:

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?5380-The-joy-of-having-one-s-preferences-validated-by-a-higher-authority&p=162725#post162725

[Stan Drews]

Originally Posted by Caliban:

"That's interesting, Bbm.... I saw/heard Barbs's splutter earlier and was thinking about it, and wondering whether it's because the 'Unfinished' is the first symphony I ever played in - I was wondering if that was what put me off, like Suffy with the Chopin PC#2. The trombone part is a bit dull, and also having all the nuts and bolts of the piece exposed in rehearsals etc might have robbed it of its magic."

Late reply, I know, but imho the 3rd trombone part in the Schubert second mov't is positively scary; two solo entries underpinning the woodwind choir - very quiet cold(ish) entry, and usually sitting a few yards away while trbs 1 & 2 are diligently counting rests