Nikolai Medtner; Alexander Scriabin - Piano Concertos (Yevgeny Sudbin)

Information

Composer: Nikolai Medtner; Alexander Scriabin

• Scriabin - Piano Concerto in F sharp minor, Op. 20
• Medtner - Piano Concerto No. 3 in E minor, 'Ballade', Op. 60

Yevgeny Sudbin, piano

Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra

Andrew Litton, conductor

Date: 2014

Label: BIS

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Review

It’s perhaps not surprising that Yevgeny Sudbin should be drawn to Nikolai Medtner: both are Russian-born, both ended up in the UK. They also share a link with Germany, Medtner in terms of ancestry, Sudbin in his studies. Sudbin offers a characteristically thought-provoking pairing of Scriabin, cheerfully pointing out in his engaging booklet-notes that ‘one could not possibly imagine the two becoming friends of any kind’.

The concertos here find Scriabin in youthful mode and Medtner near the end of his life. Heard ‘blind’ you’d never guess that Medtner’s Third, which has an unconventional fantasia-like structure, dated from the Second World War. He was fundamentally a man born out of his time (the only reason, surely, why his music isn’t much better known). Sudbin has found in Andrew Litton a wonderful comrade-in-arms and the characterisation offered by his Bergen Philharmonic is one of the pleasures of this recording. The interplay between pianist and orchestra is unfailingly chamber-musical and reactive. There were times when I wanted a greater degree of vehemence from the pianist (in the manner of Demidenko and – though he’s hampered by a cloudy recording – Scherbakov), not least at the outset of the very brief ‘Interludium’. In the finale, Demidenko’s uncompromising drive gives this long movement real shape (and his way with the perky theme at 1'30" in is winning), though Sudbin is unfailingly felicitous and highly reactive, which brings its own rewards.

In his notes Sudbin warns against thinking of Scriabin’s Piano Concerto as ‘Chopinesque’, though ironically it’s these qualities that characterise his own reading, the filigree beautifully brought off. Their relatively broad tempo for the slow-movement theme (more generous than Dobrowen for Solomon) works because Litton brings out the felicities of Scriabin’s scoring to such effect. And they surmount the challenges of the arguably over-extended finale, making light of the awkward rhythmic and textural shifts of gear. Solomon takes a different approach in his classic recording, steadier but rhythmically more strong-jawed. Add to this a finely detailed recording that puts Sudbin centre stage but not overly forward and you have a fascinating addition to the catalogue.

-- Harriet Smith, Gramophone

More reviews:
https://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev//2015/Feb/Medtner_Scriabin_PC_BIS2088.htm

https://www.classical-music.com/reviews/concerto/medtner-concerto-review-feb15

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jan/08/medtner-scriabin-piano-concerto-review-yevgeny-sudbin

https://www.amazon.com/Pno-Cons-SCRIABIN-MEDTNER/dp/B00OMEJ8JE

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Nikolai Medtner (5 January 1880 [O.S. 24 December 1879] – 13 November 1951) was a Russian composer and pianist. He studied at the Moscow Conservatory from 1891 to 1900, having studied under Pavel Pabst, Wassily Sapellnikoff, Vasily Safonov and Sergei Taneyev among others. His works include 14 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. His 38 Skazki for piano solo contain some of his most original music.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Medtner

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Alexander Scriabin (6 January 1872 [O.S. 25 December 1871] – 27 April [O.S. 14 April] 1915) was a Russian composer and pianist. Before 1903, Scriabin was greatly influenced by the music of Frédéric Chopin and composed in a relatively tonal, late-Romantic idiom. Later, and independently of his influential contemporary Arnold Schoenberg, Scriabin developed a much more dissonant musical language that had transcended usual tonality but was not atonal. His works exerted a salient influence on the music world over time, and inspired composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev and Karol Szymanowski.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Scriabin

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Yevgeny Sudbin (born 19 April 1980) is a Russian-born British concert pianist. He studied at the musical school of the Leningrad Conservatory. After his family emigrated to Berlin in 1990, he studied at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, then at the Purcell School and the Royal Academy of Music in London. Sudbin has lived in the UK since 1997, and made his debut at The Proms in July 2008. In September 2010, he was appointed visiting professor of piano at the Royal Academy of Music. Sudbin has recorded music of Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Medtner, Scarlatti, and Scriabin for the BIS label.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Sudbin

https://www.yevgenysudbin.com/

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