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

Information

Composer: Nikolai Medtner

• Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, Op. 33
• Sonata-Ballade in F sharp major, Op. 27
• Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 50
• 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

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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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Geoffrey Tozer (5 November 1954 – 21 August 2009) was an Australian classical pianist and composer. He studied with Eileen Ralf and Keith Humble in Australia, Maria Curcio in England and Theodore Lettvin in the United States. His career included tours of Europe, America, Australia and China, where he performed the Yellow River Concerto to an estimated audience of 80 million people. Tozer had more than 100 concertos in his repertoire, including those of Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Medtner, Rachmaninoff, Bartók, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Gerhard. He recorded for the Chandos label.

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

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