Nikolai Medtner; Sergei Rachmaninov - Piano Works (Yevgeny Sudbin)

Information

Composer: Nikolai Medtner; Sergei Rachmaninov

1. Medtner - Prologue from Stimmungsbilder, Op. 1
2. Medtner - Fairy Tale, Op. 51 No. 3
3. Medtner - Sonata-Reminiscenza, , Op. 38 No. 1
4. Medtner - Fairy Tale, Op. 20 No. 1
5. Medtner - Fairy Tale, Op. 26 No. 1
6. Medtner - Canzona matinata, Op. 39 No. 4
7. Medtner - Sonata tragica, Op. 39 No. 5
8. Rachmaninov - Prelude in D major, Op. 23 No. 4
9. Rachmaninov - Prelude in G minor, Op. 23 No. 5
10. Rachmaninov - Prelude in G major, Op. 32 No. 5
11. Rachmaninov - Prelude in F minor, Op. 32 No. 6
12. Rachmaninov - Prelude in G sharp minor, Op. 32 No. 12
13. Rachmaninov - Prelude in D flat major, Op. 32 No. 13

Yevgeny Sudbin, piano

Date: 2015

Label: BIS

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Review

This is a wondrous disc. Yevgeny Sudbin has not been alone in championing the piano music of Nikolay Medtner: in recent times Marc-André Hamelin, Steven Osborne and Hamish Milne have all brought their special insights into a composer who can perhaps on occasion seem problematic and somehow remote. Sudbin, however, seems to have an exceptional affinity with Medtner’s language. He brings both his heart and his head into play when performing these pieces. His head tackles and illuminates textures and harmonies that might seem opaque and knotty on a first study of the scores; his heart is then harnessed to convey the extraordinary sensibility, passion and thoroughly individual cast of melody that courses through the music. As usual with Sudbin’s series of BIS discs, he also writes his own booklet-notes in a lucid way that testifies both to his enthusiasm and to his understanding.

‘Once you have become mesmerised by the harmonies,’ he says, ‘time stands still and you are completely absorbed in the moment.’ Such is also the feeling that comes over the listener when hearing him play this selection of seven pieces, which – presumably purposely – illustrates the range of emotion that Medtner could distil into his music. There is, for example, the ostensible serenity of the miniature Fairy Tale, Op 26 No 1, but it is a serenity in which the smooth surface of the music is ruffled by animated motifs and coloured with strange harmonies and sonorities. As Sudbin says of another Fairy Tale, the Op 51 No 3, it becomes ‘progressively more interesting as more detail [emerges]. This is a particular trait of Medtner’s oeuvre: repeated listening enhances one’s appreciation of his music greatly.’ The same is true of the Fairy Tale, Op 26 No 1, and indeed could be said of all the pieces in Sudbin’s set. It is fascinating to follow Medtner’s line of thinking through the Sonata-Reminiscenza especially when its intriguing contrasts are elucidated with such coherence and spellbinding magic as they are here.

Medtner’s natural companion on this disc is his intimate friend, Rachmaninov, from whose Preludes Opp 23 and 32 Sudbin draws six pieces. Even the well-known G minor, Op 23 No 5, comes up with a new exhilaration in Sudbin’s hands; the F minor, Op 32 No 6, acquires a terrifying, angered intensity. But in all six of these preludes Sudbin deploys a luminous spectrum of timbre, a clear interpretative focus and a finely tuned imagination to encapsulate their very essence.

-- Geoffrey Norris, Gramophone

More reviews:
https://musicweb-international.com/classrev//2016/Aug/Medtner_Rachmaninov_BIS1848.htm

https://www.classical-music.com/reviews/instrumental/yevgeny-sudbin-performs-solo-piano-works-medtner-and-rachmaninov

https://www.allmusic.com/album/yevgeny-sudbin-plays-medtner-rachmaninov-mw0002904670

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/album-review-yevgeny-sudbin-plays-medtner-rachmaninov/TMMPGPYDAI6DRL7XKHOKVR4DCE/#google_vignette

https://www.amazon.com/Yevgeny-Sudbin-plays-Medtner-Rachmaninov/dp/B0172MIDLQ

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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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Sergei Rachmaninov (1 April [O.S. 20 March] 1873 – 28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. He is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music. His music was influenced by Tchaikovsky, Arensky and Taneyev. Rachmaninov wrote five works for piano and orchestra: four concertos and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. He also composed a number of works for orchestra alone, including three symphonies, the Symphonic Dances Op. 45, and four symphonic poems.

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

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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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