Medtner: Three Hymns in Praise of Toil, Op. 49

‘Write one such piece and one can die.’ So pronounced Rachmaninov, no less, after hearing the second of Medtner’s Arabesques. This is just one of the delights in the enticing selection box offered by Hamish Milne, a long-standing and ardent champion of Medtner’s music. These two discs explore the many miniatures—in size though not in ambition—that he wrote throughout his life. The very opening of his Mood Pictures shows a remarkable sophistication for a man barely out of his teens, while the magnificent pair of Elegies forms a fitting conclusion to a set that reminds us that it is sometimes among the ‘miscellaneous’ works that the greatest gems are to be found.

Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951) was a close friend and contemporary of Rachmaninov. The two composers performed regularly together, and Rachmaninov considered Medtner to be a finer pianist than himself. His musical style, like his family background was more in the German style than his contemporaries at the Moscow Conservatory – with Brahms being a considerable influence. His three piano concertos are well worth getting to know, and display superb craftsmanship and a highly virtuosic technique. However, a problem that dogged Medtner was, that unlike his friend Rachmaninov, he never produced a work that had an instant appeal to the man in the street. Rachmaninov’s has all the sweep and passion one expects from a Russian concerto of the time, Medtner’s concerto is highly intellectual, has fewer moments of passionate music, and doesn’t give up its secrets easily.

His solo piano music is perhaps a good place to start discovering this enigmatic Russian master, and on these CDs are his 14 piano sonatas and his best known music, the wonderful ‘Fairy Tales’. Rachmaninov observed that all composers make mistakes when they are young, adding ‘only Medtner has, from the beginning, published works that it would be hard for him to better in later life. This set provides the opportunity to test this assertion as the sonatas span his early career to his old age.