Medtner: Sonata-Ballade Op. 27, Sonata-Idyll Op. 56, Forgotten Melodies Op. 39

Description

The fate of Nikolai Medtner is not unique in the history of music, but still remains rather unsettling. During the portion of his life he spent in Russia, he was unanimously considered as one of the greatest musicians of his time, and was highly admired, among others, by no less an artist than his lifelong friend Sergei Rachmaninov. Yet, once he left what had by then become the Soviet Union, the West which should have welcomed him warmly ended up forgetting him almost completely, leaving him destitute and relegating his figure and works into sad oblivion. Fortunately, this process started to be reversed in the last decade of the twentieth century; and although it would be an overstatement to speak of a “Medtner-Renaissance”, it is true that today he is starting to be recognized by increasingly numerous members of the concert audience. Still, much remains to be done, and therefore endeavours such as that represented by the present recording are appreciable not only for their inherent artistic worth, but also for their historical value in reestablishing a great musician’s place in the history of music.
Medtner’s family was originally from Germany from both sides, although they had settled in Russia already for several generations at the time of his birth. Still, the double nationality of his ancestry would remain as an important trait of his personal and musical identity, binding him on the one hand to the “Western” tradition of German music, and, on the other, to the Slavic heritage of his Russian upbringing.
His first musical education was provided him by his family: byy his mother, Alexandra Karlovna Goedicke, and by his maternal uncle. At twelve, the boy was already such an accomplished and promising pianist that he was admitted to the prestigious Conservatory of Moscow, his birth city. During his student years, he could profit from the exceptional musical environment of that institution, as well as from the cultural milieu of the city. He studied with some of the most notable musicians of the time, including Pavel Pabst, Wassily Sapellnikoff, Vasily Safonov and Sergei Taneyev, who was to influence him the most. In fact, Medtner graduated with a Golden Medal in piano at age twenty, but – against his family’s wishes – he decided to put his career as a solo pianist aside, and to concentrate instead mainly on composition; he would resume his piano playing only for the purpose of presenting himself and his own works. (The only exception would be Beethoven, his favourite composer, whose Piano Sonatas would remain a fundamental pillar of his repertoire ad of his aesthetics).
From 1903 onwards, Medtner was to publish his music, which focuses entirely on the piano – either as a solo instrument, or as a member of chamber music ensembles. It was this move which attracted the attention of Rachmaninoff, who would keep supporting and sustaining him for years.
Medtner would then embark in a life of teaching, composing, and performing (not much), following a clear and rigid daily schedule imbued with self-discipline. He would also develop an aesthetics of his own, which displays noteworthy characters of consistency and coherence. He even voiced his artistic and compositional principles by means of an important theoretical treatise, The Muse and the Fashion, in which he deliberately casts himself outside the circle of modernist music. For him, tonality was an irreplaceable feature of Western music. This position was, of course, harshly contested by many of his contemporaries; yet, it would be unfair to portray him as a mere conservative, refusing to come to terms with the development of language. Indeed, if one of his two artistic and spiritual roots was the German one, Wagner was one of his sources of inspiration; it is therefore a tonality which explores to their utmost boundaries the possibilities of chromaticism and innovative chord sequences, rather than a banal or trivial rehearsing the déjà vu.
After the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, for some years Medtner chose to distance himself – also physically – from the whirlwind of political events, violence, and turmoil, finding refuge at his parent’s house. However, soon the atmosphere became intolerable for someone who had his human and spiritual values, and therefore he left Russia almost forever in 1921. He was to return to his homeland only once, for a very successful concert tour in 1927. On that occasion, he received an attestation of esteem signed by 111 of his colleagues, including Shostakovich, reciting: “Dear Nikolai Karlovič, your austere and magnificent talent earned you a privileged place among those favoured by the Muses. In your art there is greatness and severity, wisdom and beauty, love and tenderness. Your art is like Nature itself, of which Tjutčev, one of your favourite poets, said: «It has a soul, it has freedom, and love, and a powerful speech»”.
After unsuccessfully attempting to conquer the audiences of Continental Europe, Medtner would find his new homeland in London. Here, his good fortune was to meet an Indian maharajah, who became his patron and founded a Medtner Society, with the purpose of allowing the composer to record his complete works. This endeavour was unfortunately not to be fulfilled, since in the meanwhile Medtner’s health had deteriorated due to heart conditions; however, what he could record – both of his own works and of Beethoven’s – stands as a lasting witness to his enormous talent, perceptivity, originality, and musical intelligence.
After his death, Medtner’s mortal remains would find rest close to those of his brother Emilii, to whom he had always been very attached. Indeed, their symbiosis was such that it allowed for a rather unusual situation to take place. When still in Russia, Nikolai had fallen in love with Emilii’s wife; when, during World War I, Emilii became a prisoner of war in Germany, fearing that he would not be able to return to Russia, he renounced his rights as Anna’s husband, divorcing her for the purpose of allowing Nikolai to marry her. This act of extreme brotherly love speaks volumes about their relationship, and even though they would spend the later part of their lives in two different countries (Emilii would remain in Germany), at least death brought them close to each other again.
The works recorded here are among the finest and most representative of Nikolai Medtner’s aesthetics and genius.
He wrote fourteen Piano Sonatas, almost all of which are known by a subtitle or nickname, at times explicitly stated in the title-page, at times traditionally attributed to them. The Sonata-Ballade (or Ballada) was originally conceived in 1913, and published in the same year as a one-movement Sonata; however, already in 1914 did a new edition appear, where its main body was now accompanied by an Introduction and a Finale. “Ballade” may refer to either a piece of poetry or a musical form (or to both, of course). Musically, the reference for this composition seems to be Chopin, whose four Ballades are among his most beloved works, but whose influence seems here to be identified mainly in his Barcarolle. Extra-musically, the epos of this piece bears witness to the narrative it encompasses, and which has been explicitly acknowledged by the composer. The Sonata-Ballade seems to have been inspired by a poem by Afanasy Fet, by the title of When Christ ran from idle human talk, and whose object is the Gospel episode of Christ’s temptations in the wilderness. The composer thus creates a powerful composition in which life and death, good and evil, heaven and hell are constantly in opposition with each other. This happens also on the plane of thematic elements and motifs, to the point that one of the most important of them would later be elaborated and be so widely adopted by the composer that it became one of his signature musical traits.
From the very last period before his exile date the three collection of Forgotten Melodies, op. 38, 39, and 40. They are unanimously considered as one of the loci where Medtner’s originality shines most clearly. They are collections of relatively short works, where also two one-movement Sonatas are found. They bear Italian titles (sometimes one should rather say “Italianate”, since Medtner seems to have been more fascinated by the Italian language than proficient in it…), and a predominant character is to be found in each of the three opuses: Op. 38 refers to Nature, op. 39 is “Lyric”, and op. 40 is a collection of dances. Tight references also bind each cycle together; for instance, the first and last pairs of pieces of op. 39 are thematically related with each other. Furthermore, the gloom of the Sonata Tragica is, and should be, tempered by the joyful style of the Canzona matinata, which, in Medtner’s view, is always to precede the Sonata’s performance. Memorable are also the emotional palettes of Meditazione, an introspective and somber piece, and of Romanza, with its impressive contrasts.
The other Sonata recorded here, the Sonata-Idyll, dates from 1935 and was conceived in Paris, to be completed in London in 1937. The composer was to premiere it in 1939. This Sonata is less demanding than many others of Medtner’s solo piano works, but this by no means relegates it to the role of a “minor” work. Indeed, here too elements of Medtner’s Christian faith come to the surface – he had recently converted from Lutheranism to Orthodoxy; the serenity of the overall mood, and the presence of liturgically-sounding themes contribute to the impression of otherworldliness created by this piece.
Together, the works recorded here contribute to the dissemination of Medtner’s unique and fascinating style, which is represented by them in many of its facets. It also elicits interest in the remaining portions of his oeuvre, which still has many gems to offer to the interested and curious listener, eager to discover what other treasures are in store for those wishing to engage with Medtner’s compositions.
Chiara Bertoglio © 2024