Nikolai Medtner - Complete Piano Sonatas, Marc-André Hamelin, piano

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Nikolai Medtner's chums at the Moscow Conservatory included Scriabin and Rachmaninoff. Like them, he was a brilliant pianist. Also like them, he composed an extensive body of distinguished piano music, most of which is relatively unknown. Its style resembles that of Rachmaninoff (who greatly admired it), although it lacks the latter's memorable melodies. Technically, it is just as difficult, requiring not only great fluency and endurance but also a wide range of colors. Marc-André Hamelin's prodigious technique makes him an ideal interpreter of Medtner's strong, clearly chiseled structures. His ability to play even the most complex and difficult passages at an even pace helps delineate and clarify them. Excellent recorded sound. --Paul Turok


Product Description

Sonates en fa mineur, Op.5 - en sol mineur, Op.22 - en mi mineur "Night Wind", Op.25/2 - en la mineur, Op.30 - en si bémol mineur "Sonata Romantica", op.53/1, etc. / Marc-André Hamelin, piano


Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Real Treasures of the Recorded Catalogue December 11, 2001
By John H. Pendley
Format:Audio CD
This is not the easiest music to love. Its structure is difficult and extremely cyclic, its textures are often dense, and its technical demands are extreme. But something about it impressed me when I first heard these recordings, and my fascination with it has not let go for six months. I have come to believe that Medtner was as great a musician as many that we revere and infinitely superior to many who are more popular. Do not be misled by observations that his music is like Rachmaninoff's (it's more German than Russian) or that it is boring. His rigorous intellect and devotion to his music are obvious; listening to him is an intellectual challenge. Emotionally, his music is, at times, noble, whimsical, severe, hymn-like, tender, and dramatic. It is rhythmically invigorating and melodically gorgeous, even if it isn't easy to whistle along with his tunes. If all that sounds like a tall order for the listener, what about the poor pianist?

I've learned something about Marc-Andre Hamelin by listening to this set. I came to this music having pigeon-holed Hamelin as the most super-humanly gifted technical pianist I've heard in fifty years of loving classical piano music--and little else. I was right about his technique, but I could hardly have been more mistaken about his musicianship. I've come to love this music so much that I now have four complete sets of Medtner's Sonatas. Three of them only serve to illuminate Hamelin's mastery of enormous structural difficulties, his understated but compelling poetry, and his absolute dedication to music that demands no less. Yes, his technique is uncannily fleet-fingered, but just as impressive is his ability to unravel and bring absolute clarity to complex textures. He is one of our true masters of the piano, and this music is far, far too wonderful to be as little known as it is. If you love great piano music, and great piano playing, buy this set before it is no longer available: it is one of the real treasures of recorded piano music.