The eminent Martha Argerich is one of the most loved and admired classical pianists of all time. She quickly gained worldwide reputation for her exciting performances. This release is the fifth in DOREMI’s special series of rare archival broadcasts featuring the artistry of the young Argerich from early in her spectacular career which spanned more than five decades. This release features Mozart’s Concerto No. 20, recorded on June 16, 1966, and Bach’s Toccata in C minor, Schumann’s Fantasie in C Major, and Chopin’s 3 Mazurkas, recorded in Milan on March 14, 1966.
Medtner's legacy for solo piano is now widely esteemed alongside Rachmaninoff and other giants of the Russian 'silver age': melodists to their core, romantics at heart, yet rigorous craftsmen to their fingertips, who took their muse seriously and refined their inspiration to distil a peculiarly Russian spirit of melancholy in sound. However, around a third of Medtner's output, measured by opus numbers, was dedicated to voices, and this section of his music has received much less attention. Ekaterina Levental has dedicated herself to correcting this imbalance. The Uzbek-born, Dutch-resident mezzo-soprano has given all of Medtner's songs in concert with the pianist Frank Peters; together, they now embark on a recorded cycle. Medtner lacked nothing for self-sacrificing dedication to his art, and he chose to set the finest poets of his Russian homeland: Pushkin, Fet, Lermontov and others, and then Goethe and Eichendorff in German. Unlike Rachmaninoff he continued to write songs even after emigrating and settling in London. 'Medtner's musical vocabulary is very rich and expressive,' Levental and Peters explain in their own booklet note, which is printed together with English translations of the lyrics. 'Some songs immediately captivate you, others require a certain effort from the listener. Anyone who takes up the challenge, makes a discovery. Every song is a treasure and an intimate, spiritual confession from the composer to his listener.' In the category of 'immediate appeal' surely fall the two songs of Op.13: the ardent vocal response to Pushkin's Winter Evening perfectly underscored by the stormy piano part. No less unmistakably Russian in expression is the complementary Epitaph, triumphant even in it's mournfulness and like many other of the songs here not as stern as much of Medtner's piano music. Any listener looking for the composer's personal voice, behind the virtuoso keyboard fireworks, should start here.
Originally from the suburbs of Hamburg, Germany, Peters discovered the vibraphone as a young percussionist invited by his tutor to engage with a new, harmonic instrument. Peters's fascination and subsequent musical study led him to conservatory in Cologne, where he studied with Tom van der Geld and David Friedman. An exchange scholarship allowed Peters the opportunity to study in New York City in 2016, at New York University and the Manhattan School of Music, where he developed a relationship with Stefon Harris. His arrival in New York City has allowed Peters to invest in the City's flourishing young jazz scene. Peters's wide interests in all aspects of improvisational music allow him to be at home among both the avant-garde and the traditionalists, a perfect place to be in New York's eclectic milieu. Peters even programs a series at the Green Lung Studio in Brooklyn. Of course, the pause to the music world brought on by the pandemic lockdown shut off many of Peters's avenues of expression. Rather than get frustrated, he decided to hone his focus on his craft and composition. Peters took a musical turn and began to gravitate toward music with melodic clarity. He began to experiment compositionally with simplicity, limiting compositions to one or two ideas to pull from to develop. From there, the pieces could be embellished by the talented improvisers he would engage to perform them. All of the original pieces find reflection on musical inspiration from musical engagement with heroes, teachers, and experiences from Peters's life. At the end of August 2021, Peters assembled an outstanding cast of musicians to record Spring at Man Made Music in New York. The incredible quintet included trumpeter Adam O'Farrill, alto saxophonist Caleb Wheeler Curtis, bassist Walter Stinson, and drummer Buz Donald. Their wide range of expression can be heard augmenting the fascinating pieces Peters wrote.
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is a translation by Edward Fitzgerald of a selection of poems which were originally written in Persian and are attributed to Omar Khayyam, a Persian mathematician, astronomer, and poet. There are about a thousand poems in the complete volume. British composer Granville Bantock composed this choral setting of the works. Part 1 premiered in 1906, Part 2 in 1907, Part 3 in 1909, and the complete works were performed in 1910 at Queen’s Hall. This four disc set is the only complete recording ever made of the work, and is made up of original BBC Broadcasts from 1968 and 1979.
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REVIEWS:
Those who want to hear Omar Khayyam in all its glorious monumentality will need to buy the Lyrita set. it’s one of the monuments in British music that needs to be heard.
– The Guardian
Del Mar’s soloists sing with urgency and passion. A hugely enterprising addition to Lyrita’s ever-growing catalogue.
– Gramophone
This lively 1979 revival of the complete work is well coupled with other less rare Bantock, especially Fifine at the Fair. Del Mar, an eminent Strauss scholar, has a sure feel for the orchestral writing of this era, well paced and translucent rather than weighty.
This two disc set is a BBC recording that was broadcast on February 2, 1964 of Phyllis Tate’s The Lodger, an opera in two acts. The work was commissioned by the Royal Academy of Music. It was first performed there in 1960. This recording was the opera’s first broadcast. The work features Anthony Jacobs as the narrator, as well as the BBC Northern Singers and BBC Northern Orchestra.
The first volume in this project, undertaken with missionary zeal by both singer and pianist, to rescue Medtner’s song output from obscurity, was met with enthusiasm in the Dutch press. ‘The melancholy, autumnal atmosphere evokes Tsarist Russia, of which the once Uzbek but long Dutch-resident Ekaterina Levental has perfectly captured the spirit. Her smooth singing is a joy to listen to.’ (Opus Klassiek) Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951) was a Russian (with German roots) who lived outside the Soviet Union from 1921 and lived in London from 1936 until his death. He was a good friend of Rachmaninov and composed in a related style, with a hint of Scriabin here and there. His work dates from ‘the long 19th century’, ignoring the current of contemporary modernism; he continued to compose in a late romantic, tonal style until his last breath. Yet his music sings with its own voice. Medtner, a considerable virtuoso, wrote sonatas and concertos that place great demands on the pianist, at first glance rhapsodic in form but hiding considerable formal sophistication. Seventy years and more after his death, Medtner no longer seems behind the times; his music may be enjoyed on its own terms, and a renaissance in his appreciation began around 30 years ago, but it was focused on the big sonatas and concertos. The pronounced narrative character of his music is perhaps best appreciated in the shorter piano pieces such as the Skazki ('fairy tales'). It is these pieces to which Medtner’s songs are most related.
