Medtner: Incantation, Complete Songs, Vol. 1

$19.99
Label
Brilliant Classics
Release Date
August 28, 2020
Format
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    Featuring ⌄
    • COMPOSER
      MEDTNER, NIKOLAI
    • PERFORMER
      Levental, Peters
    Product Details ⌄
    • RELEASE DATE
      August 28, 2020
    • UPC
      5028421960562
    • CATALOG NUMBER
      BRI96056
    • LABEL
      Brilliant Classics
    • NUMBER OF DISCS
      1
    • GENRE
      Classical
    Works ⌄

    1. No. 1. U vrat obiteli svyatoy (At the gate of the holy abode)

      Composer: Nikolai Medtner

      Performer: Ekaterina Levental, Frank Peters

    2. No. 2. Ya perezhil svoi zhelan'ya (Gone are my heart's desires)

      Composer: Nikolai Medtner

      Performer: Ekaterina Levental, Frank Peters

    3. No. 3. Na ozere (On the Lake)

      Composer: Nikolai Medtner

      Performer: Ekaterina Levental, Frank Peters

    4. Zimniy vecher (Winter Evening), Op. 13, No. 1

      Composer: Nikolai Medtner

      Performer: Ekaterina Levental, Frank Peters

    5. Epitafiya (Epitaph), Op. 13, No. 2

      Composer: Nikolai Medtner

      Performer: Ekaterina Levental, Frank Peters

    6. No. 1. Den' i noch' (Day and Night)

      Composer: Nikolai Medtner

      Performer: Ekaterina Levental, Frank Peters

    7. No. 2. Chto ti klonish' nad vodami (Willow, why for ever bending?)

      Composer: Nikolai Medtner

      Performer: Ekaterina Levental, Frank Peters

    8. No. 3. Duma za dumoy, volna za volnoy (Sea-swell and Memories)

      Composer: Nikolai Medtner

      Performer: Ekaterina Levental, Frank Peters

    9. No. 4. Sumerki (Twilight)

      Composer: Nikolai Medtner

      Performer: Ekaterina Levental, Frank Peters

    10. No. 5. Ya potryasen kogda krugom (O'er thee I bend)

      Composer: Nikolai Medtner

      Performer: Ekaterina Levental, Frank Peters

    11. No. 6. Tol'ko vstrechu ulibku tvoyu (When my glances thy smile chance to meet)

      Composer: Nikolai Medtner

      Performer: Ekaterina Levental, Frank Peters

    12. No. 7. Shopot, robkoye dikhan'ye (Whisp'ring, Nature faintly stirring)

      Composer: Nikolai Medtner

      Performer: Ekaterina Levental, Frank Peters

    13. No. 8. Ya prishyol k tebe s privetom (Greeting)

      Composer: Nikolai Medtner

      Performer: Ekaterina Levental, Frank Peters

    14. No. 1. Nezhdannïy dozhd' (Unexpected Rain)

      Composer: Nikolai Medtner

      Performer: Ekaterina Levental, Frank Peters

    15. No. 2. Ne mogu ya slïshat' etoy ptichki (Serenade)

      Composer: Nikolai Medtner

      Performer: Ekaterina Levental, Frank Peters

    16. No. 3. Babochka (The Butterfly)

      Composer: Nikolai Medtner

      Performer: Ekaterina Levental, Frank Peters

    17. No. 4. Tyazhela, bestsvetna i pusta (Heavy is the gravestone)

      Composer: Nikolai Medtner

      Performer: Ekaterina Levental, Frank Peters

    18. No. 5. Vesenneye uspokoyeniye (Spring Solace)

      Composer: Nikolai Medtner

      Performer: Ekaterina Levental, Frank Peters

    19. No. 6. Sizhu zadumchiv i odin (Absorbed and alone)

      Composer: Nikolai Medtner

      Performer: Ekaterina Levental, Frank Peters

    20. No. 7. Poshli, gospod', svoyu otradu (Send thy comfort)

      Composer: Nikolai Medtner

      Performer: Ekaterina Levental, Frank Peters

    21. No. 1. Muza (The Muse)

      Composer: Nikolai Medtner

      Performer: Ekaterina Levental, Frank Peters

    22. No. 2. Pevets (The Singer)

      Composer: Nikolai Medtner

      Performer: Ekaterina Levental, Frank Peters

    23. No. 3. Stikhi, sochinenniye noch'yu vo vremya bessonnitsi (Lines written during a sleepless night)

      Composer: Nikolai Medtner

      Performer: Ekaterina Levental, Frank Peters

    24. No. 4. Kon' (The Horse)

      Composer: Nikolai Medtner

      Performer: Ekaterina Levental, Frank Peters

    25. No. 5. Elegiya: Ya perezhil svoi zhelan'ya (Gone are my heart's desires)

      Composer: Nikolai Medtner

      Performer: Ekaterina Levental, Frank Peters

    26. No. 6. Roza (The Rose)

      Composer: Nikolai Medtner

      Performer: Ekaterina Levental, Frank Peters

    27. No. 7. Zaklinaniye (The Call, Evocation)

      Composer: Nikolai Medtner

      Performer: Ekaterina Levental, Frank Peters


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.