“I respect him very much… I consider him the most talented of all the modern composers.” Thus Rachmaninov, no less, in a 1912 encomium to Nikolai Medtner. Both pieces here have been recorded before, notably by Sviatoslav Richter (No 1) and David Oistrakh (No 3). But in hi-fi terms, these two Soviet-era accounts cannot begin to approach Hyperion’s sumptuously engineered issue, played with marvellous confidence and attention to each passing detail. Anyone with the slightest enthusiasm for post-Romantic musical melancholy, by a still-undervalued master, should own it.
Lazy critics have traditionally pigeon-holed Medtner as “the Russian Brahms”. This soubriquet Medtner himself, with justice, resented. Very little in either of these compositions sounds Brahmsian, save inasmuch as Medtner largely shunned programmatic connotations. Fauré – rightly mentioned in the booklet note – is much likelier than Brahms to enter the hearer’s mind during the three-movement First Sonata, which never bespeaks youth, though Medtner finished it when still only in his 30s. Now and again, the rich textures and hints of woodland fantasy suggest Elgar also. The sole trace of Rachmaninov comes with the extraordinary bell-like opening to the finale.
No wonder Medtner gave his 1936-38 Third Sonata the name Sonata Epica. At 47 minutes, it must be among the longest violin and piano works ever written. The booklet note correctly cites the music’s resemblances to Bax. As often occurs with Bax, the writing moves effortlessly between a folk-like atmosphere and a kind of terpsichorean grotesquerie. A quick, final accolade: Hyperion’s cover designers have surpassed themselves with a splendidly Slavic illustration, Invisible Cities, by Lisel Jane Ashlock. Of this CD’s worthiness to rank with 2013’s best there can be no doubt.
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