Hamelin plays Medtner - Piano Concerto No. 2 (1st mvt, Part 1) Audio + Sheet music

PART 1
Nikolai Medtner's majestic Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, 1st movement (part 1). IMO, this piece is definitely one of the highlights of the piano concerto literature, absolutely par with any of its dedicatée's, Sergei Rachmaninoff's splendid works of this kind (and should be performed at least as often as those). Played by Marc-André Hamelin with Montreal SO, conducted by Charles Dutoit, in 1997.

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[pldecal1]

I disagree with the poster, this is not on par with any of Rachmaninoff's concertos. Medtner has been classified as a minor composer by most, and not without good reason; the music sounds like Rachmaninoff, but with something missing. This is how everybody feels about Medtner except the most biased individuals.

[madlovba3]

@pldecal1 No, this is how the most terribly shortsighted and under-cultivated dilettantes feel about about him. Honestly, when Medtner is described as a second-rate Rachmaninoff, I want to scream... Listen to his Night Wind Sonata, Sonata Ballade, Sonata Reminicenza, Danza Silvestra, Fairy Tales, Violin Sonatas, and so on! I cannot understand how you didn't enjoy this Concerto, but perhaps those works will appeal to you.

[eristaviserbia]

@madlovba3 I think it is enough that Rachmaninoff himself considered Medtner a great composer. As to the above comment, Grove's Musical Dictionary (196~ edition) stated that Rachmaninoff's music is too overblown and wordy, and that it would never achieve any success. How wrong they were!

[madlovba3]

@eristaviserbia Luckily, future tends to be more sagacious than the critics. Beethoven was very unpopular in his time, Liszt's pieces were rarely performed by anybody, Alkan and Ornstein are still underplayed, etc. Not even Chopin was an exception: a critic once wrote "if Monsieur Chopin believes that pianists will break their fingers to master his Études, he makes a great mistake." Apparently, Monsieur Critic was wrong, and I hope sooner or later Medtner will receive the fame he deserves, too.

[auerod]

Medtner is one of my favorite composers. I believe at one point I had all of his concerto recordings. I love the concertos but I'm not sure if they are ever going to be popular as they are hard nuts to crack. But I do believe his Op38 Forgotten Melodies will become part of the standard repertoire. Isolating Reminiscenza by itself is a mistake. If u listen to it & then the rest of Op38, the power of it is overwhelming. The quasi coda (#8) kills me every time. The whole op38 is a powerhouse!

[madlovba3]

@auerod I don't think this one would be hardly accessible - I shew it to someone who's not a classical music expert, and its overwhelming effect was immediate. I think that it's underplayed because people usually think that one cannot fall in love with Medtner's music for first hearing, so orchestras are afraid to program it, being totally unaware of how catchy this piece is.

As for op. 38, I love that set very much, but while listening to the 8th one I always feel a kind of seasickness... :))

[auerod]

@madlovba3 I think the concertos are amazing. At one point I was absolutely obsessed with them. As for the Op38 I haven't stopped listening to them since Hamelin's original release in the late 1990's. Many feel that the Sonata Reminiscenza can stand on it's own and I used to think that too. But when I go on a trip I have to listen to the entire op38 set like Pictures at an Exhibition (Richter-Sophia). It's a beautiful story being told and you have to listen to the whole story, right?

[eristaviserbia]

@madlovba3 Yes, the critics tend usually to downplay composers of great quality and vision in favour of those who compose music popular at the time. Although it is curious that sometimes even great composers who were contemporaries had a tendency to underestimate each other, as in the case of Schumann's critique of Alkan's oeuvre.

[eristaviserbia]

@eristaviserbia One small correction: His reputation as a composer generated a variety of opinions, before his music gained steady recognition across the world. The 1954 edition of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians notoriously dismissed Rachmaninoff's music as "monotonous in texture ... consist[ing] mainly of artificial and gushing tunes" and predicted that his popular success was "not likely to last" From the Wikipedia article on Rachmaninoff.

[jacksongrant15]

I agree that this is a fantastic and immediately gratifying piece, yet still I find myself getting more and more enthusiastic about it. Its great to see that youtube has such a community of Medtner lovers. I am another who considers him my favorite composer.

[MrDemetrio135]

Wonderful!

[jimplank]

Fantastic playing -- head-and-shoulders more exciting than other recordings. Thank you for posting it!

[FlyingBlackAndWhite]

it is a very impressive piece,

i find the texture to be quite thick at times.

the main problem for me was that sometimes I felt it was "too much" for me.