Talk:Nikolai Medtner

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[edit] Skazka

Hrm. On the one hand, fairy-tale is the usual translation at least with Medtner and especially with op 25/2. I do note that Rimsky's Skazka is at least sometimes translated as Legend; I believe Tozer suggests translating the Medtner (and the other works he gave this title, both the Russian Round-Dance and the (two dozen or so? Need to check that worklist) various solo-piano Skazki) as either Folk-Tales, Legends or Ballades (the latter is the Dover edition's choice, I see). (It's true he already calls concerto 3 and the sonata op 27 ballades anyway...)

-- (continuation) In part because (they say, I tend to agree?--) fairy-tale seems to imply certain associations and temperament and these works generally differ from those expectations. Thoughts? Schissel : bowl listen 03:35, Apr 8, 2005 (UTC)

Is the solution to this to get in touch with a Russian Wikipedian who speaks English (or an English Wikipedian who speaks Russian), and ask? Or at least someone who can understand the Russian entry on Medtner? I found the Russian entry and added a ref. to it; does that help? --RobertG 11:20, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Oops, I notice that's not Medtner - that's Nikolai Petrovich Wagner - :-( will revert... Above comment about Russian speaker still stands, though! I'm new to this, and assumed there would be a Russian page on Medtner! --RobertG 11:24, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

It gets a bit more complicated. Medtner felt that the best translation of the term, and his own preference, was the German word "Marchen", which has no exact equivalent in English. His wife was the one who suggested "Faerie Tale" for the English publication. Skazka is the singular, btw, and skazki is the plural. As for Medtner's standing in Russia, he was always considered one of the three great composers of the 20th century, ranked alongside Rachmaninov and Scriabin. So the absence of a Russian article is puzzling. -Mhare40

[edit] Recordings of "Complete Piano Works"

I'm now wondering whether the claims made for Tozer and Milne are strictly correct. Google suggests they've both recorded the complete piano sonatas and sundry other works, but I can't find corroboration that all the piano works without exception were recorded by either. Does anybody know for certain? JackofOz 00:21, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Sorry about the delay. I believe Tozer is working on it, anyway, but don't think he's done. No, I don't think this is true of Milne. I'll look into it. Hopefully the German worklist page is reasonably accurate, but thankfully there's a (well.. also hopefully reasonably accurate) complete works edition here at the university library lacking only a volume or two. Though a newer scholarly edition is always good to have in existence- I wonder if one is in progress? Schissel-nonLop! 18:28, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. I met Tozer a couple of years ago through a mutual friend, who told me that he (Tozer) had just recently completed recording the complete works. Either that was an exaggeration, or maybe he really has recorded them but they've not been released yet. Either way, as far as the world is concerned, until they are released, it seems the "complete works" claim is premature. JackofOz 20:26, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

Hrm. In Tozer's case I'll check to see what he's released at the Chandos site, at least. (Someone's going to drop in and tell me that someone else recorded all of them for some more obscure label decades ago. I just know it. Even though this isn't Fanfare magazine...) Ok. 8 volumes of solo piano works released on Chandos, including the following works - opp 1, 2, 7, 8, 10/2 (vol 4), 14/1, 17, 20, 23, 26, 26/3 spec., 31/1-3 (no. 1 on vol. 3), 34/2, 38, 39, 40, 42/1, 47, 48/1, 49, 51, 51/1 spec., 54, 54/3 spec., 55, 59 (and parts of opp 10 and 48 are on vol. 7), Fairy Tale from 1915, and all the sonatas I believe. Hrm. Comparing that against the page http://www.russisches-musikarchiv.de/werkverzeichnisse/medtner-werkverzeichnis.htm

the early works (1896-odd) such as Marche funèbre are lacking, as are some others more nearly contemporary with the opp 1, 2 etc. (op. 4, Vier Stücke isn't present yet either, nor op. 9?, and I'm not sure all three of the op. 10 are in the series, or where the other op. 14 is. Op.26 isn't listed on that page, op.29 is lieder and so is probably a typo when it's listed in the piano section there- they're both vier märchen (see http://www.chandos.net/details05.asp?CNumber=CHAN%209899) (maybe there's a volume or two more to go, indeed...) Schissel-nonLop! 00:48, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

Further evidence that the worklist page is accurate (that's not always so) and that op. 29 is lieder- several of the op. 29 songs are included, so identified, on a (now-deleted) EMI set (die Muse op 29/1 and die Rose op 29/6) of the Composers in Person series (Schwarzkopf sings them in English, by the way. And unsurprisingly very well- same can be said for Medtner's piano playing, I believe some of the recordings in that set are still available somewhere. Maybe in the APR series. I think one of the Chandos recordings of Medtner songs - not the Goethe-lieder sets, these are German translations of Pushkin - may have these songs also. A brief motive from op 29/1 was quoted in the piano quintet and op 27- or the other way around- as often noted.) Schissel | Sound the Note! 01:28, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Piano Quintet

The article currently claims that the Piano Quintet (Op. post.) has never been commercially released. A Google search finds a Naxos recording: http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.553390 CraigMiloRogers 06:26, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

*blink* I don't know who put that in; I know also of two or three other fairly recent (-ly released, in the case of the Russian Disc) recordings (on Hyperion, and on Russian Disc), one of which (on Russian Disc- Svetlanov/Borodin Quartet) I've been listening to many times in the last few weeks (I think it's a great work, besides being literally song-filled, quoting several other works of his extensively and effectively- the Pushkin songs 'The Muse' and 'The Rose' - and ending with a finale in which a march appears twice in a way that's not very common (not unknown...) in Medtner, I think? - the opus 25/1 sonata with its variations-on-a-march finale does come to mind but the effect is almost the opposite.

The sonate-vocalise, now, that I expect could use a modern recording; it's had one on LP, maybe one on CD but I'm not aware of one. But that's a different beast. Schissel | Sound the Note! 18:34, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

I believe the article is referring to the recording of the quintet that Medtner himself made in the last year of his life. Mhare40 02:55, 5 December 2006 (UTC)