Medtner Piano

Steinway & Sons is proud to present an album by one of Canada’s most exciting young talents, pianist Jaeden Izik-Dzurko. Winner of the 2022 Hilton Head International Piano Competition and the 2024 Leeds International Piano Competition, Izik-Dzurko’s playing has been praised for its exemplary precision & clarity, exceptional artistic maturity, and deep musicality.

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 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.

Interviewed by "Musical America" in 1921, Rachmaninoff was asked: “would you agree that the heart should be the composer’s guide through the labyrinths of accepted forms?”. “Yes”, he replied, “the heart above all.

Vittorio Forte continues his voyage of discovery through unusual and unjustly neglected piano repertoire with The Muse, an album devoted to the music of Nikolai Medtner.Medtner stands alongside Rachmaninov and Scriabin as among the foremost Russian composers of his time. Like them, Medtner's output grew out of his formidable abilities as a pianist and thorough understanding of the instrument's expressive range. Even so, he did not indulge in virtuosity for the sake of showmanship, but produced highly complex scores as a means of articulating his very particular vision.

Medtner’s legacy for solo piano is now widely esteemed alongside Rachmaninov 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.

From Robert Matthew Walker’s notes for this debut disc of Nikolay Medvedev: Interviewed by Musical America in 1921, Rachmaninoff was asked: 'would you agree that the heart should be the composer’s guide through the labyrinths of accepted forms?' 'Yes', he replied, 'the heart above all.