It’s hard to figure out exactly why the music of Nikolai Medtner hasn’t caught on with audiences. Except, of course, it hardly ever gets played, so nobody knows it’s out there.
On today’s Noontime Concert on The Classical Network, violinist Rolf Schulte will be joined by pianist Nicolas Namoradze for a performance of Medtner’s “Three Night Songs,” (or “Nocturnes”), Op. 16, alongside two works by Sergei Prokofiev – “Five Melodies,” Op. 35b, and the Violin Sonata No. 1, Op. 80. The concert, titled “From Czarist Russia to the Soviet Union,” was recorded on April 19, at Elebash Recital Hall in Midtown Manhattan, as part of The Graduate Center, CUNY’s free “Music in Midtown” series, designed to showcase the university’s DMA program. Schulte is on the faculty there; Namoradze is a DMA candidate.
Medtner was a good friend and classmate of Sergei Rachmaninoff. Both studied with Vasily Safanov at the Moscow Conservatory. Later, they both became exiles, who shared a painful nostalgia for their homeland.
It was Rachmaninoff who arranged for Medtner his first North American concert tour – the programs decidedly uncommercial affairs, devoted entirely to Medtner’s music. Medtner never captured the public’s imagination in the way that Rachmaninoff did, and to this day, despite many recordings on the market (including the early ones sponsored by Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar, twenty-fifth maharaja of the Kingdom of Mysore), Medtner remains largely a pianist’s composer.
Tellingly, Rachmaninoff believed whole-heartedly in his friend’s superior talent. He also described him as “the greatest composer of our time.” Medtner, for his part, deeply admired Rachmaninoff’s conducting, and supported him emotionally through periods of self-doubt. Rachmaninoff would dedicate his Fourth Piano Concerto to Medtner (composed in 1926; with the final, revised version appearing in 1941); Medtner returned the compliment by dedicating his Second Concerto (composed between 1920 and 1927) to Rachmaninoff.
Following today’s Noontime Concert broadcast, stick around to hear Medtner’s Piano Concerto No. 2. It will be among my featured works between 12 and 4 p.m. EDT on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
PHOTO: The Rachmaninoff-Medtner Mutual Admiration Society