Medtner / Rachmaninov: Piano Sonatas
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MEDTNER / RACHMANINOV
Medtner / Rachmaninov: Piano Sonatas
Steven Osborne (piano)
[ Hyperion / CD ]
Release Date: Wednesday 20 August 2014
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Steven Osborne has become increasingly admired for his performances and recordings of Russian Romantic piano music, playing with a remarkable level of authority and a rare combination of technical ease, tonal lustre and idiomatic identification. Here he presents an impressive selection from two masters who lived and worked contemporaneously. Both were renowned concert pianists, and both wrote superbly for their instrument. Yet their reputations could not be more divergent. Rachmaninov utterly loved; Medtner only now becoming rehabilitated.
Medtner's 'Sonata Romantica' was composed in 1930 in Paris, and first performed by the composer in Glasgow the following year. It was the twelfth of his fourteen piano sonatas. Not only its title but also the expressive content of its four movements, played without a break, make it virtually a manifesto for Medtner's art. Apart from sonatas, Medtner's favourite genre was the Skazka ('Tale'). It has been pointed out that the usual English translation of 'Fairy tale' does not do justice to the power and depth of many of these pieces, some of which almost approach Chopin's Ballades in their expressive scope. The two Skazki of Op 20 recorded here were composed in 1909.
In a recent performance of Rachmaninov's Piano Sonata No 2, a great Romantic showpiece, Osborne was described by the Washington Post as 'a master of momentum and color, a wielder of power and a sure navigator through huge landscapes: his Rachmaninov was both coherent and daringly free'.
"Rachmaninov and Medtner, both late-romantic Russian composers, have fared differently since their deaths in 1943 and 1951. Rachmaninov's popularity grows apace, while Medtner is mostly loved only by pianophiles. A representative work is Medtner's Sonata Romantica Op 53 No 1, extravagant, expressive, packed with fistfuls of notes and tumultuous climaxes. It's not easy to love (unlike his short, charming Skazki which opens this disc) but Steven Osborne puts a persuasive case. In contrast, Rachmaninov's Piano Sonata No 2 in B flat minor, majestic and lyrical, is immediately rewarding. His Variations on a theme of Corelli - a work the composer himself doubted, sometimes cutting variations in performance - is complete here, and Osborne's imaginative playing makes it seem only too short." (Guardian)
"[The Sonata Romantica is] not easy to love (unlike his short, charming Skazki which opens this disc) but Steven Osborne puts a persuasive case. In contrast, Rachmaninov's Piano Sonata No 2 in B flat minor, majestic and lyrical, is immediately rewarding... and Osborne's imaginative playing makes [the Variations on a theme of Corelli] seem only too short." The Observer, 1st September 2014 ****
"Medtner's harmonic palette and ways of working out the material are his alone. Osborne's performance is a true wonder of power, clear definition, sensibility and structural sureness. His ability to immerse himself in Medtner's musical language is outstanding." The Telegraph, 15th September 2014 *****
"Osborne has made his performing edition out of love for the [Second Sonata], one of his favourite pieces to play, and has created a fantastically thrilling and ultimately enjoyable version of which one feels that Rachmaninov would have thoroughly approved...While the music speaks for itself Osborne plays everything on the disc magnificently" MusicWeb International, 10th October 2014
"What comes across most winningly is the ebb and flow of the work: the more inward passages are allowed to breathe; the extrovert ones are absolutely fiery. It's not a work that could ever be summed up by a single interpretation...But this is another terrific addition to the shelves, and if it helps the continuing rediscovery of Medtner, so much the better." Gramophone Magazine, Editor's Choice October 2014
Tracks:
Medtner:
Skazki (Fairy Tales), Op. 20
Sonata romantica in B flat minor, Op. 53 No. 1
Rachmaninov:
Variations on a theme of Corelli, Op. 42
Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 36
