The Piano Works Of Nikolai Medtner, Volume 1

Nikolay Medtner (Composer), Geoffrey Tozer (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Geoffrey Tozer
• Composer: Nikolay Medtner
• Audio CD (October 28, 1992)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Chandos
• ASIN: B000000AP7
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #221,294 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating music, well introduced, August 27, 2001

By 

Robert L. Berkowitz (Natick, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Piano Works Of Nikolai Medtner, Volume 1 (Audio CD)

I was first introduced to the music of Medtner in 1994 when I heard Boris Berezovsky perform three "Fairy Tales" at a recital. I was so taken that I had to begin collecting Medtner's music on CD. This album, Geoffrey Tozer's first volume of the piano works of Medtner, was my first Medtner CD. Mr. Tozer is a very fine pianist, and the Chandos stereo sound is first rate. The result is a captivating introduction to Medtner's music. The music is complex, harmonically daring, sometimes quirky, whimsical at times and always evocative. Mr. Tozer plays sensitively and is in complete technical command. He does us a wonderful service in bringing this music to a wider audience. Through this disc I have come to know and love many more pieces by Medtner, and I have been inspired to buy each new volume of Mr. Tozer's set as it has become available. This is the volume of the set that I play most often. It is a rich introduction to this fascinating music.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Probably the best complete cycle to date, but competition in these pieces is fierce, December 21, 2008

By 

G.D. (Norway) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Piano Works Of Nikolai Medtner, Volume 1 (Audio CD)

The first volume in Tozer's traversal of the complete piano music by Medtner for Chandos contains some of his more famous works, although it is - in fact - not the most interesting volume in the series (for some of these pieces the competition is currently rather fierce).

But one thing is certain; Medtner was not merely an also-ran, but a first-rate composer. Perhaps the ideas are just a tad less immediately identifiable than Rachmaninov's, but Medtner's palette and ability to build an atmosphere and develop his ideas can withstand any comparison. The Sonata Reminiscenza is a masterpiece, somewhat inward looking but magically satisfying and developed. Equally impressive is the Lisztian g-minor sonata. Whereas Tozer is a splendid pianist, fully able to grasp and convey the idiom, the competition is rather fierce (think Hamelin), especially in the g-minor, where Moiseiwitsch is unassailable. The selection of Fairy Tales displays the mastery of this composer no less than the sonatas.

Tozer handles, as mentioned, these pieces excellently and is warmly recorded. And while he might not be first choice in any of the pieces, a composer of Medtner's stature surely needs complete representation, and for that Tozer is probably the best choice. But do check out some of the alternative recordings for even more magisterial and penetrating interpretations.