Customer Reviews

The Romantic Piano Concerto 8 - Medtner 1

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I thought I knew Medtner until I listened to this recording. This disc is something really special. Music like this burns its way into your soul. All that is good and true about what was Romantic music in both Russia and Germany collide in this music. All the participants here (Dmitri Alexeev, The New Budapest Quartet, The BBC Symphony Orchestra, and conductor Alexander Lazarev) add something to this picture.

The opening piece, the Piano Concerto No 1 in C MINOR op 33, blows me away. This is passionate, thundering music which rips through you. It is a masterpiece.

More impressive to me than even the concerto is the Piano Quintet in C Major. I place it alongside of the Borodin String Quartet's recordings of Borodin's quartets as some of the best ensemble music in my collection (you have no idea how insanely high this praise is in my own mind).

I have the majority of Hyperion's Romantic Piano Concerto series. This disc is among the best in the collection. I recommend it.

I had no Medtner recordings and had read very little about him when I purchased this disc. But this immediately became one of my favorite discs in the generally splendid set of romantic piano concertos by Hyperion (and I have everything in this series). This music is beautifully constructed and wonderfully played. Why Medtner labored in the shadow of his friend Rachmaninov is a mystery to me. This is fairly dense music of the very finest quality. It requires perhaps more attention than the typical concerto in this series, but broadly repays the effort. As great as Medtner's concertos are, the chamber piece that is included on this disc is truly something special. I cannot imagine anyone who loves great piano music and appreciates Russian romanticism not falling in love with the music on this release.

How could Medtner's music be neglected for almost a century ?It's unbelievable and unjustifiable for sure.

The music presented here (like all Medtner's music in general) resembles Rachmaninov's style, especially in it's lyrical pages. Eternal proof for their friendship.

The first few accords of the First Piano Concerto introduce you immediately to an ocean of passion and emotions, rich melodies and harmony, fascinating rhytmical figures, virtuoso piano writing. The concerto design is monolithic with the thrilling main subject giving birth to several others, more lyrical and calm, which all together pierce through the whole work and thus build it's skeleton.

The Quintet is a very interesting addition for a CD, though it's music is more difficult to seize at a first listening.

This is the first time I hear Dmitry Alexeev's playing and it's amazing. Mature, with flawless technique, singing every note, retrieving remarcably rich sound from the piano. I'd like to mark 2 places as the most striking - the first is the recapitulation of the main subject in the Concerto, and the second is the very end of it - the last 2 bells. More wise reading is hard to imagine.

I highly recommend the CD to each classical music fan fond of romantic trend, especially to those, who love piano. You just get an hour of lasting pleasure.

Rachmaninov greatly admired Medtner and sponsored him during some hard times following the Russian Revolution.

I read that Medtner was considered a "composer's composer" by his contemporaries. That seems like a great endorsement!

I thought I knew Medtner until I listened to this recording. This disc is something really special. Music like this burns its way into your soul. All that is good and true about what was Romantic music in both Russia and Germany collide in this music. All the participants here (Dmitri Alexeev, The New Budapest Quartet, The BBC Symphony Orchestra, and conductor Alexander Lazarev) add something to this picture.

The opening piece, the Piano Concerto No 1 in C MINOR op 33, blows me away. This is passionate, thundering music which rips through you. It is a masterpiece.

More impressive to me than even the concerto is the Piano Quintet in C Major. I place it alongside of the Borodin String Quartet's recordings of Borodin's quartets as some of the best ensemble music in my collection (you have no idea how insanely high this praise is in my own mind).

I have the majority of Hyperion's Romantic Piano Concerto series. This disc is among the best in the collection. I recommend it.

When you listen to Igor Zhukov's interpretation of Medtner's First Piano Concerto (with The USSR TV and Radio Large Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Dmitriev -- on Melodiya/Turnabout lp, 1982), pianist Dmitry Alexeev really looks like a schoolboy and his performance sounds superbly... dull!