COMPOSERS: Medtner
LABELS: CRD
WORKS: Forgotten Melodies, Op. 39; Two Fairy-Tales, Op. 48; Étude in C minor; I loved thee, Op. 32/4 (transcr. Milne); Sonata minacciosa, Op. 53/2
PERFORMER: Hamish Milne (piano)
CATALOGUE NO: 3509 Reissue (1998)
Medtner has no more authoritative interpreter than Hamish Milne, who has probably given more thought to the playing of this music than any living pianist, and probably any dead one. He is renowned, even in Medtner’s native Russia, where past champions have included Rachmaninoff, Moiseiwitsch and Gilels, no less. Yet the music itself has never approached true popularity. Though no less masterly than Rachmaninoff’s, it lacks the latter’s big, inspired tunes and its dramatic rhetorical flair. My own feeling is that it needs more dynamic variety and rhythmic thrust than even Milne brings to it, but these are persuasive and masterly performances nevertheless. Jeremy Siepmann
Medtner: Forgotten Melodies, Op. 39; Two Fairy-Tales, Op. 48; Étude in C minor; I loved thee, Op. 32/4 (transcr. Milne); Sonata minacciosa, Op. 53/2
Medtner has no more authoritative interpreter than Hamish Milne, who has probably given more thought to the playing of this music than any living pianist, and probably any dead one. He is renowned, even in Medtner’s native Russia, where past champions have included Rachmaninoff, Moiseiwitsch and Gilels, no less. Yet the music itself has never approached true popularity. Though no less masterly than Rachmaninoff’s, it lacks the latter’s big, inspired tunes and its dramatic rhetorical flair.
Our rating
4
Published: January 20, 2012 at 1:22 pm