Moiseiwitsch Plays Medtner

Benno Moiseiwitsch

The pianist Benno Moiseiwitsch (1890-1963) has appeared here before in Liszt's Hungarian Fantasia, and on my other blog in Delius' Piano Concerto.

Today we have him in music from his native land, Russia - two brief Skaski (Fairy Tales) from the total of 38 composed by Nikolai Medtner (1879-1951).

Medtner was a protege of Sergei Taneyev, and a friend of Sergei Rachmaninoff. Even so, his music has never become a mainstream taste, although his piano concertos are recorded from time to time. (The first recording of those concertos, with the composer as soloist, was underwritten by a maharaja in the 1940s.)

Moiseiwitsch was an early advocate of Medtner - the first recording in this set dates from 1928, with the second from 1944. The pianist's great technique is well allied to the vein of fantasy that Medtner indulges in his Skaski. The effect is enchanting.

Nikolai Medtner

A 1944 review in The Gramophone was, however, not convinced: "The Fairy Tale ... sounds like a rather fantastic march: it is not, I think, one of the best of his [Medtner's] many pieces in this form, but I have a feeling it might grow on one. The performance is, again, excellent."

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