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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Liszt from Moiseiwitsch and Lambert

Benno Moiseiwitsch

The distinguished Russian-born English pianist Benno Moiseiwitsch (1890-1963) has appeared on these blogs only once before, in the Delius piano concerto. Today we find him in the company of conductor Constant Lambert (1905-51), who has often graced these pages (here and here), in the music of a composer whom they both found congenial - Franz Liszt.

Franz Liszt in 1847

With the London Philharmonic, they perform Liszt's Hungarian Fantasia (Fantasie über ungarische Volksmelodien, S123), dating from 1850. In terms of recorded repertoire, the pianist was actually far more inclined to Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Schumann than Liszt, but this outing finds him entirely sympathetic to one of the future Abbé's showiest (and most enjoyable) works.

The recording comes from 1939. When issued in 1940, the critic of The Gramophone wrote, "For music such as this I do not think one would easily beat this soloist. Dash is needed rather than delicacy; bravura, swank, not subtlety. I have never excessively admired Moiseiwitsch’s tone, especially in its more firmly dug-in moments, but it has most of the qualities, and all the dexterity, that one can best enjoy in this riot of mock-rurality."

Harold Schoenberg wrote of Moiseiwitsch that "he represented the last vestiges of romanticism as it was actually practiced in the romantic period - which means pliancy, a perpetually singing line, concentration on inner voices and a free approach to the notes. In Moiseiwitsch's case, freedom was always tempered by impeccable musicality."

Constant Lambert

Lambert, himself a fine composer, was a great admirer of Liszt. His accompaniment here is supportive, but, as The Gramophone noted, "the L.P.O is not, one might put it, brought up to these high jinks; nor, perhaps, does any British band quite abandon itself to folly with the most endearing candour."

The sound here is very good for its period.

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