Nikolai Medtner: Sonata-Ballade in F# Major, No.8/Sonata-Ballade in F sharp major op.27

Nikolai Medtner

(5 January 1880 [O.S. 24 December 1879] – 13 November 1951)  Russian composer and pianist.

A younger contemporary of Sergei Rachmaninoff and Alexander Scriabin, he wrote a substantial number of compositions, all of which include the piano. His works include fourteen piano sonatas, three violin sonatas, three piano concerti, a piano quintet, two works for two pianos, many shorter piano pieces, a few shorter works for violin and piano, and 108 songs including two substantial works

for vocalise. His 38 Skazki (generally known as "Fairy Tales" in English but more correctly translated as "Tales") for piano solo contain some of his most original music

Sonata-Ballade in F# Major, No.8

It is almost trite to say that Medtner's work needs repeated listening to grow on the ear, but the Sonata-Ballade is one of his pieces that is quite absorbing from the first listen, featuring a pastoral theme, (early) Scriabinesque writing, and a scintillating finale. Medtner can quite easily be seen as an impressionistic or episodic Rachmaninoff, but with melodies that are typically short, motivic, built around thirds, and often decorated with brusque dotted rhythms. The sense of many of his sonatas, however, seems to me to be that of very late (contrapuntal) Beethoven. Like Rachmaninoff, Medtner was very gifted at counterpoint, but like late Beethoven, and unlike Rachmaninoff, he sought to deploy it in fairly rigorous form to create dramatic episodes in a sonata's overall scheme.

Sonata-Ballade in F sharp major op.27  

1.Allegretto
2.Introduzione. Mesto
3.Finale. Allegro

Irina Mejoueva
Recorded in September,2000