Medtner: Sonata-Ballade in F# Major, No.8 (Tozer)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 มิ.ย. 2015
- 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.
Tozer plays this entire thing with incredible generosity (again, a rather Beethovenian sort of thing), fine dynamic control, and clarity, especially in the denser passages. The playing from 15:59 onwards (the huge fugue) is especially remarkable, and the final passages are very thrilling. - เพลง
The coda of this sonata is one of the most cathartic endings I know.
Cathartic is the perfect abjective
My god why can't I find the coda
@Talon Maddox sure mister bot everyone cares about you...
omg is night wind ur pfp
4:36 onwards is just incredible. Definietely one on my favourite pieces of all time
I can't even describe the beauty of this glorious work and my words will always fall short of the glory.
My teacher Vladimir Pleshakov was the first to record this, in the 1960s I believe. Its here on TH-cam. Not as virtuosic, but he had a rare, sophisticated style.
Medtner himself recorded this...
Just listened to the Pleshakov recording. It’s really fantastic. Also his op 20
There's a recording of Medtner himself playing this, I would encourage anyone to seek it out (It's here on TH-cam). In that recording (and other recordings of his), Medtner shows that he himself was the best champion of his own works by far. Tozer of course is absolutely superb in his playing of Medtner though.
My love for this gem hasnt diminished one bit. Great works like the Sun even Medtner'S MUSIC LASTS.
tozer is the pianist that plays medtner's music with the utmost refinement
tozer is a real musician i can tell you. by the way he is one of the most badass pianists :D
AND THESE MUST ALSO BE BADASS COMMENTS. OR DO YOU NEED YOUR EARS TO BE SYRINGED?
BY ANY STANDARDS THIS IS PHENOMENAL PIANISM - THINKS RALFO MACE.
i do not know what you mean by this. I never used nor understand the term badass. I thinks all this pseudo justification of Medtner has gone too far.When i was a student my professor suggested i learn one of the Fairy Rales, which i found to be a thankless task. The piece started and then continued to get nowhere -l an endless stream of whimsy - which could never be said of any Rachmaninov - who not only befriended Medtner and played some of his works. But even the advocacy of the greatest pains of his age did nothing to establish M's music.
Seems to me that if M had been English he might have established himself as another Cyril Scot.- little ralfie@telus.net hopes no one is offended by this.
Tozer’s complete Medtner Sonatas is very good but Marc-Andre Hamelin’s set is EVEN better.
THat’s not saying anything bad about Tozer just a testament to the unrivaled virtuosity of
M-A H
The late Beethoven comparison is very accurate! Thanks for sharing this. After years of listening to Medtner, I find this quite pleasing to the ear now.
Thank you so much for sharing the music of Medtner with the score - it's such a treat!
Beautiful! Love those chords at 7:58 - 8:06
7:55-8:00 Chopin Barcarolle :D
0.54 etc chopin ballade no3
The second chord is exactly the same
AHA!
8:41 sounds really Debussy
True
I 0:01
II 9:38
III 12:46
I love this.
I hate when people correlate Chopin with literally everything under the sun but I do have to admit, there are a lot of passages in this sonata to refer to Chopin's Barcarolle. :P
Has anyone noticed how smart the same Chord-motive is used at 18:19 and at 20:37? Feels like the following silence is introduced with it...
Oh if you look carefully, this motif is everywhere in the third movement, and possibly the others.
@@goflowjoe This motif, also, is in his last opus - Quintet! Perhaps, it symbolizes some religious meaning…
One of the best climaxes ever
Great video! And great sonata! I'd love to see your comments on the Night Wind sonata, it's one of my favourites!
Contrary to the description, I found this work of Medtner more difficult than a couple of his other sonatas I have heard. It sounds more Germanic to me, which might be why it both sounds more difficult for me, and easier for those who like Beethoven.
Bravo
cant wait for more medt er
Some references to Chopin's Barcarolle
I played this in. My primary school yesterday
Very nostalgic.
And there are a lot of Chopin influence in it for sure!
7:40 i feel so much jeux d'eau a la villa d'este here
edit: 13:22 sounds like it too... i dont think this is a coincidence
Botha are in f sharp major too
Please tell me I'm not the only one who hears the Marche Funebre of Chopin's second sonata in the Introduzione.
Gran bella sonata.
Ottimo Tozer.
Ti consiglio di ascoltare la prima, in fa minore Op. 5 no.1 è tra le mie preferite in assoluto non te ne pentirai. Vedila dal canale di Ky6000
How does it come I hadn't heard of this piece yet??
crystal clear
The opening of the Finale allegro has such a Schumann sound to it. Reminds me of something specific, will need to do some more listening and comment
The dotted eighth patterns are everywhere in Schumann's music. It reminds me of his f# minor sonata in some places.
You probably think of the beginning of carnaval
@@VasilyGvozdetskiy yep, that's it, thanks
the night wind sonata is not as sweet as this sweetness
Wow
I very much appreciate how clean and articulate Tozer was. On the other hand, I also believe that his interpretation did not do justice to the whimsical, improvisatory, rubato quality of the work itself, which was Medtner's intent, especially in the final movement. The final movement just sounds too rushed and undramatic. For instance, the final coda should be played majestically, while Tozer kind of just powered through the entire thing without much intent. Also, the reprise of the second theme of the final movement at the end sounded too energetic and rushed, when it definitely did not sound this way in Medtner's own recording.
Overall, the last movement lacked the rubato needed to make the work sound musical. I understand that artists do have some liberty when making their own interpretations of the music; however, Tozer's recording of the last movement did not do this work justice.
what recording would you recommend?
I mean,if I were to judge on the quality of the performer himself/herself, I would say that Medtner's own performance is the best, although since the recording is so old, the quality of it itself is poor. Regardless, when he plays the piece, it actually sounds like a ballade, or a story, and there's so much emotion behind it.
Other than that one, I actually haven't listened to the others in too much detail. I really like Ariel Lanyi's and Konstantin Lifschitz's recordings, however. Both are on TH-cam, and I'm sure that there are many other great ones out there as well. By no means am I an expert at this.
Have to disagree on the "clean" bit. This recording has fudged and missing notes almost every single page, at least in the first movement, after which I gave up. The worst example is probably 7:07-7:15, totally mangled. But even the first two pages aren't clean -- weird hiccup at 0:21 and first two notes of RH melody missing at 1:11. Circa 2:18, the RH inexplicably vanishes again. You'd think he would pause the recording and try to get at least the exposition right. Maybe he's capable of better, but this was clearly under-practiced.
also the LH 8:50-9:00 is a wreck. I do think he actually gets his act together for the coda for the most part.
12:06
17:56
13:29
20:00
7:54-59 - chopin bacarolle ?
Dear A X Kumar ,
I hear enormous influence from Robert Schumann in this music. What do you think?
some octaves may be ...
God I hope not.
Clara Schumann.
I hate it when people say this but for this particular piece the playing is way too fast!! Certainly at his choice of tempo he is able to reveal quite a few things I haven't heard from other performers but MUCH of the piece's strong points are lost; particularly during the finale. I have never despised a performance this much before, and I am an avid fan of Tozer.
Agree full-heartedly, and for the same reasons i prefer Eckardstein’s rendition of sonata-romantica. Tozer is my go to for many works of Medtner so i also feel it as a loss.
I can"t understand Medtner music...
You hadn't understood Medtner music (yet).
There, I fixed that.
Decent piece although I think it sounds a bit too improvisational.
Von Eckardstein's version is just much superior!
nope
I don’t know why but reminds me of Shrek.
Medtner’s music always sounds like it has a stuffy nose.
some harmonies are really great others are just boring improvisation
20:28