Nikolai Medtner

Nikolai Karlovich Medtner (Russian Николай Карлович Метнер; born December 24 1879jul / January 5 1880greg in Moscow, .. † November 13, 1951 in London) was a Russian composer and pianist. He was the cousin of the Russian composer Alexander Goedicke.

Life

Medtner, who had German ancestors, studied from 1892 to 1900 at the Moscow Conservatory, where he was piano student at Safonov and Sapelnikov. From 1901 to 1903 he took private composition lessons with Sergei Taneyev. After that, he was primarily active as a composer. He also appeared as a pianist, which he played primarily his own works. In 1909 he became professor of piano at the Moscow Conservatory, left office in 1910 temporarily down and took it from 1915 to 1919 again. 1921 Medtner emigrated, an opponent of the October Revolution, to Germany. Until 1924 he lived in Berlin, then in the vicinity of Paris. Extensive concert tours have taken him to the USA and to England. In this case, the United Kingdom, which he first visited in 1928, was the country in which he found the most interested audiences outside his native country. 1935, therefore, he moved to London. From 1946, he was supported by Jayachamaraja Wodeyar, the Maharaja of Mysore, who also promoted recordings of the works of Medtner. However, these were ill-fated, as they came out as shellac records ( 78 min -1) shortly before the introduction of long-playing records ( 33 ⅓ min -1) and then were unsaleable. From 1948 Medtner was also no longer capable of shooting as he had suffered a massive heart attack.

Style

In Medtner's catalog of works for piano creating claims the weightiest part. His compositions are inspired by German and Russian tradition, but stick to the romantic style, even against the prevailing zeitgeist. Medtner grew up in an environment of unconditional devotion to the German music history, the role model German composers can only partly be recognizable. The spiritual kinship with Rachmaninov, with whom he was a close friend is not to be missed. Rachmaninov and Medtner held each other for the most important composers of the time. Both were fundamental anti - modernists and technically are both works equally difficult.

Medtner was very early in his own style, but he was not a pioneer. Even with his first sonata he unmistakably shows its own musical language. In his late work then takes the contrapuntal complexity considerably, while the harmonic language and melodic invention does not change fundamentally. Sometimes listed Medtner quirky rhythmic phrases, always remains instrumental justice, though sometimes less play virtually as set logical. At symphonic works, oratorios or operas, he never tried.

The press missed Medtner the label of a " Russian Brahms ", a slogan which he shares with Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov, Paul Juon and Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev. The nickname they got all of them because they combined elements of the national- Russian school with Western European influences.

On November 23, 1923, he took in Freiburg ten piano pieces for the Welte-Mignon reproducing piano on, nine of his own works.

Works

  • Orchestral works Piano Concerto No.1 in C minor op.33 ( 1914-18 )
  • Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor op.50 (1926 /27)
  • Piano Concerto No.3 in E minor op.60 Ballade ( 1941-43 )
  • Violin Sonata No.1 in B minor op.21 (1909 /10)
  • Violin Sonata No.2 in G major op.44 ( 1923-26 )
  • Violin Sonata No.3 in E minor op.57 Sonata epica ( 1935-38 )
  • Piano Quintet in C major ( 1904-08, 1944-48 )
  • Over 100 songs for voice and piano
  • Sonata in F minor op.5 ( 1902/ 03)
  • Sonata A flat major op.11 / 1 ( 1904-08 )
  • Sonata in D minor op.11 / 2 Elegy ( 1904-08 )
  • Sonata in C major op.11 / 3 ( 1904-08 )
  • Sonata in G minor op.22 (1909 /10)
  • Fairytale Sonata in C minor op.25 / 1 ( 1910)
  • Sonata in E minor op.25 / 2 (1910 /11)
  • Sonata - Ballade in F sharp major op.27 ( 1912-14 )
  • Sonata in A minor, op.30 (1914 )
  • Sonata in A minor, op.38 Reminiscenza / 1 ( 1918-20 )
  • Sonata in C minor op.39 tragica / 5 ( 1918-20 )
  • Sonata romantica b minor op.53 / 1 (1929 /30)
  • Sonata in F minor op.53 minacciosa / 2 ( 1929-31 )
  • Sonata in G major op.56 idillica ( 1935-37 )
  • Numerous cycles of fairy tales
  • Forgotten Melodies, op.38 3 cycles, 39 and 40 ( 1918-22 )
  • 4 novellas op.17 ( 1908/ 09)
  • 4 Lyrical Fragments op.23 (1910 /11)
  • A number of individual pieces
Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar Kingdom of Mysore Integrated Authority File
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