Nikolai Medtner
Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 3     
Konstantin Scherbakov, piano
Moscow Symphony Orchestra
Vladimir Ziva, Conductor
Naxos 8.553359

 

 

 

Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, Op. 33
Piano Concerto No. 3 in E minor, Op. 60 (Ballade)

 

 

"With this recording Naxos completes its Medtner concerto cycle with Scherbakov. To have such romantic richness-once the province of specialists-offered on a bargain label is cause for celebration in itself; to have it performed and recorded with such tireless commitment is a double blessing. Scherbakov, praised by Richter and recently hailed as a 'modern Rachmaninov', is now more attuned to Medtner's widely flunctuating idion, complementing his unquestioned virtuosity with inwardness and conviction. Sample the passage beginning at 6'30" in the Third Concerto's finale and you will hear the sort of eloquence that warms the hearts of all true Russians. Elsewhere he and his partners are entirely sympathetic to freely associating ideas that sprout wings of the spirit and evolve into endlessly changing hues and patterns contained within a disciplined if idiosyncratic sense of form."  Bryce Morrison, Gramophone

Commissioned by Moiseiwitsch, an early and courageous champion of Medtner, the Third Concerto, subtitled 'Ballade', flows like some primeval river of the imagination, its burgeoning course inspired by Lermontov's WaterSpirit, while the First Concerto's often epic gestures blend a bittersweet Russian Romanticism with themes of an almost Elgarian cut. Scherbakov's agility at, say, the con moto (8'38") is never at the expense of a composer whose bravura is always poetically motivated. Lovers of Romantic piano concertos need look no further.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide

"This is aristocratic music to which Scherbakov's blend of refinement and virtuosity is amply suited. What a superb player he is." Classic FM

 

"This disc is successful in all counts... Scherbakov, praised by Richter and recently hailed as a "modern Rachmaninov", is attuned to Medtner's widely fluctuating idiom, complementing his unquestioned virtuosity with inwardness and conviction."  Gramophone