Piano Concerto No. 3 (Medtner)

Last updated

The Piano Concerto No. 3 in E minor "Ballade", Op. 60, was one of Nikolai Medtner's last major compositions, completed in 1943, when he was 63.

Contents

Background

The Third Concerto was commissioned by the pianist Benno Moiseiwitsch, who had been an early champion of Medtner. [1]

Privately, Medtner said that the first movement was inspired by Mikhail Lermontov's ballad Rusalka, about a water-nymph whose seductive advances fail to arouse a sleeping knight. He extended Lermontov's poem for the remaining movements: The knight (personifying the human spirit) awakens and sings a song that turns into a hymn, symbolizing his triumph over temptation and his achievement of redemption and eternal life. [1] [2]

Medtner and his wife Anna were living in London when the Blitz began in earnest in September 1940. His devoted champion, the English pianist Edna Iles, had moved to her parents' home in the Birmingham suburb of Moseley, and the Medtners came to stay there too. After the house was bombed, they moved with the Ileses to the Worcestershire village of Wythall. Later they moved to a secluded house near Wootton Wawen, not far from Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire. [3] It was in this succession of rural surroundings that the Third Concerto was finished.

One day, Medtner gave Edna Iles the manuscript of the first movement, telling her he had never before revealed a part of a work before it was complete. The two practised the work on two pianos, and when it was complete, he presented her with the entire score. [4] The Medtners returned to London in April 1943. [2]

He dedicated the Third Concerto to Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar Bahadur, the Maharajah of Mysore, an Indian prince who had supported Medtner and founded the Medtner Society, devoted to the recording of all his major works with the composer himself playing the piano parts. The dedication was inscribed "with deep gratitude for the appreciation and furtherance of my work". [5]

The premiere of the Third Concerto took place in the Royal Albert Hall on 19 February 1944, with Sir Adrian Boult conducting, and the composer at the piano. [5] [6] [7] He continued to make recordings until his health failed two years before his 1951 death, but 1944 was the last year in which he performed in public, and this occasion was one of his last appearances. [8]

After his death, the Third Concerto was played in a tribute concert conducted by Anatole Fistoulari; at Anna Medtner's request, the New Zealand-born pianist Colin Horsley (who also posthumously premiered the Piano Quintet) was the soloist. [9]

The Ukrainian pianist Dmitry Paperno, who was aged only 22 when Medtner died, was offered the opportunity by Medtner's widow of giving the Russian premiere of the Third Concerto, but turned it down.

Composition

The work is sub-titled "Ballade", and is constructed as one movement sub-divided into three sub-movements, although the central Interludium is very short, lasting less than two minutes. The whole work lasts about 36 minutes, and the movements are all connected.

According to an analysis of the piece published by the University of Iowa, [10] the first movement is in variation form and has 4 themes and a "horn motif" that acts as a ritornello. However, other analyses, including one written in 1948 for the Medtner Society, have concluded that it actually has 3 themes; the 3rd and 4th themes are very similar. Throughout the first movement, Medtner introduces the 4 themes and creates variations on the themes, in a seemingly haphazard order. The second movement, according to the analysis, is mostly in binary form, but it does not repeat the B section. In the second movement, the piano part is in 2/4 while the orchestra part is in 3/4. The second movement uses 3 themes from the first movement and introduces a new theme. The third movement may either be in sonata-allegro or ABA form, and the author of the study published by the University of Iowa believes that it is in sonata form. The 3rd movement uses the first theme of the 2ond movement and introduces 1 new theme in the exposition. The development section introduces 4 new themes, 3 of which are derived from earlier themes not in the 3rd movement.

Medtner was never happy writing for the orchestra; he found it difficult and tedious, and his three concertos are the only three of his over 60 published works that involved the orchestra at all. [2] The scoring of the Third Concerto is for:

Recordings

There have been seven recordings of the work to date, starting with the composer’s own account in 1947:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piano Concerto (Grieg)</span> Piano concerto by Edvard Grieg in 1868

The Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16, composed by Edvard Grieg in 1868, was the only concerto Grieg completed. It is one of his most popular works and is among the most popular of the genre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Symphony No. 1 (Beethoven)</span> Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven; premiered in 1800

Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 21, was dedicated to Baron Gottfried van Swieten, an early patron of the composer. The piece was published in 1801 by Hoffmeister & Kühnel of Leipzig. It is not known exactly when Beethoven finished writing this work, but sketches of the finale were found to be from 1795.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nikolai Medtner</span> Russian composer and pianist

Nikolai Karlovich Medtner was a Russian composer and virtuoso pianist. After a period of comparative obscurity in the 25 years immediately after his death, he is now becoming recognized as one of the most significant Russian composers for the piano.

The Piano Concerto, Op. 38, by Samuel Barber was commissioned by the music publishing company G. Schirmer in honor of the centenary of their founding. The premiere was on September 24, 1962, in the opening festivities of Philharmonic Hall, now David Geffen Hall, the first hall built at Lincoln Center in Manhattan, with John Browning as soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Erich Leinsdorf.

The Piano Concerto No. 5 in F major, Op. 103, popularly known as The Egyptian, was Camille Saint-Saëns' last piano concerto. He wrote it in 1896, 20 years after his Fourth Piano Concerto, to play himself at his own Jubilee Concert on May 6 of that year. This concert celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his début at the Salle Pleyel in 1846.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Symphony No. 2 (Rachmaninoff)</span> Symphony in four movements composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff

The Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27 by Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff was written from October 1906 to April 1907. The premiere was performed at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg on 26 January 1908, with the composer conducting. Its duration is approximately 60 minutes when performed uncut; cut performances can be as short as 35 minutes. The score is dedicated to Sergei Taneyev, a Russian composer, teacher, theorist, author, and pupil of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The piece remains one of the composer's most popular and best known compositions.

Sergei Rachmaninoff composed his Piano Concerto No. 1 in F minor, Op. 1, in 1891, at age 17-18. He dedicated the work to Alexander Siloti. He revised the work thoroughly in 1917.

Grigory Romanovich Ginzburg was a Soviet pianist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piano Concerto No. 3 (Tchaikovsky)</span>

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 3 in E-flat major was at first conceived by him as a symphony in the same key. But he abandoned that idea, jetisoned all but the planned first movement, and reworked this in 1893 as a one-movement Allegro brillante for piano and orchestra. His last completed work, it was duly published as Opus 75 the next year, after he died, but given by publisher Jurgenson the title "Concerto No. 3 pour Piano avec accompagnement d'Orchestre".

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky composed his Orchestral Suite No. 3 in G, Op. 55 in 1884, writing it concurrently with his Concert Fantasia in G, Op. 56, for piano and orchestra. The originally intended opening movement of the suite, Contrastes, instead became the closing movement of the fantasia. Both works were also intended initially as more mainstream compositions than they became; the fantasia was intended as a piano concerto, while the suite was conceived as a symphony.

The Piano Concerto No. 3 is a 32-minute concerto by the Australian-born composer Malcolm Williamson.

The Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, Op. 88a, was written by Max Bruch in 1912. It is in 4 movements, written in the rarely seen key of A-flat minor, and takes about 25 minutes to perform.

The Piano Concerto No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 29 by Camille Saint-Saëns, was composed in 1869. The concerto is written in 3 movements. When the concerto was first performed by Saint-Saëns himself at the Leipzig Gewandhaus on 27 November 1869 it was not well received, possibly because of its harmonic experimentation. It is not as often performed as his famous second concerto or the fourth or fifth concertos, but it is still an important addition to the piano concerto repertoire. It was dedicated to Élie-Miriam Delaborde, a pianist who is believed to have been the natural son of Charles-Valentin Alkan.

The Piano Concerto in B-flat, Op. 58, F.108, was written by Arthur Bliss in 1938 and premiered in 1939. It is a powerful work in the nineteenth-century Romantic tradition, and at the time it was hoped it could prove to be a British "Emperor" concerto. Nicolas Slonimsky described it as "Lisztomorphic in its sonorous virtuosity, Chopinoid in its chromatic lyricism, and Rachmaninovistic in its chordal expansiveness".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piano Concerto (Delius)</span>

The Piano Concerto in C minor is one of the early compositions by the English composer Frederick Delius. The piece underwent repeated revisions that resulted in the existence of three major versions which significantly differ from one another. The first public performance of any version was played by Julius Buths with the conductor Hans Haym on 24 October 1904 in Elberfeld, Germany.

The Concerto for Piano and Orchestra is a piano concerto by the American composer John Corigliano. The work was commissioned by the San Antonio Symphony and was first performed on April 7, 1968 by the pianist Hilde Somer and the San Antonio Symphony under the direction of Victor Alessandro. The piece is dedicated to John Atkins.

The Piano Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 23 by Edward MacDowell was completed in late 1885. Although some obvious similarities with Edvard Grieg's, Camille Saint-Saëns's and Franz Liszt's concertos have often been stated, MacDowell’s composition proves to be quite original, at least compared to his First Concerto. It was the first major piano concerto written by an American. It was also the only large-scale composition by MacDowell to remain in standard repertoire.

The Violin Sonata No. 3 in E minor, Op. 57, given the name Epica, is a four-movement work for violin and piano, written by Nikolai Medtner from 1935 to 1938. The piece was dedicated to his late brother Emil Medtner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piano Concerto (Paderewski)</span>

The Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 17, is the only piano concerto written by the Polish composer and pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski. It was written in the composer's twenties, with the first movement dating back to 1882, although the majority of the work was composed in 1888 and scored in 1889. After its completion, the composer showed the concerto to his friend Saint-Saëns, who admired it, and especially the andante movement. It premiered the same year in Vienna, achieving great success, where it was conducted by Hans Richter.

References

  1. 1 2 Presto Classical
  2. 1 2 3 Toronto Symphony Orchestra Archived 2011-09-16 at the Wayback Machine
  3. "British-Russian Society". Archived from the original on 2011-09-11. Retrieved 2012-05-01.
  4. Hyperion Records
  5. 1 2 Hyperion Records
  6. Lawrence Budmen
  7. Martyn, Barrie (1995). Nicolas Medtner: His Life and Music. Aldershot: Scolar Press. ISBN   0 85967 959 4. p.243.
  8. Music Web International
  9. David CF Wright, A Lost Generation of Pianists
  10. Hsu, Shu-Hao (December 2012). "Nicolai Medtner's Piano concerto no. 3, op. 60": 16. doi:10.17077/etd.zk59it5x . Retrieved 14 January 2022.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  11. medtner.org