Nikolai Medtner: Sonata Romantica, Op. 53 - Synthesia Tutorial скачать в хорошем качестве

Nikolai Medtner: Sonata Romantica, Op. 53 - Synthesia Tutorial

The Medtners returned home to Paris at the beginning of April. Fortunately the house they had left in Montmorency was still vacant and they were able to move back in, but before the concert tour they had sold their furniture and returned the hired piano to Bechsteins. Living in the comfortless surroundings of an almost empty house and surviving on the meagre earnings of the English tour, they tried desperately to recover their lost American capital. The agent who had changed their money in New York, albeit recommended by Alexander Greiner, the Manager of Steinways, proved to be an embezzler with a previous record. Although Anna sought legal advice and several times went to court, as the offence had taken place abroad the affair was judged to be outside French jurisdiction. At last she appealed to Rachmaninoff, asking whether he would get his New York solicitor to act in the matter. Rachmaninoff not only agreed to do so but, in a typically generous gesture, bought the worthless cheque at its face value and so rescued the Medtners from disaster. Even when their money had been replaced, however, they remained shattered by the blow; the composer maintained that he was able to restore his equilibrium and inner calm only after reading Tolstoy's _War and Peace_. The two piano sonatas Op. 53 seem to reflect the black mood the couple was in at this time. For the first time since the early F-minor Sonata, Op. 5, Medtner uses a four-movement structure, though the movements are joined without a break. The first, _Romanza_, like the second and last in sonata form, sets the tone for the whole work, with the plaintive melancholy of its opening theme. One of the composer's lyrically most appealing inventions, it invites comparison with the Tale, Op. 20, No. 1, in the same key of B-flat minor. The second theme, in the relative major, imbued with a child-like innocence, shows kinship with the first theme in sharing a repeated portentous falling three-note figure in its latter half. The development, based on the first theme, has a troubled and threatening air not resolved in the recapitulation, which brings the feeling of disquiet to a powerful climax and ends with sinister eddies of semiquavers in preparation for the tempestuous succeeding movement. The _Scherzo_, with its capricious syncopation and hectic scurry, recalls in mood the early _Scherzo infernale_, Op. 2, No. 3, and similarly conjures up the terrors of hell and chaos. Medtner's use of key is especially intriguing. The restless opening theme, in E-flat minor, is followed by a subsidiary idea in B-flat minor, before a restatement of the opening in E-minor and temporary relief in the form of the second subject, a gentle pastoral theme in D-major (that is, a minor second below the home key), to which the music eventually returns in all its fury. The main theme in B-minor, apprehensive and sorrowful (with a subsidiary theme in the tonic major), is, after an interlude of shuddering arpeggios and trills, with Medtnerian sleight of hand recapitulated in B-flat minor, so reinstating the Sonata's home key in readiness for the last movement. The busy Finale is the most complex movement of the four. Both its themes derive from the previous movement (!), the first anxious but with a certain capriciousness, the second consolatory. The derivation is made explicit in the development - in B minor, again a minor second lower than the home key - where the main theme of the third movement is brought back as its central climax. Another retrospective reference, an impassioned version of the Sonata's opening theme, brings the development to an end. The recapitulation treats only the first theme before being overtaken by the coda, with its macabre swirls of notes in the right hand like howling spirits. The first theme is heard now in staccato chords, with the second, concentrado, poco maestoso, evidently leading the work towards an imposing conclusion, with hints again of the Sonata's opening theme. Suddenly, however, over a series of tolling tonic notes in the bass, the swirling phrases in the right hand reassert themselves. The fury dies away but the menace remains, the work concluding quietly with a final sinister cadence. Barrie Martyn, "Nicolas Medtner" Medtner's personal [and sparse] thoughts on the piece: Медленные, певучие пьесы, как «Reminiscenza» и 1-я часть «Романтической», учить быстро. 1-ю часть «Романтики» играть как пассаж среднего темпа. Помнить об упражнении в лёгком, подвижном исполнении певучих вещей без педали. My translation to English: Slow, melodic pieces like "Reminiscenza" and the 1st movement of "The Romantic Sonata" learn quickly. Play the 1st movement of "The romantic sonata" as a mid-tempo passage. Remember to exercise in a light, mobile performance of melodic things without any pedal. 0:00 Intro 0:04 Movement I: Romanza 6:34 Movement II: Scherzo 12:41 Movement III: Meditazione 15:53 Movement IV: Finale