Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951)
The Water Nymph Calls – The Complete Piano Music Volume 5
Three Fantasy-Improvisations, Op 2
Sonata in F minor, Op 5
Thomas Ang (piano)
rec. 2023/24, London
Reviewed as a MP3 download from a press preview
Private Release [50]
My best intentions to review the fourth volume of Thomas Ang’s emerging project to record all of the Medtner solo piano music proved ill founded as now I find myself reviewing the fifth volume with number 4 still sitting awaiting my attentions. I hope to remedy matters with regard to Vol.4 forthwith.
In the meantime, the aptly named The Water Nymph Calls plunges us into the romantic world of the composer’s youth. Medtner can be a tricky composer to get to grips with lacking in ways a distinctive hook to reel in the listener and I would suggest that the virtuosity on display in this pair of works combined with the riper sound world of fin de siècle high Romanticism may be a good place for the novice to start.
As a project recorded by the pianist himself, the slight hardness to the piano sound noted in previous volumes is more of an issue in this more lush repertoire. It must though be said that whilst the piano sound can’t compared with the very best emerging from the Teldex Studios in Berlin, it is not in any way intrusive or distracting.
Unsurprisingly, Ang has not become some sort of swooning matinee idol of a pianist in response to the slightly looser rein on the music the young Medtner displays in these works. Ang’s approach is very much that the child is the father of the man. In the big canvas of the sonata, Ang makes clearly audible the composer Medtner will become, already concerned with the development of motifs and building his works in carefully considered structures.
More than that, Ang continues at what, again and again, he has proved best at and that is evoking the paradox of a composer who combines the most extroverted of art forms (Russian romantic piano music) with a poetic, introverted personality. The virtuosity even in these early works is almost taken for granted and wholly yoked to the service of Medtner’s inward inspirations. There is definitely a case for a more robust handling of the Op5 sonata but Ang sticks to his guns and he is amply vindicated. There is a wistful, almost distracted dreaminess to the best of Medtner’s music that lurks somewhere behind the sheaves of notes. Capture that quality and his music lives and breathes. Miss it and no amount of pyrotechnics will save the performance. Ang seems as intoxicated by this rare delicate quality as I the listener was by his playing of it. No matter the work, Ang hunts it out.
As fine an example of this approach as I can think of is his quiet, still manner in the Largo of the sonata. Broad, unhurried strokes and a refusal to grandstand the climaxes give the movement a hushed grandeur. The greatness of this music is as much in the asides as the bold declamations.
As in previous volumes, Ang is not lacking in fantasy and playfulness. It would be easy to mistake Medtner’s introversion for an excessive earnestness. The same point could be made about Ang’s playing. If you want something more showy, go elsewhere but if you want Medtner go to Ang. The games Medtner plays in his Op2 are technique challenging but they are subtle willow o’ the wisps. Grab hold too tightly and like the water nymphs that give this volume its title, all you will be left with is an armful of water. Ang coaxes and teases and this particular nymph really does come out to play. There is brilliance aplenty but it is the kaleidoscopic spectrum of colours that dazzles most.
Another splendid addition to a project that simply demands to be heard. Now I just need to sit down and make amends for overlooking Volume 4!
David McDade
Availability: Bandcamp
