Medtner: Complete Piano Sonatas Vol. 1

Description

Spectacular....a performance atmospheric but pristinely articulated, radiating warmth and intelligence...breadth and decisiveness wed to a heightened poetic sensibility." - American Record GuideLike his near-contemporary Rachmaninov, who called him 'the greatest composer of our time', Nikolay Medtner was a composer, pianist and an exile from his native Russia. His portfolio of works includes a remarkable series of pieces for his own instrument, including fourteen sonatas and some hugely evocative, deeply poetic miniatures. Medtner's gift for melody is immediately discerned in the early Sonatina in G minor. The Sonata No. 1, Op. 5, his first large-scale work, enshrines autobiographical elements and is both intense and spiritually charged. Poetry and nostalgia flood the beautiful Sonata-Reminiscenza in A minor. This is the first volume of a complete cycle of the Medtner Piano Sonatas.PAUL STEWARTCanadian pianist Paul Stewart has appeared in concerts and with major orchestras throughout Canada, the United States (including Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center), Mexico, South America, Europe and Asia. His British debut in London's Wigmore Hall was broadcast by the BBC, and a performance of Rachmaninov's 4th Piano Concerto with the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra was heard throughout Russia and released on a bestselling CD. Other recordings include works by Beethoven, Britten, Honegger, Liszt, Prokofiev, Ravel, Schubert and Strauss. Paul Stewart has championed and performed Nikolay Medtner's works on four continents. He is a Professor of Piano at the Universite de Montreal."