This piano concerto is an absolute masterpiece, the artistic performance is exceptional, and it MUST be declared as a genuine privilege for us all, that Sihyeon Choe was kind enough to share it here on this platform! Having read all comments below, I just wished this concert were broadcast more frequently! On one hand, because it opens new horizons and as such constitutes a delightful enrichment to the world of music and arts; on the other hand, with frequent acoustic exposure to this work, even the lay audience would start to appreciate and remember the many beautiful harmonies and melodies of Medtner's 2nd piano concerto!
I agree. I have only recently found some of these magnificent recordings of Medtner's concerti. Each of them is special--so large in scale, abstract, yet intimate and accessible. I only knew of his sonatas growing up. It is a wonder why his concerti are not widely performed.
This is so smooth and sweet that it really embodies our most deepest emotions. My opinion hasn't changed one iota ever since I first fell for Medtner some 30 yrs and counting.
Medtner is one of my favorite most underrated composers. His character pieces for solo piano are extraordinarily difficult considering their innocuous titles, like the onion or the whip.
This track information - the "names" of the movements - is from another UA-cam performance of this (with Boris Berezovsky). Adapted to Sihyeon's offsets, however. 00:00 I. Toccatta (Allegro risoluto) 15:57 II. Romanza (Andante con moto) 24:49 III. Divertimento (Allegro risoluto e molto vivace) 36:13 (End)
Keelan Carew I know great isn't it. I've made it a mission of mine to learn all the piano concerti on youtube I've learnt hundreds and hundreds of very rare unheard ones I learnt the orthodox repertoire whilst very young beethoven chopin mozart prokofiev bach liszt tchaikovsky de falla ravel grieg rachmaninov brahms rubinstein schubert schumann haydn shostakovich bartok Etc etc and now I've learnt all medtner bliss alkan dvorak bavouzet pierne busoni chisholm cooper stott ogawa zelenski saeverud Donohoe lane shelley hiller adigezalov Howell alwyn etc etc I have the background orchestra on jpeg so I play along
Why is it...who can explain why one Piano Concerto No 2 in C Minor (Rachmaninoff) becomes the most beloved, most often performed, most often recorded piano concerto in history while another Piano Concerto No 2 in C Minor (Medtner), from all indications just as well constructed, falls by the wayside? A puzzlement.
J Joe Townley It's more difficult to play I think. And I (for example) prefer the Piano Concerto No 2 of Rachmaninoff. But I agree that we never hear about some pieces like this.
J Joe Townley You're a composer; a serious musician. Most people aren't musicians, let alone serious ones. The public audiences are lazy, and performers don't want a program that people aren't familiar with because they don't pay as much. It's a harsh reality, but it is reality. If you want people to explore more, you'd have to tell them to put in some effort and work in to it. Which won't happen, unfortunately. Thankfully, thanks to UA-cam, Medtner's popularity is increasing among us pianists.
Mikhail Dubov I hope you're right, Mikhail. I've always thought the Medtner Concerto No 2 a masterly work, as solid a piece of construction as its counterpart, the Rachmaninoff 2nd, even if it is lacking the memorable tunes that the Rachmaninoff has. I'm glad that a pianist of Berezovsky's reputation has finally brought it before the public. Maybe things will look up for Medtner now, whom I read Rachmaninoff himself admired greatly. I am not a professional composer but I too wrote a neo-Romantic Piano Concerto No 2 in C Minor in tribute to these two great concertos which is here on UA-cam if you ever want to have a listen. Thank you for replying.
DailyKosia Of the survey I have done of pianist who had something to say about it you are absolutely right: way more difficult to play. And we live in a world where most people don't like difficulty.
It's so unfortunate Demidenko's recording is not on UA-cam. You'll never hear the concerto so powerfully if you don't have it. After having fallen in love with it and listening to it dozens of times, it's hard for me to listen to Tozer's or even Hamelin's recording. Usually, I like many recordings of a piece, and I love many of Tozer's and Hamelin's Medtner performances. But this is my favourite piece of music, and it breaks my heart not to hear its beautiful nuances in the way Demidenko shows them. In the first movement, Tozer is downright sloppy on voicing, if you ask me. 0:43 to 0:53 no development in dynamics at all. Demidenko brings such a power and expressiveness to this music, just as it is written in the score. Of course this is a matter of taste, I'm not saying Tozer's playing is bad. I can understand if you prefer it, the champion of Medtner's music that he is. I think he does a good job in the 2nd and 3rd movement. In any case, the fact that so many people are captivated by this recording shows that this piece is something truly special.
Check out yevgeny subdin’s recording, with the north carolina symphony. The orchestra sounds absolutely crisp. You can hear everything. Also hamelin with london phil is great
Adhermarcoyote, what is it that "The most difficult piece of piano never wrote"? Have you a piece of a piano that writes something and now you're sorry that this one never wrote anything? A bit of an exaggeration anyway ...
Le plus intéressant des 3 concertos pour piano de N.Medtner, ce qui ne l'a pas empêché de devenir une des nombreuses "victimes" de Rachmaninov et de Prokofiev...
I woud also like to spend a few words on Mr. G. Tozer. In my opinion, as a prodigy of clarity and executive distinctiveness he at least is comparable to sir J. Ogdon. i cannot but remain dumbfounded as to why interpretations by ogdon`s in uk commonwealth are deemed in a considerably higher esteem than tozer`s. i fear this could find its roots in the different religious believes and confessions the two of them had been borne and with which each of them had been brought up, especially in countries with indisputably presbyterian and/or anglican official stances on religious matters. I wish I were to be proven wrong.
This concerto appeals to composers and music theorists more than to the general public. It lacks a memorable melody or theme to guide it along as it progresses, in contrast to the great Romantic piano concerti of Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Beethoven and Rachmaninoff.
On the contrary, I think there are quite a few "memorable melodies" in here; take the second theme of the first movement, or the main theme of the second movement for example. You are right, however, that Medtner was trying to accomplish something different from Grieg or Tchaikovsky - especially with the economy of material and the contrapuntal craftsmanship - but he was certainly a big fan of Beethoven (whose works he performed as a concert pianist), and I would guess Brahms too. A final note: I'm neither a composer or a music theorist, but this concerto, along with Medtner's third, appeals to me very much!
Populist melodies for the sake of being popular should be shunned as a musical figure. There is a great wealth of intriguing elements to this concerto, far more than Grieg, Brahms, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky even. Medtner has simply constructed them very specially - one has to "understand" the melodies/motifs and what they mean in order to enjoy them. Medtner's development of them is exquisite and imaginative as well. Whereas those gorgeous themes get old with time, Medtner becomes more and more beautiful with each listen, like a true love. Medtner is to be married to. It is not so bad on him that his music falls on the deaf ears of those who fail to understand it. Popularity, after all, is never the goal, and never should be, lest your intricate construction be reduced to a popular piece carried by those beginners who claim themselves to be deeply invested into classical - and yet have only heard Nachtmusik, or the 5th, or the Op. 9 No. 2, and not any of the rest. Often, what is popular is simply - not as good as we might expect.
Agree with everything you say except maybe the part about Brahms, Shostakovich; I continue to hold the Brahms concertos among the greatest and most intricate of the 19th century, and I dont think their 'themes/melodies' are all too familiar to the general public. As for Shostakovich I can accept some of the weaknesses of his concertos, but even he himself said that he wasn't at his best in his concertos...Nevertheless, still the greatest composer of the 20th century (well in my opinion..). But well said what you say about 'popularity'. This 'popularity' is indeed a plague on the evolution of great music.
I found this concert wonderful since its great complexity is tamed by incredibly beautiful melodies (and harmonies), so, as far as I am concerned, it does not lack anything at all. I had a rather different reaction from yours: after hearing this concert I started considering Grieg's concert boring. Yes, I know that it is an absolute masterpiece, but I can't listen to it immediately after hearing Medtner's second concert. It is a sheer joy for me to listen the development Medtner does of his themes: when the lines flow in every direction, our ears enter a sort of muldimensional musical space. Awesome!!! Just Ravel, by different means, gives me such a sensation (and maybe Rachmaninoff, but to a lower degree).
and here madames and monsieurs we have the russian equivalent of brahms and schumann....... the only remorse is that he was so religiously devout and focused on piano only that he almost completely missed the symphonic means of expression. It also is undoubtful that so perfectionist as he was even the faintest symphony sketch would never have seen the birth on score from his hands, lest he had been worried he`d perceive that as unsuitable by his outstanding standards.
Medtner is the pianists' composer, and so his music suits those for whom pianism is more important than musicianship. Rachmaninoff, on the other hand, has everything, and is simply much better music.
@@SpaghettiToaster My comment, which cannot be justly described as "preposterous," is based on four decades of performing music, and twenty years of teaching music (mainly piano).
@@EmptyVee00000 To suggest that Medtner's music is more pianistic than musical is to deny his inexorably inventive use of sonata form, his rhythmic creativity, the beautifully atmospheric textures of his skazi, the instrumental mastery of his piano quintet, his counterpuntal genius that's probably paralleled only by Godowsky, Busoni and Rachmaninoff himself among all pianist-composers of the era, the actually great orchestration of his concertos (compare with those of chopin) and the general unmistakeable atmospheric and fantastic charm of all of his music. If you've been teaching music for 20 years, you should've probably picked up on some of that. Have you never analyzed one of Metdner's sonatas? They're all great. Do I think that Rachmaninoff's music is even better than Medtner's? Yes. Is Medtner's music pianistic rather than musical? *Hell* no. That's preposterous.
This piano concerto is an absolute masterpiece, the artistic performance is exceptional, and it MUST be declared as a genuine privilege for us all, that
Sihyeon Choe was kind enough to share it here on this platform! Having read all comments below, I just wished this concert were broadcast more frequently! On one hand, because it opens new horizons and as such constitutes a delightful enrichment to the world of music and arts; on the other hand, with frequent acoustic exposure to this work, even the lay audience would start to appreciate and remember the many beautiful harmonies and melodies of Medtner's 2nd piano concerto!
I agree. I have only recently found some of these magnificent recordings of Medtner's concerti. Each of them is special--so large in scale, abstract, yet intimate and accessible. I only knew of his sonatas growing up. It is a wonder why his concerti are not widely performed.
Medtner's piano concertos are the best!
Someone just walked in and asked, "Wow, what are you listening to?"
Medtner is a wonderful find for anyone's ears!
@@jmbechtel And Tozer is Mister Medtner -- I need to dig up some of his performances from other composers
This is so smooth and sweet that it really embodies our most deepest emotions. My opinion hasn't changed one iota ever since I first fell for Medtner some 30 yrs and counting.
this is an absolute masterpiece and Tozer is magnificent
The conductor on this recording is not Paavo Jarvi , but his father Neeme Jarvi .
Medtner is one of my favorite most underrated composers. His character pieces for solo piano are extraordinarily difficult considering their innocuous titles, like the onion or the whip.
This track information - the "names" of the movements - is from another UA-cam performance of this (with Boris Berezovsky). Adapted to Sihyeon's offsets, however.
00:00 I. Toccatta (Allegro risoluto)
15:57 II. Romanza (Andante con moto)
24:49 III. Divertimento (Allegro risoluto e molto vivace)
36:13 (End)
I just keep listening to this over and over. Once it grows on it does so like a most tenacious vine
All of Medtner's piano concerto's are such sprawling and epic works.
This concerto is blowing my mind! I just gotta start learning it! Thank you for the upload! :D
Keelan Carew I know right?
Keelan Carew I know great isn't it. I've made it a mission of mine to learn all the piano concerti on youtube I've learnt hundreds and hundreds of very rare unheard ones
I learnt the orthodox repertoire whilst very young beethoven chopin mozart prokofiev bach liszt tchaikovsky de falla ravel grieg rachmaninov brahms rubinstein schubert schumann haydn shostakovich bartok
Etc etc and now I've learnt all medtner bliss alkan dvorak bavouzet pierne busoni chisholm cooper stott ogawa zelenski saeverud Donohoe lane shelley hiller adigezalov Howell alwyn etc etc I have the background orchestra on jpeg so I play along
Why is it...who can explain why one Piano Concerto No 2 in C Minor (Rachmaninoff) becomes the most beloved, most often performed, most often recorded piano concerto in history while another Piano Concerto No 2 in C Minor (Medtner), from all indications just as well constructed, falls by the wayside? A puzzlement.
J Joe Townley It's more difficult to play I think.
And I (for example) prefer the Piano Concerto No 2 of Rachmaninoff. But I agree that we never hear about some pieces like this.
J Joe Townley You're a composer; a serious musician. Most people aren't musicians, let alone serious ones. The public audiences are lazy, and performers don't want a program that people aren't familiar with because they don't pay as much. It's a harsh reality, but it is reality. If you want people to explore more, you'd have to tell them to put in some effort and work in to it. Which won't happen, unfortunately. Thankfully, thanks to UA-cam, Medtner's popularity is increasing among us pianists.
HERENIGGA IAMHERENIGGA It's a fact! I'd never heard of Metner before discovering him on UA-cam.
Mikhail Dubov I hope you're right, Mikhail. I've always thought the Medtner Concerto No 2 a masterly work, as solid a piece of construction as its counterpart, the Rachmaninoff 2nd, even if it is lacking the memorable tunes that the Rachmaninoff has. I'm glad that a pianist of Berezovsky's reputation has finally brought it before the public. Maybe things will look up for Medtner now, whom I read Rachmaninoff himself admired greatly. I am not a professional composer but I too wrote a neo-Romantic Piano Concerto No 2 in C Minor in tribute to these two great concertos which is here on UA-cam if you ever want to have a listen. Thank you for replying.
DailyKosia Of the survey I have done of pianist who had something to say about it you are absolutely right: way more difficult to play. And we live in a world where most people don't like difficulty.
the few chords harmonies melodies emotions tears heart and soul are encapsulated in a few notes varied here and there
Medtner=next level harmonies
Thank you for providing the music!
What a powerful cadenza.
I love this concert. Thanks for sharing.
Beautiful! Thanks for posting!
Thanks for sharing this beautiful concerto!
It's so unfortunate Demidenko's recording is not on UA-cam. You'll never hear the concerto so powerfully if you don't have it.
After having fallen in love with it and listening to it dozens of times, it's hard for me to listen to Tozer's or even Hamelin's recording.
Usually, I like many recordings of a piece, and I love many of Tozer's and Hamelin's Medtner performances.
But this is my favourite piece of music, and it breaks my heart not to hear its beautiful nuances in the way Demidenko shows them.
In the first movement, Tozer is downright sloppy on voicing, if you ask me. 0:43 to 0:53 no development in dynamics at all.
Demidenko brings such a power and expressiveness to this music, just as it is written in the score.
Of course this is a matter of taste, I'm not saying Tozer's playing is bad. I can understand if you prefer it, the champion of Medtner's music that he is.
I think he does a good job in the 2nd and 3rd movement.
In any case, the fact that so many people are captivated by this recording shows that this piece is something truly special.
I Totally agree with you. Deminenko is gorgeous in this 2d concerto.
seduit a la premiere audition . Merci .
Well composed piece.
Beautiful music.
Check out yevgeny subdin’s recording, with the north carolina symphony. The orchestra sounds absolutely crisp. You can hear everything.
Also hamelin with london phil is great
1:42 "Nimrod" from Elgar??
how can one make such Sheet-Audio-Videos ?
+A. Khosrobeik I use Bandicam and Vegas Pro 12.0
Thanks for sharing!
Masterpiece
Que belleza!
best of his
que suave es la romanza
Salut Lucas :)
34:52
Adhermarcoyote, what is it that "The most difficult piece of piano never wrote"? Have you a piece of a piano that writes something and now you're sorry that this one never wrote anything? A bit of an exaggeration anyway ...
Le plus intéressant des 3 concertos pour piano de N.Medtner, ce qui ne l'a pas empêché de devenir une des nombreuses
"victimes" de Rachmaninov et de Prokofiev...
우왕
I woud also like to spend a few words on Mr. G. Tozer. In my opinion, as a prodigy of clarity and executive distinctiveness he at least is comparable to sir J. Ogdon. i cannot but remain dumbfounded as to why interpretations by ogdon`s in uk commonwealth are deemed in a considerably higher esteem than tozer`s. i fear this could find its roots in the different religious believes and confessions the two of them had been borne and with which each of them had been brought up, especially in countries with indisputably presbyterian and/or anglican official stances on religious matters. I wish I were to be proven wrong.
Agreed, this is a superb performance. Clairtiy, vision, and virtuoisity
4:56
23:13
This concerto appeals to composers and music theorists more than to the general public. It lacks a memorable melody or theme to guide it along as it progresses, in contrast to the great Romantic piano concerti of Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Beethoven and Rachmaninoff.
On the contrary, I think there are quite a few "memorable melodies" in here; take the second theme of the first movement, or the main theme of the second movement for example. You are right, however, that Medtner was trying to accomplish something different from Grieg or Tchaikovsky - especially with the economy of material and the contrapuntal craftsmanship - but he was certainly a big fan of Beethoven (whose works he performed as a concert pianist), and I would guess Brahms too. A final note: I'm neither a composer or a music theorist, but this concerto, along with Medtner's third, appeals to me very much!
Populist melodies for the sake of being popular should be shunned as a musical figure. There is a great wealth of intriguing elements to this concerto, far more than Grieg, Brahms, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky even. Medtner has simply constructed them very specially - one has to "understand" the melodies/motifs and what they mean in order to enjoy them. Medtner's development of them is exquisite and imaginative as well.
Whereas those gorgeous themes get old with time, Medtner becomes more and more beautiful with each listen, like a true love. Medtner is to be married to. It is not so bad on him that his music falls on the deaf ears of those who fail to understand it.
Popularity, after all, is never the goal, and never should be, lest your intricate construction be reduced to a popular piece carried by those beginners who claim themselves to be deeply invested into classical - and yet have only heard Nachtmusik, or the 5th, or the Op. 9 No. 2, and not any of the rest. Often, what is popular is simply - not as good as we might expect.
Agree with everything you say except maybe the part about Brahms, Shostakovich; I continue to hold the Brahms concertos among the greatest and most intricate of the 19th century, and I dont think their 'themes/melodies' are all too familiar to the general public. As for Shostakovich I can accept some of the weaknesses of his concertos, but even he himself said that he wasn't at his best in his concertos...Nevertheless, still the greatest composer of the 20th century (well in my opinion..).
But well said what you say about 'popularity'. This 'popularity' is indeed a plague on the evolution of great music.
I found this concert wonderful since its great complexity is tamed by incredibly beautiful melodies (and harmonies), so, as far as I am concerned, it does not lack anything at all. I had a rather different reaction from yours: after hearing this concert I started considering Grieg's concert boring. Yes, I know that it is an absolute masterpiece, but I can't listen to it immediately after hearing Medtner's second concert. It is a sheer joy for me to listen the development Medtner does of his themes: when the lines flow in every direction, our ears enter a sort of muldimensional musical space. Awesome!!! Just Ravel, by different means, gives me such a sensation (and maybe Rachmaninoff, but to a lower degree).
Medtner isn't particularly known for having good melodies. But his ability to use those melodies throughout a piece is something else.
The most difficult piece of piano never wrote !
and here madames and monsieurs we have the russian equivalent of brahms and schumann....... the only remorse is that he was so religiously devout and focused on piano only that he almost completely missed the symphonic means of expression. It also is undoubtful that so perfectionist as he was even the faintest symphony sketch would never have seen the birth on score from his hands, lest he had been worried he`d perceive that as unsuitable by his outstanding standards.
Medtner is the pianists' composer, and so his music suits those for whom pianism is more important than musicianship. Rachmaninoff, on the other hand, has everything, and is simply much better music.
Disagree. I prefer Medtner. I'd even say Medtner was both a better melodist and harmonist than Rachmaninoff.
For each preposterous comment on a music video, there is an equally preposterous and opposite comment.
Haha.
@@SpaghettiToaster My comment, which cannot be justly described as "preposterous," is based on four decades of performing music, and twenty years of teaching music (mainly piano).
@@EmptyVee00000 To suggest that Medtner's music is more pianistic than musical is to deny his inexorably inventive use of sonata form, his rhythmic creativity, the beautifully atmospheric textures of his skazi, the instrumental mastery of his piano quintet, his counterpuntal genius that's probably paralleled only by Godowsky, Busoni and Rachmaninoff himself among all pianist-composers of the era, the actually great orchestration of his concertos (compare with those of chopin) and the general unmistakeable atmospheric and fantastic charm of all of his music. If you've been teaching music for 20 years, you should've probably picked up on some of that. Have you never analyzed one of Metdner's sonatas? They're all great. Do I think that Rachmaninoff's music is even better than Medtner's? Yes. Is Medtner's music pianistic rather than musical? *Hell* no. That's preposterous.
What a virtuoso and Romantic Concerto!❤
22:31 Au bord d'une source? :-)