Search - Nikolay Medtner, Marc-Andre Hamelin :: Medtner: Forgotten Melodies I, II

Excellent recording

Mr. A. C. Combrink | 04/16/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A warning to potential buyers: The music on this disc is aleady contained in the Four-disc set of the Sonatas (CDA67221/4)by Hamelin. If you only want the "Forgotten Melodies", this is an excellent disc to purchase, but you might as well get the set that includes all the sonatas as well. This is wonderful music, wonderfully played. There is a well-priced 7CD set of Medtner's complete sonatas and selected other works on Brilliant Classics, played by Hamish Milne. His set has the Op 39 set of "Vergessene Weisen" but not Op 38 as on Hamelin's set.



I am not going to get into a whole discussion about the technical ease with which Hamelin plays - some reviewers read this as a flaw of his playing, somehow missing a sense of heroic struggle associated with pianists of lesser technique. My humble view is that it is our gain that we can hear these works played with such command and ease. If you do not know Medtner's music, this disc is a good introduction, as the works are short, almost like sets of Preludes or Etudes by Rachmaninov or Scriabin."

Stellar playing of beatiful music

Mary M. Bea Isaak | Oakland CA | 05/07/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"To me, this CD evokes all the romance of old Russia....the melancholy, the spaciousness, the harsh landscapes. Marc-Andre Hamlin has the imagination, technique, intelligence to convey it all.......I liked this so much that I ordered his Liszt album. I love that one, too! (I KNEW I'd like his playing when I heard him with San Francisco Symphony last year..in a very TOUGH contemporary piece.....which he played with great musical intelligence and ease.) BRAVO!"