Medtner Piano Concertos

[Bulldog]

Being very impressed with Medtner's works for violin and piano, I'd like to acquire a few discs of his piano concertos.  Any recommendations?

[ragman1970]

Demidenko and Sudbin !?

[Lethevich]

Sadly I haven't heard many discs of his PCs (just the two excellently recorded Hyperion discs, and the composer's own recording of 2 and 3 on Testament), but I would like to point out that one of the Hyperion discs comes coupled with his quintet, which is a breathtaking work that should be on any Medtner shortlist... As a single disc it is one of my favourites.

[Dax]

A favourite of mine is the version of no. 2 by Abram Shatskes and the USSR Symphony Orchestra recorded in 1959. Probably not so easy to get hold of.

[SonicMan46]

Sadly I haven't heard many discs of his PCs (just the two excellently recorded Hyperion discs, and the composer's own recording of 2 and 3 on Testament), but I would like to point out that one of the Hyperion discs comes coupled with his quintet, which is a breathtaking work that should be on any Medtner shortlist... As a single disc it is one of my favourites.

Don - like Sara, I just have experience w/ the two Hyperion discs shown below; and, I agree that the PC1/Piano Quintet is an excellent start - good discussion on ClassicalNet HERE - will be interested in your comments - Dave 

 

[Drasko]

A favourite of mine is the version of no. 2 by Abram Shatskes and the USSR Symphony Orchestra recorded in 1959. Probably not so easy to get hold of.

Shatskes is indeed very fine, and very different interpretation from Demidenko's. Having both as different takes on the piece would be nice but unfortunately it's very much unavailable. Maybe Warner France could release it in their ongoing Svetlanov edition. It can be listened to online streamed from russiandvd:

http://www.russiandvd.com/store/product.asp?sku=35585
(click on Preview/Прослушать)

[Superhorn]

  I have the Chandos two disc set of the three Medtner piano concertos plus a piano sonata with the gifted Australian pianist Geoffrey Tozer and Neeme Jarvi and the London Philharmonic. I don't know if it's still available, but I recommend it highly.

[Wanderer]

All very good suggestions. Personally, for the first concerto I'd go with either Sudbin or Zhukov (probably out of print by now); Alexeev is also very good and if you'd like to investigate the piano quintet as well, I'd steer you towards that direction.

For concertos nos.2 & 3 I'd go with the fiery yet lyrical accounts of Demidenko. Tozer is very good in all three, but he has the disadvantage to play the short cadenza in the first movement of the second concerto and he's more tame (though gorgeously lyrical) throughout. Madge is a little heavy-going and I wouldn't recommend his recordings as first versions for these concertos, although his renditions have merit.

Nota bene: For the Third concerto, there's a highly impressive rendition by Michael Ponti in a "romantic piano conceto" Vox set, coupled with Balakirev, Goetz, Lyapunov and Sinding. If you happen to come by it cheap somewhere, do not let it pass. Same goes for Medtner's own recordings.