Search - Nikolay Medtner, Earl Wild :: Medtner: Piano Music

WILD ABOUT WILD!

Melvyn M. Sobel | Freeport (Long Island), New York | 03/08/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Earl Wild begins this 1988 disc with Medtner's elusive, twenty-six minute composition called "Second Improvisation," Op. 47 (Mr. Wild recorded the "First Improvisation for RCA back in the 70s.) Curious Medtner would call this an improvisation, when it's actually a series of interwoven Rachmaninoff/Scriabinesque variations (on something he calls "The Mermaid's Song"). Wild sustains these quirky, vacillating variations with aplomb.



The delightfully whimsical "Sonate-Idylle," Op. 56, again a tad Scriabin-like, is nostaligic and beautiful--- and all too short at only eleven minutes or so.



What is most mesmerizing, however, is Wild's rendition of Medtner's "Vergessene Weisen" ("Forgotten Melodies"), Op. 39, which are five alternatingly ruminative, titillating and thrilling pieces. The opening "Meditation" is knockout gorgeous, as is No. 2, "Romance." The last piece of the set, the "Sonata Tragica," frequently excerpted for solo performance, is a composition of interspersed passion and glowing lyricism.



Of a rather refined intellectual bent, Medtner's music has never had wide public appeal, although his piano concertos have come and gone through the years, as have his piano works, themselves highly variable. Credit the success of this CD to Mr. Wild, an incredibly fine artist, pianist and virtuoso (with techincal prowess second to none), with the heart of a true romantic.



[Running time: 66:40]"