The Romantic Piano Concerto, Vol. 02 Medtner 2 & 3

It's a great pity that Medtner's concertos have been so overshadowed by Rachmaninov's, much as I love the latter. Not many romantic piano concertos strike me as being genuinely first-class, and I would say that a perfectly fair case could be made out for arguing that Medtner's are even better than Rachmaninov's, not to say infinitely superior to Liszt's, Grieg's or Tchaikovsky's. The second is in the standard 3-movement format, with a first movement entitled 'toccata', the term being used more in the sense familiar from Schumann and Poulenc than in the way Bach meant it, but the music being nearer to Bach's in significance than to the others'. The third is a sort of 'concerto quasi fantasia' with no slow movement and the three sections played without intermission. Both are big works, taking over 35 minutes each in these performances, both call for virtuosity of a high order, and both show the late romantic idiom at its best, lyrical without sentimentality and intellectual without affectation.

The liner quotes a memorable remark by Medtner himself to the effect that rhythm is what transforms musical prose into musical poetry. The performers have obviously taken the point to heart, and there is a superb sense of forward momentum all the way through, although relaxing understandably in the lyrical first section of the Romanza of the second concerto. The soloist's formidable fingers are equal and more to the formidable demands made on them, and his playing throughout is instinct with fire and commitment. The two works are made to seem far shorter than they are when given with so much seeming comprehension of what the composer meant and so much concentrated passion. I hope it doesn't seem ungracious to say that Demidenko performs so well that he left me able to imagine even better. The piano sound right at the start is nothing if not striking, for instance. Powerful - good. Declamatory - good. Dominating - good. All as it should be. However it is possible for there to be real magic in even the most percussive playing, as many performances by Serkin have left me in no doubt, and I would have known that this is not Serkin playing here. Demidenko comes close to the ideal, and perhaps by now (this performance was recorded in 1991) he has come closer to that final refinement in the martellato touch and that ultimate subtlety in the rhythm that would transform accounts that are even here magnificent into what I believe the composer fully envisaged.

It gives me especial pleasure to be able to say again what fine orchestras the BBC Scottish Symphony and the (now) Royal Scottish National have grown into since I was a boy in Scotland. Medtner's orchestration stands in much the same relationship to Rachmaninov's as his general musical idiom does. It is big-scale Russian orchestration, part of the duty of being Russian no doubt, vivid as Russian orchestration always seems to be, but not tugging at the heart-strings in the way Rachmaninov knew so well how to do. An orchestra of the requisite calibre must adore playing stuff like this, and the BBC Scottish gave me the sense I wanted to be given of wholehearted love of what they are doing.

Nothing here makes me hesitate for a moment in awarding five stars. What the essay suggested to me, and what the performances proved to me, is just how good Medtner's music is and consequently how exacting one becomes in listening to a performance. The recorded sound is also excellent, and I hope this issue sets off a revival in public interest in music that should never have suffered such seeming indifference. I would like to hear Demidenko do these concertos even better in a few years' time or even right now, and I would like the chance to hear a number of others attempt the same feat. The duty of being Russian does not preclude others from trying to surpass the sons (or daughters) of the motherland in their own music, but if Demidenko decides to prove that nobody can perform this superlative music as well as he can that will be fine by me. Among them they could do with letting us all hear it more often.

Medtner's Second Concerto, completed in 1927 and dedicated to Rachmaninov, begins with a vigorous Toccata the opening bars of which bear all the hallmarks of the Medtner idiom: distinctive rhythms, grand, pathos-ridden melodies, brilliant piano writing, and rich but very effective orchestration. The Third Concerto, written during the Second World War, is much freer in form than the Second, but again, all the Medtner trademarks are there.

Both concertos come across as strikingly original works and their fine craftsmanship and honest, lyrical romanticism makes their apparent neglect entirely unjustified.

Nikolai Demidenko's playing is nothing short of awesome, his power and precision evident right from the word go. The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra is unfazed by what must have been unfamiliar music, and everyone is captured in excellent sound. A truly stunning release.