I love this piece. I've read elsewhere some consider it to be one of his lesser sonatas, but it's always been one of my favourites. I can never forget the climax from 6:44 where tonality seems to almost fall apart before transfiguring - through sheer force of will - into joyous pealing bells. It always reminds me a little of the last movement of Beethoven's Sonata no. 31, where he transforms that disconsolate fugue into the same thing. I love its restless spiky momentum; never quite able to settle. It contains some lovely moments of stillness, but never for long. Dread, unease and terror skitter over memories of joy and humour in a dizzying contrapuntal display. I also think it's one of Medtner's best ever endings 12:22. Wow! Shame it's so difficult to play :-(
I heavily recommend learning to play this sonata, it's really fun. The notes just fit under your hands like they were meant to be played, really reminds me of playing Chopin, which has a very similar feeling. Medtner really knew how to write, not just something that sounds good, but is equally fun to play.
@@imokatpianoiguess9809 really? I've played his op 52, op 53, op 55, op 57 and op 59, and I thought they were all pretty fit to my fingers. You really have to use the right fingering though, but then everything feels really natural. Compare that to Beethovens sonatas which often feel more like orchestral music for the piano than actual piano music
@@imokatpianoiguess9809 Middle section? You mean the part with the left hand scales, or the part with the right hand sixths, or the Bb major part, or the f minor part with the left hand arpeggios and right hand chromatizised melody?
EXPOSITION THEME GROUP 1, A MINOR 0:00 T1,1. An iambic rise and fall motive. 1:09 T1,2 THEME GROUP 2, E MINOR The second theme group contains four consecutive melodic fragments, developed individually throughout the sonata. 1:29 T2,1 1:46 T2,2 1:55 T2,3 2:08 T2,4 CLOSING SECTION 2:38 Extensive elaboration on T1,1 3:38 Repeated cadences in E minor, concluding the exposition DEVELOPMENT 4:08 Bare statements of T1,2 4:35 T2,1 5:09 T1,2 5:29 T2,2 5:39 T2,1 against T2,3. Tension begins to build 6:07 T1,1, with increased intervals, against T2,1 6:29 T2,3 against heavily modified T1,1 (increased intervals, compressed into triplets) 6:44 Violent outburst of T1,1 and T2,3 7:09 Quartal chords moving by tritone in the RH, T2,1 and T2,3 in the LH. Possibly the most violent, chaotic passage in all of Medtner. 7:25 fff pealing of D major. IV-I cadence to... RECAPITULATION THEME GROUP 1, A MAJOR 7:36 fff recap, in the parallel major! 8:45 T1,2 THEME GROUP 2, A MINOR 9:07 T2,1 9:25 T2,2 9:34 T2,3 9:52 T2,4 and T2,1 CLOSING SECTION 10:10 Lots of T1,1 11:56 marked poco tenebroso, the atmosphere turns menacing. Harmonic movement by tritone in the RH, rising octatonically in the LH. 10:43 T1,1 and T2,3. Even more violent than its counterpart at 6:44. CODA 11:09 T2,3 12:03 An E-flat7 arpeggio brings the coda to a sudden halt. A state ment of T1,1, pianissimo, with the pedal held down. 12:22 Nothing but E-flat major and A major triads until the very end. 12:41 E-flat to A cadence. From structure analysis made by Alan Kuo (www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrA-H...)
My teacher studied with Hamish Milne and were great friends, accompanying the former to play at the Tchaikovsky Competition. Wish I had the chance to meet and interview the genius late Milne.
Thank you for releasing this absolute amazing recording by Eckardstein! This sonata has been one of my favorites for a while now, the thematic transformation is incredible In this piece!
Cette sonate nous offre un climat angoissé avec alternance de passages frénétiques et apaisés. On sent tout au long l'influence de la brutalité et de la rigueur de la guerre. Cette sonate me plait beaucoup.😀
Just curious, where is this Eckardstein recording from? I'm assuming it's live, the few live Medtner performances I've heard from him have been incredible!
Yep, it's live! I took it from the medtner sonata and skazki video of the youtube channel ADGO. Eckardstein, in all medtner he performed, has the best performance of those in my opinion!
Hmm i see how Prokofiev also used the theme of war in his amazing war sonatas, While i prefer Prokofiev 7 to this i can understand everything about this, really sounds like war at points (march and gunshots)
@@GUILLOM also tbh they are both amazing, as they are in the same key but they convey veery different feelings, sonata 8 mov 2 reminds me of mov 2 of the 7th in some points and in the last mov of the 8th the staccato notes remind me of the first mov of the seventh, while the anxiety of the Prokofiev 7th 3rd mov is almost unmatchable
@@SeigneurReefShark Thank you for your reply. And thank you for introducing me to the great Movie. There is no problem with images synchronization. Eckardstein's mistake. He's a great technique, so it's not an error caused by his technique problem. I simply misunderstand the sound. Therefore, the harmony is broken in some places. And it sounded dissonant and made me feel uncomfortable. However, the beautiful and tense performance sympathizes wonderfully. There is a problem in the following places. It's continuously wrong between 8:03 and 8:08. There are two places from 10:12 to 10:13. Often there are such misinterpretations of the performer. Valentina Lisitsa's Scriabin Op.14-No.2 is a very problematic mistake. These are not nuance issues, but bold harmony mistakes.
Took a month or two off from listening to Medtner. Now I finally truly appreciate his work.
00:05 - Eckardstein
12:50 - Milne
27:28 - Tozer
I love this piece. I've read elsewhere some consider it to be one of his lesser sonatas, but it's always been one of my favourites. I can never forget the climax from 6:44 where tonality seems to almost fall apart before transfiguring - through sheer force of will - into joyous pealing bells. It always reminds me a little of the last movement of Beethoven's Sonata no. 31, where he transforms that disconsolate fugue into the same thing. I love its restless spiky momentum; never quite able to settle. It contains some lovely moments of stillness, but never for long. Dread, unease and terror skitter over memories of joy and humour in a dizzying contrapuntal display. I also think it's one of Medtner's best ever endings 12:22. Wow! Shame it's so difficult to play :-(
I heavily recommend learning to play this sonata, it's really fun. The notes just fit under your hands like they were meant to be played, really reminds me of playing Chopin, which has a very similar feeling. Medtner really knew how to write, not just something that sounds good, but is equally fun to play.
Medtner writing is very pianistic for sure! I will definitely learn his sonatas when my technical skills will allow this.
@@imokatpianoiguess9809 really? I've played his op 52, op 53, op 55, op 57 and op 59, and I thought they were all pretty fit to my fingers. You really have to use the right fingering though, but then everything feels really natural. Compare that to Beethovens sonatas which often feel more like orchestral music for the piano than actual piano music
@@imokatpianoiguess9809 Middle section? You mean the part with the left hand scales, or the part with the right hand sixths, or the Bb major part, or the f minor part with the left hand arpeggios and right hand chromatizised melody?
@@imokatpianoiguess9809 I'm not really sure what part you are refering to, but yeah most probably you are playing with incorrect fingering
That's, like, all Medtner. He writes it right into the hands - and yet you need good control to pull it off
EXPOSITION
THEME GROUP 1, A MINOR
0:00 T1,1. An iambic rise and fall motive.
1:09 T1,2
THEME GROUP 2, E MINOR
The second theme group contains four consecutive melodic fragments, developed individually throughout the sonata.
1:29 T2,1
1:46 T2,2
1:55 T2,3
2:08 T2,4
CLOSING SECTION
2:38 Extensive elaboration on T1,1
3:38 Repeated cadences in E minor, concluding the exposition
DEVELOPMENT
4:08 Bare statements of T1,2
4:35 T2,1
5:09 T1,2
5:29 T2,2
5:39 T2,1 against T2,3. Tension begins to build
6:07 T1,1, with increased intervals, against T2,1
6:29 T2,3 against heavily modified T1,1 (increased intervals, compressed into triplets)
6:44 Violent outburst of T1,1 and T2,3
7:09 Quartal chords moving by tritone in the RH, T2,1 and T2,3 in the LH. Possibly the most violent, chaotic passage in all of Medtner.
7:25 fff pealing of D major. IV-I cadence to...
RECAPITULATION
THEME GROUP 1, A MAJOR
7:36 fff recap, in the parallel major!
8:45 T1,2
THEME GROUP 2, A MINOR
9:07 T2,1
9:25 T2,2
9:34 T2,3
9:52 T2,4 and T2,1
CLOSING SECTION
10:10 Lots of T1,1
11:56 marked poco tenebroso, the atmosphere turns menacing. Harmonic movement by tritone in the RH, rising octatonically in the LH.
10:43 T1,1 and T2,3. Even more violent than its counterpart at 6:44.
CODA
11:09 T2,3
12:03 An E-flat7 arpeggio brings the coda to a sudden halt. A state ment of T1,1, pianissimo, with the pedal held down.
12:22 Nothing but E-flat major and A major triads until the very end.
12:41 E-flat to A cadence.
From structure analysis made by Alan Kuo (www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrA-H...)
Milne was such an incredible pianist. All his recordings are unbelievably crisp and clear. Think his is my favorite for the War Sonata.
The transition to the recapitulation through that epic climax at 7:25 is mindblowing. And the fact that the recapitulation begins in major mode 🥰🥰🥰
What an incredible use of sonata form and thematic development. This can easily become one of my favourite sonatas.
Russian music is always enchanting. Thank you for sharing this great sonata.
a vast dense and enchanting piece of music!
WOW! That first performance by Eckardstein was brilliant - very exciting with some lovely delicacy in places.
ASTONISHING.
My teacher studied with Hamish Milne and were great friends, accompanying the former to play at the Tchaikovsky Competition. Wish I had the chance to meet and interview the genius late Milne.
Very good. He was a friend of my best friend Rachmaninoff.
Thank you for releasing this absolute amazing recording by Eckardstein! This sonata has been one of my favorites for a while now, the thematic transformation is incredible In this piece!
Cette sonate nous offre un climat angoissé avec alternance de passages frénétiques et apaisés. On sent tout au long l'influence de la brutalité et de la rigueur de la guerre. Cette sonate me plait beaucoup.😀
Son muy largas las sonatas pero de una musicalidad increíble brutalmente maravilosas y lo más increíble, cuentan histrias...
En realidad no son tan largas, generalmente duran entre 10 y 15 minutos.
@@GUILLOM sí, por ejemplo, la sonata "viento de noche" dura aproximadamente 25 minutos
so good
6:58
My fav
Nice.
I just love Medtner, just too bad all of his works are very difficult to play.
Is it possible to email you? I would like to share some recordings of several Medtner pieces by the great Vladimir Viardo
Sure, you can email me at shadowreefshark@gmail.com. I'd love to see these recordings!
Just curious, where is this Eckardstein recording from? I'm assuming it's live, the few live Medtner performances I've heard from him have been incredible!
Yep, it's live! I took it from the medtner sonata and skazki video of the youtube channel ADGO. Eckardstein, in all medtner he performed, has the best performance of those in my opinion!
Hmm i see how Prokofiev also used the theme of war in his amazing war sonatas,
While i prefer Prokofiev 7 to this i can understand everything about this, really sounds like war at points (march and gunshots)
Prokofiev 8 best war sonata.
@@GUILLOM also tbh they are both amazing, as they are in the same key but they convey veery different feelings, sonata 8 mov 2 reminds me of mov 2 of the 7th in some points and in the last mov of the 8th the staccato notes remind me of the first mov of the seventh, while the anxiety of the Prokofiev 7th 3rd mov is almost unmatchable
@@AsrielKujo all his sonatas are 🥰
One of the best spiano sonatas ever! I prefer Hamelin's Interpretation, but these are ok too.
Do you know the name of the painting that you show at the beginning of the video?
Theme 2 at the coda sounds like Rachmaninov, even the dissonances aren't look like Medtner's own style
一人目の人は至るところで音が外れているのが残念!
you mean in the synchronisation of the images, or the tune of the piano ?
@@SeigneurReefShark
Thank you for your reply.
And thank you for introducing me to the great Movie. There is no problem with images synchronization. Eckardstein's mistake. He's a great technique, so it's not an error caused by his technique problem. I simply misunderstand the sound. Therefore, the harmony is broken in some places. And it sounded dissonant and made me feel uncomfortable. However, the beautiful and tense performance sympathizes wonderfully.
There is a problem in the following places. It's continuously wrong between 8:03 and 8:08. There are two places from 10:12 to 10:13. Often there are such misinterpretations of the performer. Valentina Lisitsa's Scriabin Op.14-No.2 is a very problematic mistake. These are not nuance issues, but bold harmony mistakes.
you stole the font from hyperion medtner CDs
That might be the dumbest thing I've heard this year
Love this. Thank you for putting this together!!!