An unprecedented and critically praised series reaches its fifth and final volume with richly evocative settings of German and Russian poets, from Pushkin to Nietzsche and beyond. Though born in Moscow, Medtner had partially German ancestry, and nearly half his songs are set to German poetry, which he knew in the original. In previous volumes of their complete survey of his songs, Ekaterina Levental and Frank Peters have concentrated on the Russians; now they conquer the peaks, as Medtner did, of Romantic German poetry, with texts by Goethe, Chamisso and Eichendorff.
Rather less well known as a poet was Friedrich Nietzche, but he was a figure who fascinated Medtner, and the settings here speak of deep affinity.
In the booklet, Ekaterina Levental reflects on her own sense of affinity with the composer. ‘It was love at first hearing. It was as if someone whispered to me a truth for which there were no sounds before. He sounded out for me emotions and feelings, images, associations, a world of felt knowledge and experiences that I had been carrying inside me all along, but had never heard expressed in such a way. Someone from the past spoke to me in a language that I seemed to understand totally instinctively. Passing on this knowledge and wonder and sharing it with the audience became my dream.’
This cycle on record has been a passion project for both artists, and Peters also passes on his own insights into Medtner’s notoriously complex piano writing.
Between them, they have gone further than anyone else in documenting a perennially undervalued Russian song composer, who deserves to be considered alongside Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky in this vein.
This final volume closes out the cycle with the Eight Lieder Op.61, which move between Russian and German poets in a quintessentially Medtnerian synthesis.
‘All in all, Levental and Peters make the strongest possible case for the repertoire… Levental continues to strike us with the beauty and purity of her voice and the rhetorical sensitivity of her phrasing, unfailingly tied to the affect of the text.’ (Fanfare)
The 5th and last issue in the recording of the complete songs by Medtner!
Nikolai Medtner was born in Moscow in 1880. After piano lessons with his mother he entered the Moscow Conservatory where he had lessons from Pavel Pabst and Sergey Taneyev. He won the prestigious Anton Rubinstein Prize at age 20. A younger contemporary of Scriabin and Rachmaninoff he was destined for a brilliant pianistic career but he chose to concentrate on composition. In 1936 he settled in London where he spent the rest of his life teaching and composing till 1951.
Medtner’s style is rooted in the 19th century, full-blooded romantic, with a highly personal harmonic and melodic language, often complex and dense, but hauntingly beautiful.
This new recording is titled “Sacred Place” (after J.W. von Goethe’s “Geweihter Platz”) and brings together songs on texts by Nietzsche, Goethe, Eichendorff, Lermontov, Pushkin and Hesse.
Ekaterina Levental was born in Uzbekistan. She settled in The Netherlands where she studied at the Conservatory of The Hague. She embarked on a successful career as singer, dramatist and theatre producer. Pianist Frank Peters is a highly respected Dutch pianist, both as soloist and chamber music partner. He is an indefatigable champion of the piano works of Medtner.
‘Levental’s soft high notes are truly exquisite, and she can do things with the voice that most modern singers cannot, such as to drain the voice of vibrato for expressive effect. All things considered, she is a virtuoso vocalist of the old school, and such artists are extremely rare nowadays… “We are very lucky to have a pianist like Peters, who fully understands this dichotomy, as the pianist on this album.” (Artmusiclounge.com). “Levental has a dark, rich voice, but her pure tone is never burdened by excess vibrato… She couldn’t ask for a more responsive partner than Peters, who reveals an astonishingly deft touch and an uncanny ear for detail.” Fanfare (Volume 1, 96056). “The phrasing is so perfect, the sense of line so keen, the rubato so natural sounding, that this seems the only way to sing them… this lucidity is due to the purity of Levental’s voice, which she employs with sure intonation and minimum vibrato, as well with an exquisite (but always controlled) play of colour… This is a major release.” Fanfare (Volume 2, 96061).
