Geoffrey Tozer’s now rapidly progressing cycle of Medtner’s complete piano music contains glories and riches indeed – an unending sense of intricacy from Russia’s most subtle and recondite composer. Even when Medtner reminds you of his debt to others (to, say, Brahms and Schumann) he remains inimitably himself, ranging effortlessly from lyric to epic and essaying everything in between. Take the “Prologue”, from Op. 1, composed when Medtner was 18 and prefaced by some lines from Lermontov telling of a soul carried to earth by an angel. Such serenity and other-worldly preoccupation are expressed in music of rippling complexity, soaring to declamatory heights before resuming its former pensiveness and quiet ecstasy. In total contrast The Night Wind Sonata, Op. 25 No. 2, dedicated to and greatly admired by Rachmaninov, is among the most daunting of all sonatas; of heroic length and ambition. Then there are the Three Hymns in Praise of Toil, transcending their seeming workaday proletariat title, their radiant outpouring coloured by a typically Slavic anxiety and unease.“Nixe” (a water sprite – Op. 2 No. 1), on the other hand, reminds us of Szymanowski in its exoticism, most notably in a magical and shimmering final retreat. The Improvisation, Op. 31 No. 1 is another of Medtner’s finest, most imaginative offerings, and if the Dithyramb exults in Brahmsian fullness, its final pages, which seem to engulf the entire keyboard, are of a vehemence and force peculiar to Medtner.
No praise could be high enough for Geoffrey Tozer’s formidable undertaking. Playing throughout with an enviable strength, grace and subtlety and with an unfailingly beautiful sonority, he is more than equal to every occasion. Listen to him in the Allegretto capriccioso, danzando and Giocondamente in Op. 31 No. 1 and you may well find his playing just that bit more improvisatory and less steel-tipped than from, say, Earl Wild in his admittedly superb recording (RCA, 2/70 – nla). Hearing him, too, in the breathless sequence commencing at 4'45'' in the Sonata, Op. 25 No. 2 or in the slow movement from the Sonata-Skazka (complete with a melody he describes in his excellent notes as “one of the loveliest Medtner ever wrote”), you will be made more than aware of his warmth and affection as well as his imperturbable fluency and skill. Played with such conviction all this music acquires a haunting idiosyncrasy which repays constant attention, even when, as Tozer engagingly puts it, “the themes in Medtner’s perorations are like guests leaving a party, standing in the doorway with hats and coats on, saying goodbye, but each unwilling to be the first to leave”. The recordings are of the highest quality. '