Refreshingly and exceptionally, Medtner im- presses as a composer who writes because he loves the sound of music, and more particularly the sound of music under his own fingers. Similarly, a feeling arises that the remarkable Geoffrey Tozer writes his booklet-notes to this recording primarily because he wants to tell us about this music which, in his turn, he also likes so much. He suggests (wasting no time about it) that we might do best to start listening near the end of the disc: ‘Go straight to the two Vocalises if you want to hear the best of Nicolai Medtner’. Dutiful as ever, I didn’t, but I can see it was good advice. Also rather refreshingly he writes of the Vocalises: ‘There is really not a lot you can say after hearing the suite and sonata together; they are Medtner’s finest works.’

That, of course, is saying ‘a lot’, or seems to be so after listening to the lovely and fascinating Goethe settings. Medtner’s way with each poem is distinctive and personal, like Wolf’s to that extent. On the other hand, where they have chosen the same text, the approach is totally different (Wolf a man who has gone without his dinner, not so Medtner). Like Wolf, Medtner feeds the poem into the piano writing, as into the voice; unlike Medtner, Wolf is too dependent on words to have seriously contemplated writing songs without them.

This suits Susan Gritton very well. She maintains (in this recital more than in most of her work) a very pure vocal line, even and instrumental. Her musical assurance in these difficult songs seems unassailable and her technique is masterly. It’s all a little impersonal, however: the emotional warmth she brings to Das Veilchen something of an exception. By contrast, Tozer’s piano playing, like the writing itself, is fully committed as an expression of the emotions and the personality. Perhaps this kind of balance or duality is implicit in the compositions (though surely it was not so in the famous Schwarzkopf-Medtner recordings). Whatever the answer to this, there is no doubt in my mind that the recital is an enlightening and delightful addition to the catalogue.