Nikolai Medtner

Nikolai Karlovich Medtner was a Russian composer and pianist, born in Moscow on January 5, 1880. His ancestors were of Scandinavian origin (a Danish father and a Swedish-German mother), but the family had been living in Russia for many years by the time of his birth. His great-grandparents, Friedrich Albert Gebhard and Maria Hedwig Gebhard, were opera singers who debuted on the Moscow and St. Petersburg stages in the early 19th century. Medtner received his first piano lessons at the age of six from his mother, later studying with his uncle, Fyodor Goedicke. In 1892, he entered the Moscow Conservatory.

At the Conservatory, Medtner studied under Anatoly Galli, Paul Pabst, Vasily Sapelnikov, and Vasily Safonov, graduating in 1900 with a high gold medal. He was largely self-taught in composition, although he took theory lessons from Nikolai Kashkin and harmony from Anton Arensky. After graduating, he participated in the Rubinstein Piano Competition, where he received an honorable mention. However, following the advice of Sergei Taneyev and his elder brother Emil, he chose to focus on a career in composition rather than that of a concert pianist, performing only occasionally and primarily his own works.

Some of Medtner's compositions were first published in 1903. His Sonata in F minor attracted the attention of the renowned Polish pianist Josef Hofmann, and Sergei Rachmaninoff also took notice of his music, later becoming one of Medtner's closest friends. Between 1904 and 1907, Medtner gave concerts in Germany but failed to make a significant impression on the critics. In Russia, particularly in Moscow, he garnered a considerable following. He achieved broader recognition as a composer in 1909 when he was awarded the Glinka Prize for a cycle of songs set to poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. He soon became a professor of piano at the Moscow Conservatory and received another Glinka Prize in 1916 for his piano sonatas. Medtner also served on the board of the Russian Music Publishing House, founded by Sergei Koussevitzky, alongside Rachmaninoff and Scriabin.

In 1921, Medtner and his wife emigrated to Germany, where his music found little interest and concert opportunities were scarce. Sergei Rachmaninoff provided financial support, organizing a concert tour of the United States for him in 1924–1925. Upon returning to Europe, Medtner settled in Paris, but his compositions met with limited success there, as they had in Germany. His circle of friends during this period was small, consisting mainly of Russian émigrés. One of the few contemporary French musicians who admired his work was Marcel Dupré.

In 1927, Medtner performed in Soviet Russia, and a year later, in Great Britain. In the UK, he was made an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music and gave a successful performance of his own Second Piano Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Society orchestra. The warm reception he received encouraged him to consider settling permanently in London. He undertook another concert tour of North America in 1929–1930, but the agency he worked with went bankrupt, and he only avoided financial hardship with Rachmaninoff's help.

Observing the evolution of contemporary compositional techniques in the early 1930s, Medtner decided to publish his own aesthetic philosophy, which was considered overly conservative by his peers. In his book "Muse and Mode," published in Paris in 1935, he articulated his views on the immutable laws of art and contended that fashionable modernist trends were merely delusions that severed the connection between a musician's soul and their creative work. In October 1935, he and his wife finally settled in London.

The success of his concerts, private teaching, and a contract with a German publisher provided him with a comfortable living until the outbreak of World War II. During the war, the Medtners relocated to Warwickshire, where they were hosted by the family of pianist Edna Iles. Medtner suffered a heart attack in 1942 but recovered sufficiently to perform his new Third Piano Concerto at the Royal Albert Hall in February 1944.

Despite his illness, Medtner's final years were eventful. In 1946, an Indian maharaja provided funds to establish the Medtner Society, which enabled the pianist to record nearly all of his major works over the following years. These recordings are now considered a vital part of the world's musical heritage and offer a clear insight into his artistry. Nikolai Medtner died on November 13, 1951, and was buried in Hendon Cemetery in London. A twelve-volume collection of his works was published in Moscow between 1959 and 1963, and festivals and competitions in his name have since been established in Russia.

As one of the last Romantic composers, Nikolai Medtner holds a significant place in the history of Russian music, often mentioned alongside Alexander Scriabin, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Sergei Prokofiev. His musical style is distinct from that of most of his contemporaries, harmoniously blending a Russian spirit with classical Western traditions such as structural unity, masterful polyphony, and the clarity of sonata form. His melodic language ranges from Russian motifs to subtle lyricism. He never embraced modernism; his harmony is rich and detailed but rarely extends beyond the classical framework of the 19th century. His rhythms, however, can be highly complex, sometimes employing various types of polyrhythm. His musical voice is distinctive and remained remarkably consistent throughout his life.

The piano dominates Medtner's musical legacy; every one of his compositions features the instrument. A superb pianist himself, Medtner possessed a profound understanding of the piano's expressive capabilities, and his works place high technical demands on the performer. His output includes three popular piano concertos, fourteen piano sonatas of varying scales, and thirty-eight masterfully crafted miniatures titled "Skazki" (Tales). His chamber music includes three sonatas for violin and piano and a piano quintet. Vocal music is another significant area of his work; he composed over a hundred songs and romances to texts by Russian and German poets, primarily Pushkin and Goethe, in which the rich piano accompaniment is often as important as the vocal line.

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