Nikolay Medtner (1880-1951)

Nikolay Medtner was born in Moscow in 1880. His mother taught him piano and he went on to study at the Moscow Conservatory under Taneyev and Safanov. He was a virtuoso of the piano but favoured composition over performance. He wrote extensively for the piano including 108 songs and the Skazki or Fairy Tales considered some of his most original pieces. His compositional style is complex and technically challenging to performer and listener alike. Medtner was a great admirer of Beethoven whose influence is heard in the fourteen piano sonatas, the most significatnt being the “Night Wind” sonata. Medtner was also a contemporary and friend of Rachmaninov.

In 1918 Medtner married violinist Anna Mikhaylovna Bratenskaya. She had been wife to his older brother Emil. Emil granted Anna her freedom for the betrothal after being imprisioned in Germany during World War I. After the Russian Revolution Medtner toured America and Canada but he was unsuited to touring and eventually he settled in London where he was held in high regard. There he wrote and taught music. With the onset of World War II Medtner lost his income from German publishers. Fortunately his pupil Edna Iles provided a place for him in Warwickshire which allowed him to complete his Third Piano Concerto. His fortunes changed when The Maharaja of Mysore founded the Medtner Society in London in 1949 dedicated to recording all of Medtner’s works. Despite poor health Medtner was able to record many of his works before he died in 1951.