Medtner: Nikolai Medtner Piano Sonatas – Taverna

   in Piano International (May, 2015)
Medtner’s 14 piano sonatas have been fairly well served on disc, with sets (in various degrees of completion) available by Hamelin (Hyperion), Fellegi (Marco Polo, download only), Tozer (Chandos), Paul Stewart (Grand Piano), Milne (CRD), and many more. They were composed between 1902 (the F minor Sonata, Op 5) and 1937 (Ein Idyll, Op 56).

The three recorded by Alessandro Taverna on this beautifully engineered disc are from late in the sequence, comprising the Sonata No 10 in A minor (‘Reminiscenza’), from 1920, and the Sonata No 12 in B flat minor (‘Romantica’) and Sonata No 13 in F minor (‘Minacciosa’) from 1930.

The ‘Reminiscenza’ and ‘Minacciosa’ are both single-span works, …