If you wish me to list your concert please get in touch.
Includes downloads and DVDs. Please let me know of any I've missed.
The programme can be viewed here (UK only). The Medtner part is at 17:00 - 24:30. There's a bit more after the boat leaves Wooton.
Hamish Milne died on 18 February 2020, aged 80. Obituary in Presto Classical. In conversation with Melanie Spanswick (video)
The International Medtner Society (Berlin) was founded in February 2017. It held inaugural concerts in Berlin and London in May 2017 and a festival in October 2018 (see below). The Society invites applications for membership.
A commemorative plaque has been installed on 20 Avenue du Château, Meudon, the last of Medtner's residences in Paris. The event was marked with a ceremony and a festival at the Conservatoire Marcel Dupré on 20-21 June 2014.
Bernard Roberts died on 3 November 2013, aged 80. He was one of a handful of pianists who kept the Medtner torch alight in Britain in the latter decades of the 20th century. On meeting him a few years ago, he told me how he liked to include a group of five Fairy Tales in his programmes, starting with Op 20/1 and finishing with Campanella. He had a particular affection for the Op 51 set. He performed Medtner in several BBC recitals in the 1970s and 1980s, including the Night Wind in 1973. An obituary appeared in The Daily Telegraph.
Colin Horsley died on 28 July 2012, aged 92. He premiered the Piano Quintet with the Aeolian Quartet on 6 November 1950 when Medtner was too unwell to take the piano part, and performed Piano Concerto no.3 at Medtner's memorial concert on 5 April 1952 in the Royal Festival Hall. Obituaries appeared in The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Guardian and Gramophone magazine.
Geoffrey Tozer died on 21 August 2009, aged 54. The obituaries in The Guardian and Gramophone magazine are still available online. Others are behind a paywall.
Pieces from the Op.38 and Op.39 Forgotten Melodies were performed by Momo Saito in Tour of "Time" in Russia in Munetsugu Hall, Nagoya, Japan on 17 August 2022. The previous day she gave a recital titled Four Seasons in Russia ‐ Tchaikovsky and Medtner.
The International Medtner Society held a Double concert in Berlin on 14 Nov 2021 to mark the 70th anniversary of Medtner's death. Recordings on YouTube:
matinee
soiree
A "Medtner-marathon" comprising performances of all Medtner's vocal works was held in Moscow at the Gnessin Academy of Music from 14 Oct 2017 to 17 Nov 2018. Videos of the 9 concerts can be viewed on a YouTube channel. Further information about this event can be found in an article by Anna Salnikova in the journal Scientific notes.
An International Medtner Festival in the Ukraine took place in Odessa on 3-5 October 2019. The programme comprised presentations, lecture-recitals, masterclasses and a closing concert.
The first International Medtner Festival in Berlin took place on 29 Oct–3 Nov 2018, organised by the Internationalen Nikolaj Medtner Gesellschaft. The standard of performance was very high and it was gratifying to see the concerts so well attended. Blog on the first two concerts.
The second London International Medtner Festival took place on 26-27 November 2017. The three concerts featured the complete Op.45 and other songs, the piano quintet and a good selection of piano music, a masterclass on Medtner songs by Ian Burnside, and a piano masterclass by Dmitri Alexeev on the sonata-tragica and Night Wind. As in the January 2016 festival, the opening concert was sold out. Photographs
The First International Nikolai Karlovich Medtner Competition for singers and pianists was held in St Petersburg on 26-28 November 2016. Another competition is planned for January 2019.
A "Medtner Marathon" of the complete Medtner sonatas was given by students and alumni of Dina Parakhina at the Royal College of Music on 8 May 2016.
Marc-André Hamelin performed piano concerto no.2 with Vladimir Jurowski and the LPO in Eastbourne on 6 March 2016. The performance was enthusiastically received.
An International Medtner Festival took place in London on 28-30 January 2016, organised by Alexander Karpeyev. It comprised a masterclass with Dmitry Alexeev, a concert at Pushkin House, a one-day conference at the British Library, a screening of the Russian film "Mystery of Medtner" by Aida Soboleva, a visit to Medtner's grave, and a closing concert at the Royal College of Music preceded by a discussion with Hamish Milne and Christoph Flamm. The masterclass and opening concert were sold out.
Cahill Smith played Angel Op. 1 No. 1 and the Danza Festiva in Chongqing and Beijing in August 2014. I am unaware of any other Medtner performances in China by foreign artists other than Nikolai Demidenko's sonata-reminiscenza in Beijing in 2013, although it is possible Tozer played some Medtner there.
A Medtner Day was held at the Guildhall on London on 22 May 2014, organised by Alexander Karpeyev. There were lunchtime and evening recitals consisting entirely of Medtner and featuring the violin sonata no.1, piano quintet, songs and solo piano works. The afternoon saw a masterclass with Hamish Milne and a lecture by Francis Pott. The event continued with a wine reception after the last concert, after which some of us adjourned to the pub. A day of wall-to-wall Medtner was a unique experience and the young musicians contributed some memorable performances.
An international conference "The Medtner family in Russian and world culture" was held in Moscow on 28-30 October 2013. Programme (in Russian). It was followed on the anniversary of Medtner's death by a memorial evening featuring the première of a film "The Mystery of Medtner" presented by its director Aida Soboleva.
Marc-André Hamelin performed piano concerto no. 2 in Moscow with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia under Dmitry Vassiliev on 6 December 2012. It was broadcast on Radio Orpheus.
A festival of Russian music focused on Medtner was held at Saarbrücken, Germany on 13-19 Nov 2011. The concerts on Nov 13 and 17 were broadcast on German radio in January 2012. Photo of performers on Nov 13: Boris Berezovsky, Thomas Duis, Alexander Rudin, Ekaterina Derzhavina, Hamish Milne, Yana Ivanilova (Laurent Albrecht Breininger absent).
Alexander Karpeyev and the Idomeneo Quartet performed the Piano Quintet on 3 June 2011 at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London. The concert attracted a very favourable review in Musical Opinion.
A Medtner festival was held in Moscow on 3-5 Jan 2011, featuring three concerts with Yana Ivanilova, Feodor Tarasov, Boris and Evelyne Berezovsky, Hamish Milne, Ekaterina Derzhavina and Severin von Eckardstein.
Yakov Kasman performed Piano Concerto no. 2 with David Wroe and the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra in Huntsville, Alabama, USA on 13 November 2010, the anniversary of Medtner's death. He performed the concerto again on 16 March 2011 with The National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine under Nataliya Ponomarchuk in Kiev.
Piano Concerto no.3 was performed by Simon Callaghan with Benjamin Ellin and the Slaithwaite Philharmonic in Huddersfield on 16 October 2010, and by Veronika Ilinskaya with Maxime Tortelier and the Royal Academy Orchestra in London on 11 Jan 2011. Both performances were enthusiastically received.
Medtner featured in a festival of Russian chamber music in Hamburg, Germany in September 2010 promoted by Musikförderung e.V..
Laurence Kayaleh and Paul Stewart performed the Violin Sonata no.2 on 29 July 2008 at the Festival of the Sound in Canada. The audience rose to its feet at the conclusion and it was wonderful to witness such an enthusiastic reception for a work that cannot have been known to many.
Boris Berezovsky performed Piano Concerto no. 2 with Sir Andrew Davies and the Philharmonia in London's Royal Festival Hall on 29 May 2008. Regrettably, the BBC did not record it.
Vassily Savenko and Boris Berezovsky performed songs and fairy tales by Medtner in Tokyo and Osaka in March 2008. The Medtner songs may have been receiving their Japanese première. Some photographs from these enthusiastically received concerts can be seen here. Three of the songs can be viewed on YouTube.
Second International Festival of Medtner's Music
Russia, May 2007