Two Fairy Tales, Op 20


Date: 1909
For: Piano
Published by: Édition Russe de Musique 1910
Availability: Dover (1959/2001); St Petersburg Music Publishing House (2006); Boosey & Hawkes (no.1); International Music Co. (no.1, in Album of Selected Pieces)

Recordings

complete
Medtner 1930 CD Appian (vol.1) APR5546, St-Laurent (vol.5) YSL 78-023

Medtner 1936 78 HMV DB3006, Victor 14512 LP #1 Melodiya D 7845/6 Aprelevka Riga CD Appian (vol.2) APR5547, EMI CDC7-54839-2 reissued by ArkivMusic, EMI 2175752 22cds, St-Laurent (vol.4) YSL 78-007, Melodiya MELCD 10-02200, Dante HPC130 - nla

Grinberg 1952 CD Vista Vera VVCD-00119, Denon COCQ-83980†, COCO-80471† - nla, Scribendum SC814 34CDs, Russian Compact Disc RCD13009
Egon Petri 1958/Basel* LP Dell'Arte DA9009 CD Music & Arts 772 - nla
Pratt 1966 LP York 27001
Pleshakov 1970 LP Orion ORS7019 download Orion LAN0039
Brumberg c.1972 LP Melodiya CM 03463/4
Syomin 1976‡ CD BMG/Melodiya 74321 33217-2 - nla
D Graham 1978 LP Musical Heritage Society MHS3976
Rollé 1979 LP Finnadar SR9026
Polionov 1991 CD Klavins KM14
Hanselmann 1993 CD Prezioso (vol.1) CD800.014
Sama 1999 CD Lindberg PIANO002
Tozer 2000 CD Chandos (vol.7) CHAN9899
Park 2000 CD Triton DICC-26062
Burstein 2000/Miami* CD VAI MIP001
Osborne 2002/Husum* CD Danacord DACOCD609
Bekhterev 2004 CD Camerata CMCD28074
A Alexeyev 2004 CD Marquis MQCL81359/MAR359
Arimori c.2005 CD Fontec FOCD9241 (Japan)
Kawakami 2004 CD Harmony HCC2016 (Japan)
Milne 2006 CD Hyperion CDA67491/2
Moser 2008 CD Oehms OC726
Vidovic 2009 CD Croatia Records
Di Wu 2009/Fort Worth* CD Cliburn Classics VCF090530C
Osborne 2012 CD Hyperion CDA67936
Noack 2014 CD Artalinna ATL-A014
Burdin 2018 download Global Sound Records
Ang 2023 download Bandcamp (vol.III)

no.1
H L Anderson 1937 78 Iragen 2R-29-03 CD IPAM Records 1206
Nielsen 1955-60 CD Northern Flowers NF/PMA 9982
Svetlanov 1980 LP Melodiya C10-15855/6 CD Warner 5101124942, Evgeny Svetlanov Foundation SVET 42-47 6cds, Russian Disc RDCD10045 - nla
María Teresa Rodríguez 1980s LP Luzam LUMC-8602
Demidenko 1992 CD Helios CDH55315, Hyperion CDA66636 - nla
Pleshakov 1993 CD Sonpact SPT92003
Klimov 1995 CD Ottavo OTR C79552
Berezovsky 1995 CD Teldec 4509-96516-2 - nla, Warner Classics 2564664684 10cds
Agus 1996 CD Protone PRCD1108 - nla
Tropp 1997 CD Denon COCO-70755, COCO-80837 - nla, CO-18080 - nla
Mejoueva 1998 CD Denon (vol.1) COCO-70756, COCQ-83112 - nla
Calevro c.1998 CD Phoenix Italy 98240
Tao c.1998 CD Eroica JDT3015
Mochernuk 2001 download Kalinka Recordings
Kafarova 2003 CD Nova Classical 7X4979 download Indie Pool
J Siegel c.2005 CD download penguinrandomhouseaudio.com
Feoktistova 2008 CD MSR MS1326
Sudbin 2009-2014 CD BIS-SACD-1848
Dimitrieva 2014 CD Sonus Eterna
Mejoueva 2016/Ryuto* CD Wakabayashi Koubou WAKA4201
Safonova c.2021 CD Etcetera KTCKTC1744
Vorotnaya 2022 download Artalinna ATL-A042

no.2
Sofronitsky 1947 78 Melodiya 14917/8 Aprelevka LP Melodiya D 19493/4 CD Urania URNSP4258, Classound 2003008, Denon COCO-80188 - nla, Arlecchino 174 - nla
Berezovsky 2006/Essen* DVD Euroarts EUA2055758
Berezovsky 2007 CD Mirare MIR059, MIR290
Basilova 2019 CD TRPTK TTK 0041

† date given as 1961; The Vista Vera disc gives 18 February 1952
‡ date incorrectly given as 1995 in the International Piano Quarterly discography

Medtner made an unpublished recording of Op 20 no 1 for Columbia in 1931.


Transcription of Op 20 no 1 for violin and piano
by Jascha Heifetz, published 1949 by Carl Fischer, New York. Dedicated to Horowitz

Recordings

Heifetz/Bay 1946 78 Victor 10-1295 (set M 1126), HMV DA1914 LP RCA Red Seal ARM4-0946, RCA Red Seal R233261, Melodiya M10-44305/8 CD RCA Gold Seal 09026 61737-2, BMG BVCC37129-132 4cds - nla

Rosand/Covelli c.1983 LP Turnabout TV34799 CD Vox ACD8201
Aharonian/Safonova 1999 CD Delos DE3351
Gluzman/Yoffe 2006 CD BIS 1652
Kayaleh/Stewart 2007 CD Naxos (vol.1) 8570298
Kamio/Krutyshev 2014 CD Sony SICC-1714
Leong/Chiu c.2015 CD Analekta AN29160
Revich/Osetinskaya 2019 CD Melodiya MELCD 10-02608
Ioudenitch/Broberg 2022 CD Warner Classics 5419737407


I have a 1923 Soviet edition of the pair, and an Édition Russe de Musique of Op 20 no 1 that can be dated 1921-1922 from the format of the cover. I have referred to this edition as "1921" in the variorum. Although my copy bears the original plate no. and is doubtless based on the same engraving, it does not follow that it is identical to the original 1910 edition because Koussevitsky often added markings to scores published after he reconstituted Édition Russe de Musique in Paris in 1921. It is more likely that the 1923 Soviet edition, although re-engraved, follows the original as it lacks some of the markings in the 1921 edition. The variorum is written on the assumption that the reader is in possession of the 1959 Collected Edition; the Dover is identical apart from translations of the Russian. No.1 also features in an anthology published in 1941 in New York. It is identical to the 1921 edition and uses the same engraving.

Note the misprint in the 1959 edition in bar 51 of Op 20 no 2. The majority of performers have not spotted this even though E natural is musically incorrect in the context of the previous and following bars. There is another error in bar 114, and a few minor or obvious errors elsewhere in this piece and in Op 20 no 1.

Op 20 no 1

There are no fingerings in the 1921 and 1923 editions.

Op 20 no 2

The title "Campanella" and the subtitle are absent from the 1923 edition. It also lacks the indications tenebroso and sempre al rigore di tempo e sostenuto, reiterated in the footnote of the 1959 edition. These are all handwritten additions to Medtner's own copy of the original edition (reproduced in Natascha Konsistorum's biography) except that Medtner's footnote reads "Whoever finds it boring to play this al rigore di tempo had better leave this piece alone". As Barrie Martyn points out in his biography, Medtner was so insistent on this point that he wrote out the marking separately on each of the nine pages.

Not all recordings observe Medtner's instruction.

The 1923 edition has no pedal marks.

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