Medtner: Piano Sonata in E minor, Op. 25 No. 2 "Night Wind" [Kholodenko]

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"Night Wind" Sonata remains one of Medtner’s largest and most technically challenging works. Composed between 1910 and 1911, the sonata is a good example of Medtner’s compositional style in his middle years, which bridges the gap between a more traditional use of form and key relationships in his early works and the more modern formal-tonal language of his later works. Medtner dedicated the piece to Rachmaninoff, who remained one of Medtner’s closest colleagues and advocates in the musical world.

The title of the sonata, "Night Wind" comes from Fyodor Tyutchev’s 1832 poem “Of what do you howl, night wind...?”, which Medtner provides in its entirety as an epigraph in the score. Medtner’s inclusion of Tyutchev’s poem sheds light on his intentions regarding many of the programmatic features present in the sonata. The poem, which is in two stanzas, adopts the perspective of a narrator asking questions and reflecting on a chaos that is forming.

The sonata begins with a haunting, slow introduction that forecasts the dark and turbulent piece that is about to unfold. The melancholy nature of the piece is apparent from the first measure of the introduction, which features a declamatory motive of a descending minor third followed by a plodding, triplet ostinato bass line that accompanies a somber, lyrical melody. The introduction introduces other important motivic ideas as well, including bell tones that appear in the high register of the piano and that return throughout the piece. The introduction’s main theme itself also returns several times throughout the work, reinforcing that theme’s tragic implications throughout the sonata.
In terms of its overall expressive contour, the piece has a dark, menacing, unyielding quality. This is especially true of its minor-mode sections, which contrast markedly with the major-mode sections and their prevailing siciliano-style dance themes—which historically carry pastoral connotations and which function here to provide temporary hope within an otherwise bleak narrative trajectory. As my analysis will show, Medtner’s sequence of key areas, also has significant expressive implications and, indeed, is largely responsible for the work’s narrative profile. The consistent return of the theme from the slow introduction, furthermore, drives the work deeper into tragedy and ultimately keeps the sonata from reaching its implied expressive goal of freeing itself from the minor and establishing the major mode for any consistent length of time.

Source (full analysis): https://uh-ir.tdl.org/server/api/core...

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