Medtner: Selected Skazki [Tales] (Bekhterev, Arimori)

Medtner’s Skazki are some of his most gorgeous and alluring pieces; they’re an excellent way to start getting into Medtner, which as most people discover unfortunately can be rather difficult. They feature almost all the trademarks of Medtner’s style: textural inventiveness, harmonic depth, a constant sense of the enigmatic, and, even if they’re not quite as rhythmically tricky as Medtner’s other works, a lot of rhythmic variation nonetheless. (If you listen carefully you might also recognise some ideas also used in his other works, including one of the main themes from the 2nd Piano Concerto.)

Bekhterev plays with an absolutely beautiful tone, and has an uncanny knack for expressing both the incredibly concentrated fantasy and the sense of spaciousness of the skazki [check out the Op.20 No.2, where the slow tempo chosen allows Medtner’s eerie counterpoints to ring out in a near-perfect imitation of the titular bells]. This shouldn’t be too surprising, since Bekhterev is something of an acknowkedged Scriabin specialist, but the results are thoroughly impressive nonetheless.

Arimori is not well-known at all, but he brings to the skazki some stellar contrapuntal playing – there are moments when he makes Medtner sound like Bach – as well as an improvisatory sense of freedom and colour [see 28:40, for instance, or the prayerlike 25:30, or the long unfurling line at 43:43].

00:00 – 2 Tales, Op.20 No.1 (Bekhterev)
03:04 – 2 Tales, Op.20 No.2, “Bells” (Bekhterev)
07:50 – 4 Tales, Op.26 No.1 (Arimori)
10:26 – 4 Tales, Op.26 No.3 (Bekhterev)
12:47 – Tale, Op.31 No.3 from “3 Morceaux” (Bekhterev)
15:31 – 4 Tales, Op.34 No.1, “The Magic Fiddle” (Bekhterev)
21:43 – 4 Tales, Op.34 No.2 (Bekhterev)
24:15 – 4 Tales, Op.34 No.4 (Arimori)
29:10 – 4 Tales, Op.35 No.4 (Bekhterev)
33:07 – 3 Tales, Op.42 No.1, “Russian Tale” (Arimori)
38:39 – 6 Tales, Op.51 No.1 (Arimori)
43:43 – 6 Tales, Op.51 No.2 (Arimori)
46:30 – 6 Tales, Op.51 No.3 (Arimori)
49:43 – Tale, Op.53, Book III, No.2, from Romantic Sketches for the Young, “The Barrel-Organ Player” (Bekhterev)