Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951)
‘Forgotten Melodies’(“Vergessene Weisen”), Op 38 (1916-1922), Part 2-8
Nikolai Lugansky, 2016
From Mariinsky Theatre

[0:00] II. Danza graziosa. Con moto leggièro
[2:48] III. Danza festiva. Presto
[8:14] IV. Canzona fluviala. Allegretto con moto
[11:33] V. Danza rustica. Allegro commodo
[14:00] VI. Canzona serenata. Moderato
[18:35] VII. Danza silvestra. Allegro
[22:20] VIII. Alla Reminiscenza. Quasi coda


“It will also do no harm to remember that the same Bach, who in some rare instances, actuated by a peremptory command of the theme and its contrapuntal development in various voices, slips for a brief moment into the roughness of a vertical segment, i.e., chord, that same Bach, enriched music by astounding chord-harmonies that make him into a sort of prophet of Wagner and Liszt. And in a similar way Chopin, relinquishing the specific forms of homophony and abandoning his usual scheme of melody vs accompaniment, has given us examples of the most perfect counterpoint.” (on Harmony and Counterpoint)

“It is wrong to identify the past with age, and the present and future with youth. For if we speak at all of time, its passage is from youth to age, and not vice versa. However, the domain of the spirit has no idea of time. Therefore when we think of our youth, our soul is rejuvenated, but when we merely wear clothes that beseem youth, e.g., just follow the fashion, we merely affect youth, but don’t get any younger.” (on Modernism)

“After the expulsion from the Paradise of Art, such as was, for instance, the Renaissance epoch in Italy, or the efflorescence of music in Germany, when artistic creation was in the hands not only of individuals, but of collective forces, not only of geniuses, but whole schools, not of one single generation, but of many - we, exiles scattered all over the world, detached from all heritage and succession, must earn our works of art by hard labour, like miners, and not attempt to pluck them like the flowers of the fields, as we saunter through them.” (on Creation)

Nikolai Medtner, “The Muse and the Fashion” (1935), translated by A. Swan

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