Monday, 29 December 2025

Medtner: Piano concerto no 3

Day 363

Medtner: Piano concerto no 3 no 3 in E minor op 60

Nikolai Dimidenko

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Jerzy Makymiuk

I am not conscious of ever having heard any Medtner and after this piece I am not sure that I want to hear any more. I thought that it was very poor. The romantic piano concerto is not one of the forms that I am particularly interested in to start with but I couldn't get anywhere with this. The idiom is probably best described as watered-down Rachmaninov without the tunes!  It seems to spend a long time getting nowhere and had very little to say along the way. I am sure that had I been listening to this cold on the radio I would have switched off. The booklet which comes with the recording makes extraordinary high claims for the quality of this music, emphasising the composer's mastery of form. As far as I am concerned he must have been writing about a different piece because I heard none of that, even though I was concentrating hard and following the score.

It merits a late entry on the list of pieces which I certainly do not want to hear again!

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