Marc-Andre Hamelin - Medtner: Complete Piano Sonatas, Forgotten Melodies / Hamelin

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Music reviews of Medtner: Complete Piano Sonatas, Forgotten Melodies / Hamelin

Music Review: contra drollere
Rating: 5 Stars

I can understand that on first listen this music (like a great deal of classical music) may be difficult to parse -- to break into meaningful paragraphs and sentences, so to speak. And I know first-hand that when one can't yet hear the phrase structure in a piece of music, it tends to sounds like, yes, a long drum solo; it sounds like the music is attempting to express itself solely through superficial, local effects. drollere's review is actually a lovely, well-written description of the experience of listening to music without knowing how to parse it. One hears only "chords," "scales," "arpeggios," "melodies," and is aware that things seem to "change...every 20 seconds or so." In fact, listening to music this way - a bit like listening to the rise and fall of an actor's voice without being able to make out the words - often tends to give one an exaggerated impression of the surface effects, which I think must account for drollere's belief that this music is best characterized as "virtuosity for its own sake." Assessments like "the kinetic equivalent of serialism" and "a musical rubik's cube" really have nothing to do with Medtner - they just describe the general phenomenon of a piece of music being meaningless to a listener, in the truly musical sense of the word "meaning."

I was struck by these things, reading drollere's review, because they were so familiar to me: I am often frustrated by how long it takes me to come to terms with the form (and through it, substance) of a new musical work; sometimes it seems like I can listen to a piece 20 times and not yet know how to parse it. Frustrating indeed, because I, unlike drollere, know that at that point I'm still not qualified to form an opinion of the music. In a very real sense, I still haven't heard it. I might form an opinion about the fact that the music is still opaque to me (e.g. "I'm putting in an attentive, good faith effort to make sense of this music, so I declare that if I still don't know what's up after 20 listens, the composer isn't doing his/her job") but I'm simply not in a position to say anything about the composer's musical or aesthetic intentions or accomplishments. The composer didn't write the "drum solo" that I hear - it's just the raw data stream, not yet decoded by my brain, and as such isn't a work to be reviewed.

The irony of drollere's review is that the most outstanding aspect of this music, in exact opposition to what drollere says, is its "emotionally or imaginatively involving musical structure." Medtner's handling of sonata form is astounding - if you don't believe me or can't hear it, get a copy of the score and give yourself the assignment of breaking down the structure of one of the longer movements - the first piece I encountered was Op. 22, which is a good warm-up for the really sprawling ones, Op. 25/2 and Op. 53/2. I promise you that by the time you've gone through the purportedly tedious task of actually identifying the different themes and their recapitulations, noting thematic relationships, etc. etc., you'll realize how strong these pieces are, how exquisitely they fuse profound, heartfelt emotion with ingenious development - and then you'll be ready to listen again and hear it all. Or at least more of it. "What are the rewards of repeated listening?" indeed. Perhaps since July 28, 2003, drollere has found out the answer to that question, in which case I hope s/he will return and clean up around here. I just hate to think that anyone will be turned off to Medtner by a well-written but utterly rash review. Trust me: this is the real thing. The music is, if anything, better than the hype. Do not be dissuaded.

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