Forgotten Melodies. [Featuring music by Glinka, Medtner, Rachmaninoff, and Glazunov.] Alexander Malofeev, pianist. Sony 19802936922. 2 CD.
A pianist tells us many things about himself with a debut album. Especially if that debut album is named after one of its featured works. And especially if the composer of that featured work deserves to be a canon figure but isn't quite yet. Alexander Malofeev is 24 years old, and his inaugural recording is staking a claim with the music of....Nikolai Medtner. Yes, Nikolai Medtner. Ever heard of him? This is a composer whom Richard Taruskin once called "the poor man's Rachmaninoff" (Defining Russia Musically, pg. 318). Closer to my own experience, I remember the disdain with which a fellow graduate student reacted to the Medtner works I excitedly showed him. For long the consensus seems to have been that this music is well crafted but too introverted to really make wide impact. Medtner hasn't had the easiest time.
But it has been kept alive by serious advocates going back many decades. Richter, Gilels, and Horowitz were earlier champions. Then Geoffrey Tozer and Marc-André Hamelin recorded their superb discs for Chandos and Hyperion respectively in the 90s. Then came Evgeny Kissin with his own rendition of the Sonata Reminiscenza (a work that Malofeev tackles here). Then I was thrilled to see Medtner featured in performances at the latest Van Cliburn competition. (Here is one example.) The verdict of such distinguished company is clear: there is much that is special in this music; it merits prominence and not just survival. And like Hamelin has said, it seeps into you with repeated exposure; eventually you're aware that you love it. Even Taruskin amended his opinion later (Russian Music at Home and Abroad: New Essays, pg. 125).
Malofeev supplies a generous helping of Medtner here – all 8 pieces in the first set of Forgotten Melodies plus the second of the Op. 48 Fairy Tales. No empty advocacy is this: Malofeev feels Medtner's alternately breezy and saturnine moods to perfection. He brings out the composer's famous (infamous?) intricacies with smooth sensitivity. One savors how he adjusts to the main theme in all of its iterations across the Melodies. It's an absolute treat to the ears, and astonishing coming from one so young.
The selections rounding out this bountiful release complement the Medtner quite consciously, and likewise accentuate Malofeev's gifts. It's extremely nice to see Glazunov's likewise underrated piano works getting more fine exposure. A highlight is the Op. 103 Iydlle. Its mixture of sun and melancholy make it an ideal companion to the Forgotten Melodies. Malofeev dispatches it with warm delicacy. Similar things could be said for the five Glinka pieces also included, my favorite of which isn't actually the somewhat-known Lark but rather the unassuming Farewell Waltz.
Of course the best known music is the included Rachmaninoff assortment. But even here the repertoire is chosen wisely for consistency with its album-mates. There's the big Second Sonata: Malofeev meets its fierce virtuosic demands with enviable ease. But this sonata is even more characterized by its various shades of gloom and mystery, finding striking connections with the other pieces here. It shows that there is more in common between Rachmaninoff and Medtner, and that the more famous Russian composer's adoration of his friend's music was in earnest. If anything such connections prompt new ways to view C-Sharp Minor Prelude and included Études-Tableaux. This kind of subtle awareness is wonderful to see.
If I have a mild reservation it is that Malofeev sometimes overplays the faster and louder portions. They're breathtaking but occasionally obscure the expression slightly. I imagine that much of this is a maturity thing and will improve with age. Certainly it does nothing to mar what is a beautiful and important project. If the survival of classical music partially depends upon creative programming like this, and I believe it does, Malofeev is certainly doing his part.
Verdict: Highly Recommended
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