Pianist Tackles Mighty Medtner: Frank Huang's Monumental Project Reveals Russian Composer
Frank Huang. Credit: Tina Gutierrez.
The 19th century Russian composer and piano virtuoso Nikolai Medtner was horrible at marketing himself. While his good friend and admirer, Sergei Rachmaninoff, was being acclaimed around the world, Medtner could never quite achieve commercial success. Although he was greatly respected by his musical peers, Medtner spent the end of his life in relative obscurity, teaching and only occasionally concertizing.
With his monumental project to record all of Medtner’s solo piano music on nine CDs, Frank Huang hopes to bring some long overdue attention to this remarkable composer. The first volume has been released by Centaur Records, and it’s a marvelous introduction to Medtner’s deeply felt, romantic music.
“I remember vividly being introduced to Medtner’s music,” Huang said. “The first time I heard him was at Juilliard. A classmate of mine played the last two pieces from Forgotten Melodies, Op. 39, ‘Morning Song’ and ‘Tragic Sonata.’ I remember just how beautiful and tuneful ’Morning Song’ was. It just had a very singable melody, which stuck in my head.”
Medtner’s music is notorious for its enormous technical challenges, perhaps another reason for its absence from the concert hall. Only pianists of the greatest virtuosity, like Marc-André Hamelin, Geoffrey Tozer and Hamish Milne, dare to scale Medtner’s mighty heights. Huang is another pianist who packs the gear for the climb.
Introduced to piano when he was only five, Huang says that the instrument came naturally to him. As a young student, he would listen to recordings of the great pianists of the past.
“I bought all the great masters, Rubinstein, Horowitz, Richter, you name it,” he said. “I just loved getting my hands on all those recordings, and I still do. It was a different way of playing. The liberties that were taken back then, you don’t hear that kind of stuff today. The musicians of those days just really went for it. They had so much spontaneity, so much life.”
Huang would eventually receive his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Juilliard, where he studied under the renowned Julian Martin. He also attended the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he earned his doctorate, studying with Antonio Pompa-Baldi.
Huang is now associate professor of piano at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. A Steinway Artist, Huang regularly performs nationally and internationally, collaborating with some of the world’s greatest ensembles and soloists.
Huang’s experience will serve him well as he tackles Medtner’s demanding music.
“Medtner was a pianist, so he knew what he was doing in writing for the keyboard, but that doesn’t mean it’s easier,” Huang said. “So far in this project, the physical challenges and obstacles in getting around the instrument to do what he wants have come rather naturally. The biggest challenge for me is to present his music in a way to get people to want to hear it again.”
Huang says that unlike Rachmaninoff’s immediately appealing works, Medtner’s music requires repeated hearings to be appreciated.
“It’s almost an acquired taste, like with food,” Huang said. “There are some foods that are instantly delicious and there are some foods that only after several years and several experiences of eating them do you start to grow fond of them. That’s how I see Medtner. I think the best things in life don’t come so easy to you. I think he makes us work for it.”
For the first volume of Medtner’s solo piano music, Huang has programmed a nice variety that gives a taste of Medtner’s range. It’s comprised of three larger works that are collections of smaller pieces. The first one is Eight Mood Pictures, Op. 1.
“It was his first published work,” Huang said. “Most people might think this is an immature, youthful work, but I think you can hear a sense of maturity already. It’s a great demonstration of his harmonic language and his unique compositional voice.”
The second work on the CD is Fairy Tales, Op. 51. These are much later works. Medtner wrote “fairy tales,” or skazki, throughout his composing career. Huang says a better translation would be “tales,” as they refer to Russian folk tales and characters. Medtner decided to call them fairy tales after, for once, listening to some marketing advice.
“Medtner and his wife, Anna, were living in the U.K. when English fairy tales were so popular,” Huang said. “So she thought it might be better to call them fairy tales instead of just tales for marketability purposes. It was very good that he listened to his wife.”
The last work on the CD is ‘Forgotten Melodies,’ Op. 39, which includes ‘Morning Song’ and ‘Tragic Sonata,’ the pieces Huang heard his classmate play at Juilliard and which introduced him to Medtner.
“The ‘Tragic Sonata’ is incredibly powerful and has a visceral impact,” Huang said. “Not to mention, it is really virtuosic, very impressive. These melodies are haunting, they’re ethereal. They just have a lush harmonic palette with wide-ranging emotions.”
Medtner shared that “lush” approach to music with his friend, Rachmaninoff, who called Medtner the greatest living composer of his time. Both Russians were throwbacks, writing 19th century romantic music well into the 20th century, while Stravinsky was rocking the music world with “The Rite of Spring” and Schoenberg was stretching tonality to the breaking point.
Once, when Huang was performing at a Medtner festival in London, he had a chance to take a day trip to visit Medtner’s grave.
“It’s a very small, unassuming and unkempt grave,” Huang said. “There’s nothing extravagant about it. When you compare it to Rachmaninoff’s grave outside Manhattan, oh, my goodness. Rachmaninoff’s grave is magnificent. It is monumental, bigger than life. If I just showed you a picture side by side of their graves, that would tell the story.”
Rachmaninoff may have eclipsed his friend in fame, but Medtner’s light continues to shine, especially for those drawn to the less-explored paths and byways of music. Huang hopes his Medtner series will introduce many more adventurers to this special composer’s rarified music.
Those who would like a taste of Huang’s playing are encouraged to view his weekly virtual recital series called Rallentando. They’re 30-minute recitals on select Wednesday evenings at 8:30 p.m.
“As the name suggests, Rallentando is a chance for people to relax and wind down their day and enjoy some music,” Huang said. “Often I perform little Medtner pieces and speak a few words about the pieces. People that want to follow the Rallentando series can go to my website, frankhuangpiano.com.”
Solo Piano Works of Nikolai Medtner, Vol. 1 is available for purchase on Amazon, iTunes, Centaur Records, Spotify, and many more outlets.
