MEDTNER AND THE MAHARAJAH

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 485, 8 October 1948, Page 10

MEDTNER AND THE MAHARAJAH

EALTHY Indian potentates must sometimes won--der how to make the best use of their money. The Aga Khan has developed one of the world’s "most famous racing stables; the Maharajah. of Mysore takes a keen interest in music. In particular the Maharajah has admired the work of Nicolas Medtner, a little-known Russian-born composer who has been living in England since 1936. When he found that practically none of Medtner’s works had been recorded, and that the composer was, as one man reported, "Gaunt, distinguished, neglected, living with his

and the "Great Soul" was rushed from his hotel to the recording studios where the famous record, Mahatma GandhiHis Spiritual Message, was made. It was first broadcast here about 16 years ago, and was repeated last June after Gandhi's death. The Medtner recordings consist of the Concerto No. 2 in C Minor (Issy Dobrowen conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra), the Fairy Tale in D Minor, Op. 51, No. 1, and the song "To a Dreamer" (sung by Oda Sloboskaya, soprano). They will be broadcast from 4YA at 8.0 p.m. on Thursday, October 14, and will be heard later from other stations.

They made such an impression on their first release in England that The Gramophone’s reviewer said, "When these recordings become well known, a_ feeling of astonishment will be experienced at music so vital in thought and so striking in sheer creative genius languishing so long in ‘comparative neglect." The Second Piano Concerto is dedicated to Rachmaninoff, and_ is notable for its inspired musiéianship and _ the unusual quality of its thought and, texture. Although it is built up on an orthodox system of tonality, it is quite original in style and invention. The Fairy Tale in D Minor is a short vivacious piece written around the personality of a 17th Century Russian Tsar, Ivan V ("The

wife and his grand piano in the simplest seclusion in the north of London," he decided to do something about it. Early in 1947 he made a fund available so that Medtner’s music could be recorded, and in the succeeding months this was done, with the composer Supervising and playing the piano parts. Last February the first volume of recordings was made available, and recently they arrived in New Zealand. The man who probably had most to do with arranging this project, and who certainly left no stone unturned to bring it to fruition, was the Maharajah’s commissioner in England, Captain S. T. Binstead. Binstead is khown in broadcasting circles as the originator of another scoop, the recording of Mahatma Gandhi’s voice in 1931. At that time Gandhi had just been released from prison (after his violation of the salt excise laws in 1930) and was attending the Round Table Conference in London. He agreed to let Binstead make a recording of his voice, but only when he was inspired. The right moment, occurred at seven o’clock one morning

Simpleton"), while the song "To a Dreamer" is based on the poem by Pushkin in which he warns against insincerity in love. . Medtner was born in Moscow in 1880, and studied composition with Arensky at the Moscow Conservatory. His declared opposition to the innovations of modern music, and his belief in the old principals of tonal harmony, as expounded in his book Muse and Fashion, have not helped him to get contemporary recognition. Although he. was strongly influenced by the German romantics, the Russian elements in his work are still predominant, and it is significant that one of his closest friends was Rachmaninoff, with whom his music and his career have some points of similarity. -Medtner left Russia in 1921, lived for a while in Germany and France, and then in 1936 settled in England. He has never known great success, but thanks to the Maharajah’s gift he may now find the wider public recognition which has been denied him in the past.