Medtner - Piano Concerto 3 Analysis (Tozer)

First, I need to tout how amazing the Interludium is: Transforming the lyrical Theme A1 into a bold march is striking enough, but then Medtner puts it in 2/2 time, C major, and not just in canon with itself but also in counterpoint with a new theme (E1) that is both in a different rhytm (3/4) and a different key (A minor). Later, we see how A1’s continuation (A2, 16:12) is made into a regular part of E1 (really obvious if you listen to the timestamps in the score). But because the beginning of E1 is essentially the inversion of this new descending part, we realize that E1 has been based on A2 all along. Great stuff!
Medtner composed his Piano Concerto No. 3 in E minor (1940-1943) after fleeing from London to the English countryside during the German air raids in WWII. Medtner once revealed the inspiration for this work as follows: the first movement is based on a poem about a sleeping knight at the bottom of the sea. The later movements are Medtner’s own continuation of the poem, where the knight, “having been lulled to sleep by allurements of early life, gradually awakens and begins to sing his song [..], awakening, as to everlasting life” [1] (p. 15). The knight’s song (25:01, G1) already appeared in Medtner’s very first published work, nicknamed “Angel” [2], which is based on another poem with a similar subject. There, a person, tired of earthly life, yearns for the divine song that was once sung to him by an angel. This intertextuality between Medtner’s Op. 1 and Op. 60 is a great illustration of his unwavering philosophy, always looking for the sacred beyond the profane.
Structurally, this concerto appears a free-flowing ballade, but is so full with internal references and repetitions that its forms seems like it’s been made wilfully impenetrable. The piece is rife with little passages that give the impression of book-ends to certain section. An example are the piano figures at 1:53 & 3:40 that make the two H-A-B successions seem like a double introduction, the parts at 10:38 & 13:48, and many more. For a very detailed attempt at a structural analysis, see [1]. Personally, I think Medtner wrote this fantastical and mysterious piece for every listener to interpret on his own, this colour-coded thematic analysis is just the starting point for that.

00:00 Con moto largamento
15:47 Interludium (Allegro, molto sostenuto e misterioso)
17:28 Finale (Allegro molto, Svegliando, eroico)

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References:
[1] http://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3470&context=etd
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMbooLjwLmE (the four-note-theme starts appearing from 00:50 onwards)

Recording: Geoffrey Tozer & The London Philharmonic Orchestra (Neeme Järvi)

Видео Medtner - Piano Concerto 3 Analysis (Tozer) канала Alesa