Schmonzcast #4: “Skazka” is a Russian word meaning something between “folk tale” and “fairy tale” — closer to the former, I'm told, though the latter is the more popular translation — and was Nikolai Medtner's favorite short form for solo piano. (He wrote several dozen Skazki.) If you're not already aware that I'm permanently besotted with Medtner, you'll begin to understand why when you hear me play this piece of his.
Lovely. You may have planted a Medtner seed. I’ve listened now to the sonata you played here several times, and it grows on one, definitely.
I see that Wikipedia says that Marc-Andre Hamelin is perhaps the “supreme technician” of the instrument. Before you talked of him, I hadn’t given him much attention. Now it appears that he’s quite a phenom. There’s quite a bit of him on YouTube, and he seems to be able to play everything with laughing ease and from memory.
Makes a fella sick.
Thanks for some new stuff to think about.
Very nice indeed. I’m glad you have your recording device, and your plugin
Bil – nice blog! I have subscribed.