One of the most important vocal projects of recent years: the complete songs of Nikolai Medtner on five CDs, interpreted by Ekaterina Levental and Frank Peters.

Nikolai Medtner was born in Moscow in 1880. After piano lessons from his mother, he attended the Moscow Conservatory, where he received lessons from Pavel Pabst and Sergey Taneev. At the age of 20, he won the prestigious Anton Rubinstein Prize. As a younger contemporary of Scriabin and Rachmaninov, he was destined for a brilliant career as a pianist, but he preferred to concentrate on composition. in 1936, he settled in London, where he taught and composed until 1951.

Medtner's style is rooted in the 19th century, full-bloodedly romantic, with a very personal harmonic and melodic language, often complex and dense, but of haunting beauty. His vocal works combine complex piano accompaniments with expressive melodies and poetic texts, often by Goethe, Pushkin or Tyutchev.

Ekaterina Levental was born in Uzbekistan. She settled in the Netherlands, where she studied at the conservatory in The Hague. She began a successful career as a singer, playwright and theater producer. The pianist Frank Peters is a highly respected Dutch pianist, both as a soloist and as a chamber music partner. He is a tireless advocate of Medtner's piano works.

"Levental's smooth high notes are truly exquisite, and she can do things with her voice that most modern singers can't do, such as draw out the vibrato for expressive effect. All in all, she is a virtuoso singer of the old school, and such artists are extremely rare these days ..