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An unprecedented and critically acclaimed series reaches its fifth and final volume with atmospheric settings of German and Russian poets from Pushkin to Nietzsche and beyond. Although Medtner was born in Moscow, he had partial German ancestry, and almost half of his songs are set to German poetry, which he knew in the original. In earlier volumes of their complete survey of his songs, Ekaterina Levental and Frank Peters focused on the Russians; now, like Medtner, they conquer the peaks of Romantic German poetry with texts by Goethe, Chamisso and Eichendorff.

Rather less well known as a poet was Friedrich Nietzsche, but he was a figure who fascinated Medtner, and the settings here bear witness to a deep affinity.

In the brochure, Ekaterina Levental reflects on her own bond with the composer. "It was love at first sight. It was as if someone whispered a truth to me for which there were no sounds before." He explored emotions and feelings for me, images, associations, a world of felt knowledge and experiences that I had always carried within me but had never heard expressed in this way. Someone from the past was speaking to me in a language that I seemed to understand completely instinctively. Passing on this knowledge and wonder and sharing it with the audience became my dream

This cycle on record was a heartfelt project for both artists, and Peters also shares his own insights into Medtner's notoriously complex piano composition.

Together they have gone further than anyone else in documenting a perennially underrated Russian song composer who deserves to be considered alongside Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky in this regard. This final volume concludes the cycle with the Eight Songs Op. 61, which move in a typically Medtnerian synthesis between Russian and German poets.

The 5th and final edition of the recording of Medtner's complete songs!

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 Taneyev. 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 decided to concentrate on composition. in 1936, he settled in London, where he spent the rest of his life teaching and composing until 1951.

Medtner's style has its roots in the 19th century, is full-bloodedly Romantic, with a very personal harmonic and melodic language, often complex and dense, but of haunting beauty.
This new recording is entitled "Sacred Place" (after J. W. von Goethe's "Geweihter Platz") and brings together songs to texts by Nietzsche, Goethe, Eichendorff, Lermontov, Pushkin and Hesse.

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 soft high notes are truly exquisite, and she can do things with the voice that most modern singers can't, such as take the vibrato out of the voice to achieve an expressive effect. All in all, she is a virtuoso singer of the old school, and such artists are extremely rare these days ... 'We are very lucky to have a pianist like Peters as the pianist on this album, who fully understands this dichotomy.' (Artmusiclounge. com). 'Levental has a dark, rich voice, but her pure tone is never burdened by excessive vibrato ... She couldn't ask for a more responsive partner than Peters, who reveals an astonishingly deft touch and an uncanny ear for detail.' Fanfare to Volume 1).

'The phrasing is so perfect, the sense of line so pronounced, the rubato sounds so natural that this seems to be the only way to sing it ... this clarity is due to the purity of Levental's voice, which she deploys with secure intonation and minimal vibrato, as well as exquisite (but always controlled) color play ... This is a great release.' (Fanfare to Volume 2).

Reviews

"All in all, Levental and Peters make the strongest case for the repertoire ... Levental continues to impress us with the beauty and purity of her voice and the rhetorical sensitivity of her phrasing, which is unfailingly linked to the impact of the text." (Fanfare)