Jayson Gillham, Benjamin Northey, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra - Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 / Medtner: Piano Concerto No. 1( CD ALBUM)

Young Australian pianist Jayson Gillham presents his third album on ABC Classics, featuring the music of two Russian friends and piano virtuosi: RachmaninoffÙs Piano Concerto No.2 Ó one of the most eternally popular pieces of classical music Ó and the rarely performed Piano Concerto No.1 by Nikolai Medtner, written just 15 years later. For these recordings, Gillham is joined in the studio by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and their Associate Conductor Benjamin Northey. Nikolai Medtner (1880Ó1951) was a close friend of Rachmaninoff (they even dedicated various pieces to one another) but history has treated their music very differently. The great Australian pianist Geoffrey Tozer, who died in 2009, was a rare champion of MedtnerÙs music, and it was when Gillham was invited to feature in a documentary on TozerÙs life that he discovered MedtnerÙs work. Dedicated to his mother, MedtnerÙs Piano Concerto No.1 was written during the First World War. The intense drama of the music Ó brought out in vivid technicolour in these recordings Ó is irresistible, but so too is the consolatory power of music. We discover the healing balm of music again in Angel, MedtnerÙs work for solo piano: a meditation, as Gillham puts it, on Üthe rediscovery of a divine song, half-remembered, half-forgotten, of a beauty that cannot be matched on earthÝ. Gillham first performed RachmaninoffÙs Piano Concerto No.2 with the MSO in MelbourneÙs outdoor Sidney Myer Music Bowl: that concert was greeted with rapture by both the critics and a cheering audience of thousands. Renewing their association in the studio just weeks later, Gillham and the Orchestra unveil fresh richness in this beloved music. The concerto is paired with the contemporaneous Prelude Op.23 No.4, which shares the same Üblissful contentmentÝ. Tracklisting: NIKOLAI MEDTNER 1880Ó1951 Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, Op. 33 1. Allegro Ó 2. Tranquillo, meditamente Ó 3. Coda (Allegro molto) 4. Eight Stimmungsbilder (Mood Pictures), Op. 1: No. 1 Prologue ØThe AngelÙ SERGEI RACHMANINOFF 1873Ó1943 Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18 5. I. Moderato 6. II. Adagio sostenuto 7. III. Allegro scherzando 8. Prelude in D major, Op. 23 No. 4 Jayson Gillham piano Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Benjamin Northey conductor Recorded in the Iwaki Auditorium of the ABCÙs Southbank Centre, 10-13 April 2017