Sonata in G minor, Op 22

Date: 1909-10
For: Piano
Published by: Édition Russe de Musique 1910
Availability: Recital Publications (1910/1998); Dover (1959/1998); Dover, in Rare Masterpieces of Russian Piano Music, may be out of print

Recordings

Moiseiwitsch 1943† 78 HMV C3310/1 CD Naxos 8110675, Philips 456 907-2, Scribendum SC837 19CDs, PHCP-20609/10 - nla, Dante HPC145 - nla
Grinberg 1948 CD Denon COCQ-83980, COCO-80471 - nla, Scribendum SC814 34CDs
Gilels 1954/Moscow* CD Moscow State Conservatory SMC CD0085‡, Russian Compact Disc RCD16278

Gilels 1954 LP Melodiya D 02305/6 Akkord Leningrad export Dischi Ricordi/MK export, CM 04331/2** Aprelevka, Odyssey Y 34611, Monitor MCS2130**, Westminster XWN 18180, Westminster Gold WGM8273 CD DG 4776370***, DG 000721702/4776625****, DG 000764972/4776656 21cds, Naxos 8112051, Melodiya MELCD 10-00252, Brilliant Classics 92615 10cds, Hänssler PH17066 15cds, Regis RRC1403, Monitor MCD72048 - nla, Bianco e Nero BN2437/2 - nla, Profil Medien PH17066 15CDs

Ponti 1974 Vox/Candide LP CE31092
Zhukov 1980 CD Telos TLS037
Bunin 1983 CD Russian Compact Disc RCD16354
Milne 1988 CD Brilliant Classics 9195 7cds, 8851 7cds, CRD (vol.3) CRD3460
Fellegi 1989 CD Marco Polo 8223371
Madge 1991 CD BIS BISCD1258, Danacord DACOCD401 - nla
Tozer 1991 CD Chandos (vol.1) CHAN9050
Istomin 1993* CD Radio Classique - nla
Margolina 1996 CD Thorofon CTH2337 - nla
Hamelin 1998 CD Hyperion CDA67221/4
Hanselmann 1998 CD Prezioso (vol.2) CD800.037
Mejoueva 2002 CD Wakabayashi WAKA4163, Music Friend Corporation OCD-0055 (Japan) - nla
Margulis 2003 CD Ars Musici AM13622
Golka 2007/Newport* DVD Acorn Media
Ilinskaya 2007 CD Landor Records LAN288
Mikitsky 2009/Moscow* CD Moscow Conservatory SMC CD 0119-122 4cds
Kusunoki 2010 CD Quartz QTZ2089
Paley 2015 CD La Musica LMU005
Keiserman 2017 CD Sheva SH 202
Medvedev 2020 CD Quartz QTZ2143
Kalafatova 2021 download Andrey Levin Records
Ang 2023 download Bandcamp (vol.IV)

† Recorded 4 and 11 March 1943. Dante incorrectly gives 1938. Moiseiwitch made an unpublished recording for HMV on 30 October 1942.

Gilels recordings

‡ Recorded live in the Grand Hall of Moscow Conservatoire on 6 Jan 1954. Claimed in the CD booklet (2007) to be the first release. The interpretation is similar to the studio recording. The later (2021) Russian Compact Disc gives the same details but I have not confirmed that it is the same recording.

** fake stereo transfer

*** Date given as 1952, taken from Falk Schwarz's Emil Gilels: The Concertography, The Discography published by the Friends of Sviatoslav Richter in 1995. The Gilels online discographies mostly give 1954; the Brilliant Classics set gives January 1954. 1954 is more likely than 1952 on several counts. Paperno, in his book Notes of a Moscow Pianist, states that Gilels brought Medtner's music back to the concert stage in 1954 after the ban during the "witches' sabbath" at the end of the 1940s, and became the first pianist to once again perform the Op 22 sonata. Also in 1954, Gilels wrote in article in the magazine Soviet Music which opened: "Recently I have come across Medtner's G minor Sonata, op.22. What remarkable music it is!" The release of the Melodiya LP can be dated late 1954 from the catalogue number.

**** Steinway Legends series. A sticker on the packaging misleadingly claims "first release on CD of Emil Gilels 1976 recording". However it is a transfer from the same Westminster/Melodiya tape for XWN 18180 as was used for DG 4776370.

Melodiya MELCD 10-00252 is the studio recording and not the live performance implied in some online sources. The quality is inferior to the DG transfers.

In his biography, Barrie Martyn reports that Anna Medtner did not approve of Gilels's interpretation.

The 1959 Collected Edition has numerous markings not present in the original 1910 edition, some changes in dynamics, and a few obvious errors. The variorum assumes the reader is in possession of the 1959 edition.

Op 22

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