Four Fairy Tales, Op 34

Date: 1916-7
For: Piano
Published by: State Publishing House 1919
Availability: Dover (1959/2001); Boosey & Hawkes (no.2 – reprint of 1922 ERM)

Recordings

complete
Nikonovich 1981 CD Russian Disc RDCD10014 - nla
Milne 1994 CD CRD (vol.5) Brilliant Classics 9195 7cds, 8851 7cds, CRD3498
Milne 2006 CD Hyperion CDA67491/2
Tchaidze 2012 CD Honens HON201202C
Huang c.2024 CD Centaur CRC4123
Ang 2025 download Bandcamp (vol.VII)

nos. 1, 2
Bekhterev 2004 CD Camerata CMCD28074

nos. 1–3
S Conus pre 1988* CD download Jeanne d'Arc records - nla

no. 2
Moiseiwitsch 1928 78 HMV E530, Victrola 1449 CD Naxos 8110675, Testament SBT1196, Koch 37035-2 - nla, Dante HPC024 - nla

Cherkassky 1946 78 Vox 16026 (set 165) listen at russian-records.com CD Pearl GEMMCD0138, APR APR_7316 3cds, Ivory Classics 72003 - nla
Nielsen 1955-60 CD Northern Flowers NF/PMA 9982
Achúcarro 1963 LP RCA Victor LM-16308
Krehm c.1974 LP CBC (Radio Canada International) SM-247
Clegg 1977 LP Alpha DB244 CD Paradisum PDS-CD17
Garland 1990 CD Unicorn-Kanchana UKCD2037
Tozer 1991 CD Chandos (vol.1) CHAN9050
Milne 1994/Husum* CD Danacord DACOCD429
Carol Rich 1996 CD private label - nla
Mejoueva 1998 CD Denon (vol.1) COCO-70756, COCQ-83112 - nla
Hanselmann 1998 CD Prezioso (vol.2) CD800.037
Berezovsky 2006/Essen* DVD Euroarts EUA2055758
Berezovsky 2007 CD Mirare MIR059, MIR290
Scheps 2013 CD Genuin GEN 14302
Sukharevich c.2019 CD ClassicaDalVivo CDL/0619
Basilova 2019 CD TRPTK TTK 0041
Mejoueva 2021 CD Bijin Classical BJN-1020

nos. 2, 3
Medtner 1936 78 DB3004, Victor 14509 LP #2 Melodiya D 7845/6 Aprelevka Riga CD Appian (vol.2) APR5547, St-Laurent YSL 78-007, Melodiya MELCD 10-02200, Dante HPC130 - nla
Berezovsky 1995 CD Teldec 4509-96516-2 - nla, Warner Classics 2564664684 10cds
Burdin 2018 download Global Sound Records

no. 3
Lifschitz 1990 CD Denon COCO-79807, COCQ-83251 - nla
Lewin c.2013 CD Sono Luminus DSL-92168

nos. 3, 4
Shatskes 1958 LP Melodiya D 10063/4† All-Union

no. 4
Arimori 2013 CD Fontec FOCD-9610 (Japan)

† The IPQ and BIRS discographies err in omitting Op 34 no 3.

Medtner recorded a Duo-Art piano roll of Op 34 no 3 in 1925 (published 1931)

Transcription of Op 34 no 2 for violin and piano
by M Vladimirsky

Malinin/Stern c.1965 LP Melodiya D 016139/40 sleeve

Koussewitsky republished the Op 34 set in 1922 after re-establishing Édition Russe de Musique in Paris. As with other Medtner works first published in Russia after the nationalisation of the musical press, he had to re-engrave the work as he did not have access to the original plates. I only have the ERM of no.2, of which the Boosey & Hawkes edition is an exact copy. Like many other contemporary ERM publications it is subtitled Edited by F. H. Schneider in an (apparently futile) attempt to secure copyright in the USA.

Numerous dynamic and expressive markings were added in the 1959 Collected Edition, especially in no.1. A few of these are not trivial. In bar 17 of no.1 the tied half note B is a tenuto quarter note in the 1919 edition, and there is no staccato dot in the LH. Most of the pedal marks and fingerings originate from the 1919 edition.

None of the subtitles or quotations are present in the 1919 edition.

Op 34 no 2

One of the best known Tales. Moiseiwitsch's lovely 1928 interpretation appears to be only the second recording of a Medtner work, piano rolls excepted, the first being an idiosyncratic rendering of Op 6 no 2. The variorum assumes the reader is in possession of the 1959 edition.

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