Four Fairy Tales, Op. 34

Medtner maintained an extraordinary level of innovation and artistry throughout his entire collection of Fairy Tales. The Op. 34 set is no exception and should be highlighted for its own special recognition. Unlike many of his other Fairy Tales, the composer was unusually forthcoming of the literary sources that inspired each piece within this set.

For the first piece, Medtner gave the title, The Magic Violin. The late British-pianist, Hamish Milne, suggested that this title came from a poem of the same name by Nikolai Gumilev in which the poet begs a child to not succumb to the seductive violin that will unleash the horrors upon him through its magic.

In the second piece, Medtner described the piece as a “tale told by a river bank.” He also included a short quotation of a poem by Fyodor Tyutchev, Peace (“what we once called ours, it departs from us forever”), suggesting deeper thoughts of fleeting moments of existence.

The third tale contains another description by Medtner: “Wood spirit (but a kind, plaintive one).” One of Medtner’s students described this dark work as a “highly capricious sorcerer who does a thousand magic tricks and conjures up all kind of strange creatures…” In any case, the left hand of the main theme conjures an eerie allusion of “Dies irae”—a Gregorian chant about death.

The last piece of this set bears a quotation from Pushkin’s poem, “The Poor Knight:” “…there lived in the world a poor knight.” This is the tale of a knight in Palestine who worships the Virgin Mary, renouncing not only all other women but also the Holy Trinity. At his deathbed, when the knight is about to be banished to hell for his blasphemy, the Blessed Virgin intervenes, and he instead ascends to heaven. At this moment of transfiguration, the anguishing D minor melody transforms into a radiant D major mixture of angelic prayers and bells. Medtner admitted that he was inspired by the magical transition from the dark D minor slow movement to the glowing D major Minuet of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Op. 10, No. 3.