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I've been listening to Nikolai Medtner's Sonata Tragica (Yevgeny Sudbin and Geoffrey Tozer). Is someone here familiar with his repertoire and can nominate some simpler pieces?

All his skazka are beautiful.

Hi, MCMM! There is very little Medtner that I would consider "simple", but some of his Skazki (called Fairy Tales in English, somewhat incorrectly, IMO) fall into the late intermediate category. Dover provides a low priced edition of all his Skazki, and we're talking a lot of music here -- he wrote Skazki all of his life, typically in sets, much like Grieg did with his Lyric Pieces.

If you don’t mind....which ones, specifically, would you peg in the late intermediate category? I’ve been wanting something Medtner to explore but I have so many other things that need to be going on at the same time, I can’t fit a hugely difficult piece in there right now.

You’re right that “skazka” doesn’t really mean fairy tale but I don’t know quite what would substitute for it in less than five words! There are, however, a lot of lovely little skazki by various composers out there! I’d love to add a Medtner to the list!

I got interested in the skaki a few years ago, listened to many of them and decided to learn Op 51 No 2. This is about a RCM level 9 piece but there are some extra challenges in voicing it correctly and playing to tempo. I never polished the piece to perform it among friends but may return to it some day. It was challenging but also intriguing.

Another one of the Fairy Tales that's not extremely hard and very lyrical:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHYk_kxABwQ

Hi, TwoSnowflakes -- I would say 26-1 and 26-3 are in the late intermediate category; 34-2 (assuming you've got good left hand technique); 42-1 and 42-2; 51-2, 51-3, and 51-4. That should give you a good start!

As regards the translation of Skazki, I prefer to call them just "Tales", only because "Fairy Tales" in the Western world tend to imply stories for children, typically with some type of moral directive. I would say that the Slavic world has a different understanding of the fantastical figures that populate "Skazki", and they're for adults as well, but I agree that the proper description is cumbersome to elucidate.

I heard that his fairytales are wonderful gems worth listening to and studying because he had a very unique style. A lot of people tell me my music sounds like Medtner with my piano piece https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpZqgxf_d1E but I am not that acquainted with the composer's music. I will definitely use the suggestions in this thread myself.

I've been an avid listener of Medtner's music for many years (it's a good thing CDs don't wear out, or my Tozer [near-]complete Medtner discs would be worn down to the nub by now!)...so when I came back to playing piano seriously, I picked one of my favorite Medtner pieces to learn. And it's also a work that is not as fiendishly difficult as so much of his work. It's the oddly-titled "Hymns in Praise of Toil." It's very sunny, uplifting, tuneful "goose-bumps" music. It's a three-movement work, but each movement can stand on its own. I learned the first movement/"Hymn". I hope to learn the other two movements someday, but they sound more difficult.

Did you know there's a documentary newly out about Tozer and his tragic death? The Eulogy - there's a trailer on Youtube but it's hard to get hold of.

I've been listening to Tozer's rendition of the Sonata Tragica (unpublished version) on Youtube and it's amazing.

You could look at some of the other Forgotten Tunes, op 38 and 39. They are not all that difficult.

Thanks for the tip. I just watched the trailer. It confirms what I've read elsewhere about the way he was underappreciated/mistreated in his home country. Looking forward to the public release of the documentary.

The word 'skazki' really means fairy tales -- magic stories for children often with some type of moral directive, e. g. Grimms' fairy tales.

Hi, Iaroslav! Well, I stand corrected! Far be it from me to argue with a Russian concerning this! Actually, I'd envisioned "skazki" as being closer to Hans Christian Anderson fairy tales, with a dark and sometimes downright sinister character to the story line, or to certain individuals. within it. Medtner himself described one of his skazki as being about an elf -- but a kindly and jovial one -- implying that were others you didn't want to run into in a dark alley!

Medtner is my favorite composer, I'm working on Sonata Romantica op.53 no.1

I think Sonata Reminiscenza op.38 no.1 is pretty approachable, maybe give that a try. There's some other slower Forgotten Melodies, but I gravitate strongly towards longer works so I don't have any recommendations on mind.

Grimm's tales have been "smoothed out" for many children's editions. If you go back to the originals, you'll find a lot of this darkness there, too

Yes, Anderson's fairy tales, Grimms' fairy tales, Charles Perrault's fairy tales - they are all called 'skazki'.