Sacred Place

‘What wants to work on the heart must come from the heart’ – Goethe

Ekaterina Levental and Frank Peters present Sacred Place | Geweihter Platz . This 5 album is the last in the series of 5 CDs and showcases different styles, languages and genres. This album features songs that reveal Nikolai Medtner’s German roots. It includes German-language songs on texts by Goethe, Nietzsche, Eichendorff and Chamisso, Russian-language songs on the texts of Pushkin, Lermontov and Tyutchev, never-before-published song ‘Wie kommt es’ on the texts of Hesse and Sonata – Vocalise op.41 no.2 on Goethe’s motto ‘Geweihter Platz’, the title of this CD.

This CD is available to order now. Support the Medtner project and order your Medtner CDs here.

The presentation concert of this CD and the complete project will take place on 8 december 2024 in de Duif in Amsterdam. Order here tickets for this concert.

Nikolai Medtner had German roots, German was even spoken in his parental home, so it is not surprising that Medtner was an admirer of German culture. Composers like Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms were examples. Add the poems of Goethe, Eichendorff, Nietzsche and you have an ideal recipe for beautiful music.

Goethe’s poem ‘Geweihter Platz’ provides an important text for the Sonata and the Suite Vocalise (recorded on CD 3 ‘Angel’) op. 41 , no. 1 and no. 2. Goethe describes how a poet spies the Nymphs descending Olympus. Eventually, the poet learns from them to speak mysteriously and modestly after which the wordless sonata begins. It seems as if Medtner displaced himself in the poet. Throughout his life, he was modest and completely at the service of music. He spoke his own language, because he had to speak it, in his own way.

It was Medtner’s fervent desire to understand each other in the universal language of music. The Medtner Project set out to propagate this.

This CD was made possible by a contribution from the Sena Music Production Fund Foundation.