Nikolai Medtner - 3 Nocturnes for violin and piano Op. 16 (audio + sheet music)

The year 1907 found the composer in Germany where many superb settings of Goethe, one of his favourite poets, were written: the Twelve Goethe Songs, Op. 15 and Six Poems of Goethe, Op. 18. Among the poems originally considered was Nachtgesang, which Schubert had set in 1814. Sketches for a vocal version were made but, unsatisfied, Medtner fashioned them into an instrumental “song without words“; thus was born his first work for violin and piano, the Three Nocturnes, Op. 16. Goethe’s poem, with its evocative reference to a stringed instrument, appears as a preface to the published score: O lend, from your soft pillow, Dreaming, half-an-ear! To the playing of my strings Sleep! What more do you want? To the playing of my strings The host of stars Blesses eternal feelings; Sleep! What more do you want? Eternal feelings Lift me, high and glorious, Above the earthly tumult; Sleep! What more do you want? From the earthly tumult You remove me