Hamish Milne - Medtner: Arabesques, Dithyrambs, Elegies & other short piano works

�Write one such piece and one can die.� So pronounced Rachmaninov, no less, after hearing the second of Medtner�s Arabesques. This is just one of the delights in the enticing selection box offered by Hamish Milne, a long-standing and ardent champion of Medtner�s music. These two discs explore the many miniatures�in size though not in ambition�that he wrote throughout his life. The very opening of his Mood Pictures shows a remarkable sophistication for a man barely out of his teens, while the magnificent pair of Elegies forms a fitting conclusion to a set that reminds us that it is sometimes among the �miscellaneous� works that the greatest gems are to be found.