🇷🇺Nikolai Karlovich Medtner ： Four Fairy Tales What Once Was Ours Is Gone Forever Op.34-2

The second piece from Medtner’s Four Fairy Tales is a character piece in which subdued emotion and introspective lyricism intertwine, befitting its title, “What Once Was Ours Is Gone Forever.” Centered on a long-breathed melody, its harmonic shading and exchanges between the voices create a narrative-like flow, while a quiet tension gradually intensifies. The music unfolds in a single arc, changing its expression along the way; highlights include the passages where the emotion deepens most markedly and the resonant close that follows. In performance, the melody should be brought carefully to the fore, without overemphasizing the inner voices or allowing the pedal to blur the sound. Maintaining the natural breath of each phrase and listening to the decay of every note without hurrying will convey the restrained sorrow and delicate manner of expression.