Forgotten Melodies

From Teenage Tempest to Contemplative Poet

A decade ago, when thirteen-year-old Alexander Malofeev unleashed a blistering hurricane of octaves in Tchaikovsky’s First Concerto, the international music world gasped in awe at a terrifying prodigy.

Yet with his Sony Classical debut album Forgotten Melodies, Malofeev delivers something far more profound than raw velocity: a nocturnal, brooding Russian soul tempered by exile and global turbulence. The recording catapulted the twenty-four-year-old to the 2026 Gramophone Young Artist of the Year Award, cementing his transition into an artist of rare philosophical weight.

Medtner: Silverware in Memory’s Secret Drawer

At the emotional heart of the program stands Nikolai Medtner’s Forgotten Melodies Op. 38.

Lifelong friend and kindred spirit to Rachmaninoff, Medtner offered not sweeping populist climaxes, but deeply woven contrapuntal tapestries etched in nostalgic silver. In the opening Sonata-Reminiscenza, Malofeev’s touch is miraculous: bass registers carry the velvet density of Moscow autumn loam, while treble runs hover like early frost creeping across windowpanes.

Bells Across the Exile

Interspersed with Rachmaninoff’s Études-tableaux and Balakirev’s transcription of Glinka’s The Lark, Malofeev’s peerless digital facility remains jaw-dropping. Yet he never forces the sound into harsh percussiveness; each melodic phrase sings with aristocratic dignity and aching nostalgia.

This is an album destined for nocturnal solitude. In Malofeev’s hands, these neglected treasures glow with an inextinguishable inner light, reminding us that true lyricism never perishes.