Over the weekend I purchased the 4 CD set of the Complete Piano Sonatas
and "Forgotten Melodies" of Nikolai Medtner performed by Geoffrey Tozer.
 [Chandos CHAN 9723(4)] The local Tower Records was offering the set for
US$33.

Based on my experience with the Rachmaninoff piano concertos and sonatas,
I was expecting the sonatas to be thornier and less accessible than the
piano concertos.  I was pleasantly surprised to find the first two sonatas
to be more accessible than the Medtner PCs.  Based on these two sonatas,
I am looking forward to some interesting listening this week.

The packaging of the CD set has raised a question that I hope someone on
the List can answer.  The cover of the CD box and leaflet shows an oil
painting that is attributed as: "Working in the Fields" (1903) by Nikola
Alexandrovich Sergeyev (1865-1919) (Southerby's Picture Library, London).
The picture shows a pastoral scene with 4 women picking flowers near a
river bank.  On the back of the CD case and the leaflet (although part of
the leaflet back is obscured by a photo of Toser) is the identical picture
-- EXCEPT the women are missing!  My "AB comparison" of the two pictures
seems to match brushstroke for brushstroke -- except were the women are
standing!  My question for the artistically knowledgeble is: Are there two
pictures by Sergeyev or did someone from Chandos airbrush the women out of
one picture?

Donald L. Gunter, Ph.D.
Dept. of Medical Physics and Diagnostic Radiology
Rush-Pres. St. Luke's Medical Center