Bortkiewicz, 2023
This Week in Classical Music: February 27, 2023. A thriller composer. Whom do you write about when you may have Frédéric Chopin, Antonio Vivaldi, Gioachino Rossini, Bedřich Smetana, and Kurt Weill among the many composers born this week, plus the pianist Issay Dobrowen, the violinist Gidon Kremer, the soprano Mirella Freni, and the conductor Bernard Haitink? The apparent reply is, you write about Sergei Bortkiewicz. Sure, we’re being facetious, however we’ve written about Chopin, Vivaldi, and Rossini many instances (we haven’t had an opportunity to jot down about Dobrowen but, a really fascinating determine). Bortkiewicz, however, is a composer we knew solely by title till just lately once we heard his Symphony no. 1 and thought it was one thing from the late 19th century, perhaps a really early Rachmaninov – however no, it turned out to be a bit composed in 1940. Whereas conservatism will not be essentially the most admirable function, Bortkiewicz will not be alone in that regard: the above-mentioned Rachmaninov was additionally not essentially the most adventuresome composer. Neither was Rimsky-Korsakov, not even Tchaikovsky, which didn’t preclude each of them from writing very fascinating (and in style) music. Richard Strauss, for all his expertise, was a follower of the Romantic custom. Even Johann Sebastian Bach in his later years was nicely behind the prevailing developments of his time. Pay attention, for instance, to 2 items written at about the identical time: 1741-1742, Johann Sebastian’s fantastic, if considerably archaic, Cantata Bekennen will ich seinen Namen BWV 200 (right here), after which C.P.E.’s Symphony in G main, Wq. 173, written within the then “trendy” fashion (right here). They belong to totally different eras, even when the cantata is a lot better. We admire and love the pioneers like Mahler, Schoenberg, and Stravinsky, however as necessary as they’re, there’s loads of area within the musical universe for the much less daring composers. We’re not evaluating the expertise of Sergei Bortkiewicz with that of the “conservatives” talked about above, however a few of his music is nice and his life story is fascinating.
Sergei Bortkiewicz was born in Kharkiv on February 28th of 1877. Again then Kharkiv was a part of the Russian Empire; now it’s a metropolis in Ukraine being always attacked by Putin’s Russian military. He studied music first in his hometown, then in St.-Petersburg, the place considered one of his academics was Anatoly Lyadov. In 1900 he entered the Leipzig Conservatory, the place he studied piano and composition for 2 years. From 1904 to 1914 he lived in Berlin. Whereas there he wrote a really profitable Piano Concerto no. 1. On the outbreak of WWI, he, as a Russian citizen and due to this fact an enemy, was deported from Germany. Bortkiewicz settled quickly in St.-Petersburg after which moved again to Kharkiv. After the October Revolution, amid the chaos of the Civil Conflict, he emigrated to Constantinople after which, in 1922, to Vienna, the place he lived for the remainder of his life (he died there in 1952). In 1930 he wrote his Piano Concerto no. 2 for the left hand; it was one of many items commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein, the pianist who misplaced his proper hand in the course of the Nice Conflict. Altogether Bortkiewicz composed three piano concertos, two symphonies, an opera and several other different symphonic and chamber items, all within the late-Romantic Russian fashion. It was as if the music of the 20th century hadn’t existed.
Right here‘s Bortkiewicz Piano Concerto no. 1. It’s carried out by Ukrainian musicians: Olga Shadrina is on the piano; Mykola Sukach is conducting the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra.
