Nederlands Muziek Institut

How extraordinary that two stirring romantic piano concertos of this calibre should have been ignored for so long. 

The Ukrainian composer-pianist Bortkiewicz wrote music rooted robustly in the late nineteenth century romantic tradition. If you warm to the piano concertos of Scriabin, Rachmaninov and Medtner then this is for you. You might remember Bortkiewicz for the Hyperion CD of his two symphonies - well worth seeking out for their Tchaikovskian drama and pathos. Then again true disciples of this site may recall a review of the whole sequence of CDs produced by Bhagwan Thadani. 

Bortkiewicz was blown cruelly hither and thither by fate and the great tragic sweep of mid-twentieth century history. His Second Concerto which is for left-hand was commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein (1887-1961) who resolutely denied others the chance to perform or record it until his death. He had paid for it and he owned it - end of story. Wittgenstein premiered the work in Vienna in November 1923 and played it many times through 1924-30. However Siegfried Rapp (1915-1982) who lost his right arm in WW2 was not, it seems, permitted to perform it until 1952-3 when he included it in concerts in Reichenhall and Dresden. This story is comparable with Harriet Cohen's exclusive and fierce grip on Bax's Symphonic Variations (the Wass performance recently issued on Naxos) and Winter Legends. Strangely enough, Bax also wrote a left-hand Concertante for piano and orchestra but this was for Harriet after she had injured the tendons in her right hand; no Wittgenstein connection there. 

The Second Concerto is a potent and heaving romantic brew with a mood signature close to the Rachmaninov Second Piano Concerto on which it was surely modelled. It's a pleasing work even if strongly indebted to Rachmaninov. In the final Allegro Vivo we switch from superheated romance to the silvery Russian slav nationalism of Borodin and Rimsky just as Bortkiewicz did with his two symphonies on Hyperion (review). 

The Third Concerto is subtitled Per aspera ad astra – through adversity to the stars. It's about the same length as its predecessor but dates from 1925. It was premiered in 1927 just two years before he chose to move to Germany at the time of the rise of Adolf Hitler. His music had its supporters including Hans Anklwicz-Kleehoven (1883-1962) who funded the publication of much of his music and founded the Bortkiewicz Society. However unlike Medtner, Bortkiewicz was not to find a Rajah of Mysore to fund a recording programme. The Concerto is redolent of the Rachmaninov First and Fourth Piano Concertos and perhaps a little of the rather fine concerto by Arensky. Interestingly at 2.56 in the Andante of the Third Concerto he recalls the turbulent breakers at the start of his own Second Piano Concerto. It's glorious stuff and will surely please you if you enjoy the Giannini piano concerto and the Bortkiewicz's closer models: the four Rachmaninov concertos. The Third Concerto is more closely aligned with Rachmaninov than with Medtner. There's a peaceful benediction of a Lento but this gives way to a fine Moderato finale, rising to a grandiloquently Delian sunrise. In the triumphantly belling peroration soloist and orchestra vie with each other in heroic apotheosis. 

The First Piano Concerto can be heard on Hyperion coupled with some Arensky. His music for violin and piano is on Warner Classics. 

We must hope fervently for a recording of the fine Violin Concerto and Cello Concerto. 

Meantime Klaas Trapmann has recorded three two-CD volumes of Bortkiewicz's solo piano music and these can be had from the Nederlands Muziek Instituut. 

After the privations of life in wartime Berlin he returned to Vienna and having enjoyed one grand all-Bortkiewicz concert he died in 1952.

Rob Barnett

 

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