Bortkiewicz - Sonata for Violin and Piano In G Minor Op 26

Sergei Bortkiewicz was born in the town of Karkhov, Ukraine in 1877, and died in Vienna, his adopted home, in 1952. His music is an amalgamation of the compositional styles of Russian and German composers. He was no advocate of the tremendous changes going on in music of the first half of the 20th century, as he continued to compose in the musical traditions he grew up with. His music has been disparagingly compared to Rachmaninoff's as something akin, but inferior. But  Bortkiewicz was no imitator. He developed his own style which showed his imagination as well as a strong lyrical side to his music that sometimes also looked back with nostalgia on a musical world whose style was no longer on the cutting edge of modernity. 

He faced many depravations in his life, and combined with a meticulous method of composing resulted in but 74 opus numbers, with the vast majority of his compositions being for piano solo. He did write 3 piano concertos, a concerto for violin, and one for cello, two symphonies and a symphonic poem, lieder, and a handful of chamber works. 

He wrote 3 works for violin and piano, with the Sonata In G Minor being his only violin sonata. He composed it in Vienna, and premiered it at the Hague with himself on the piano and his countryman Frank Smit on the violin in 1923.  

I. Sostenuto - Allegro dramatico - The sonata begins with wistful music played by the solo piano.  

The violin enters gently, and continues in the same mood with the piano in an extended introduction, until the violin changes to allegro dramatico with a theme that emerges from the introduction. 

The music proceeds in dramatic fashion until it reaches another theme that is marked Un poco meno mosso, which means a little less movement, a slight slowing of the tempo. After this theme, the music becomes more powerful with another section that brings the exposition to an end. The violin tremolos segue to the first theme being developed as the tremolos move to the piano. The third section of the exposition contributes to the music leading back to the first theme and the recapitulation. The coda slowly begins after a climax by the piano, and the music winds down as the piano plays softly as the violin holds a low G, the lowest note of the violin.  

II. Andante - The second movement is in C minor and begins with a short, slow introduction by the piano. When the violin enters, it is accompanied by arpeggiated chords in the piano.

Then there is a section where the right hand in the piano plays a theme while the left hand and violin accompany. The violin and piano trade off playing a lyric theme. The violin builds the tension by playing octaves until a section marked agitato is played. The music slowly becomes quiet, and a solo for the violin appears. this leads to the first theme reappearing in a section that leads to a tempo designation of andante lacrimoso, which means tearful. The music slowly makes sits way to the end of the movement. And as in the ending of the 1st movement, the violin utters the low G while the piano ends the movement. 

III. Allegro vivace e con brio - The final movement is in G major. The piano plays the opening as the violin has a pizzicato accompaniment. 

The movement alternates from 5/4 to 4/4 for a few bars. There are other changes in meter as the music takes on the characteristics of folk music. The drama is pretty much gone as the music dances its way to the ending in G major.
Sergei Bortkiewicz

Bortkiewicz - Piano Concerto No. 2 For Left Hand Alone

As if playing the piano with two hands isn't challenge enough, there is a sizable repertoire of music for the left hand alone. Why music for only one hand at the piano? The reasons are many. In a world where right-handed people vastly outnumber left handed people, the invention of the keyboard naturally favored the right hand. The melody is most often carried in the right hand, while the left is accompaniment.  But there is plenty of keyboard music written that demands much of both hands, hence some left hand piano music was written to help develop it enough to play the more demanding music of composers.

Paul Wittgenstein

In some cases, loss or severe injury to the right hand of some pianists have left them with only the left hand to play with. Such is the case of Paul Wittgenstein, an Austrian pianist. He served in World War One, was wounded in the right elbow and had to have his right arm amputated while he was in a Russian prisoner of war camp in Siberia. He was a classically trained pianist, and was determined to continue his pursuit of a career of a concert pianist after the war. There were some pieces for left hand alone and he transcribed other works for his own use, but the fact that Wittgenstein was the son of
a wealthy industrialist offered him the opportunity to commission works for left hand alone from some of the top composers in the first half of the 20th century. He commissioned works from Maurice Ravel, Richard Strauss, Paul Hindemith, Benjamin Britten, Sergei Bortkiewicz and others.

Wittgenstein played the premiere of the Bortkiewicz concerto in 1923 in Vienna. Wittgenstein was pleased with the work and played it many times before World War Two.  As with all of the works Wittgenstein commissioned, he held exclusive performing rights to the concerto until his death in 1961. Even after that, Wittgenstein's widow would not allow the scores to leave his library. It has been only within the past few years that some of this left-handed piano repertoire has become available.

The concerto is divided into four tempo sections, but can be thought of as being in two distinct movements in a unique form:

Allegro dramatico - The composer begins with a loud theme for orchestra, after which the solo piano enters with a dramatic melody which is taken up by the orchestra while the piano accompanies with figures that make the listener forget that there is only one hand being used.  The second theme is traded off between piano and orchestra and is of a more quiet but still restless nature.
Allegretto - The next section acts as the usual slow movement in a concerto. New themes are stated, the piano has an extended solo, and the orchestra assumes a more gentle demeanor as the piano and orchestra engage in an atmospheric dialog.
Allegro dramatico - The material from the beginning interrupts with what amounts to the recapitulation of this first movement.
Allegro vivo - The music of this second movement is in contrast to what has transpired. It is an uncomplicated but interesting dance that unwinds into a rousing finish to the concerto.

The skill and artistry in which Bortkiewicz writes for the left hand and orchestra makes this concerto one of my favorites.  A solid knowledge of piano technique and use of left-hand devices and pedalling creates an illusion so strong that if the listener didn't know better, they would think this is being played by two hands.

Bortkiewicz - Piano Concerto No. 3 'Per aspera ad astra'

Sergei Bortkiewicz began his musical education in St. Petersburg, and went on to the Leipzig Conservatory to study. He made a few trips back to Russia after his studies but remained in Germany for the most part, where he taught at the conservatory and toured as a piano recitalist until the First World War.  After the war began, he was put under house arrest and was forced to return to the town of his birth, Kharkiv in the Ukraine, where he stayed on the family estate (his parents were of the Polish nobility) until the Red Army confiscated the estate after the Russian Revolution of 1917.

He escaped under great political danger by steam ship to Turkey where he landed in Constantinople in 1919.  He gave concerts, and eventually obtained a visa, went to Yugoslavia and ended up in Austria in 1922. He obtained Austrian citizenship in 1925 while he was in Vienna, and remained in that city for five years.

It was while the composer was in Vienna that he wrote his Piano Concerto No. 3 in 1926. He had been through many hardships since the First World War, and this was a time of relative calm in his life. The concerto is subtitled per aspera ad astra, which translates from Latin to mean 'from hardship to the stars', or 'through resistance to light', which takes on deep significance due to the composer's hardships.

The concerto is in five sections, which are played without a break.

I. Grave - The concerto begins with the contra-bassoon uttering a theme in its lowest register in the key of c minor. After a short dialogue with the piano, the music transforms into the first of two themes - the first of which is dramatic while the second is more lyrical. The dramatic theme reappears and leads to the next section. The structure of this section is basically an introduction and sonata form first movement. The structure is very tight and condensed, almost to the point of being terse.

II. Cadenza - The solo piano cadenza is in the tradition of the classical first - movement concerto cadenzas, but there is no recapitulation of the themes after it. Bortkiewicz leads directly to the next section.

III. Andante - This section sees the piano take on the role of 'star' with some of the themes, and also in accompanying the orchestra. Rich keyboard figures and thick chords alternate with bare octaves as Bortkiewicz's gift of melody is shown. This is the longest single section of the concerto.

IV. Lento, Maestoso, Solenne -  The richness of the music continues as the music hearkens back to some of the other themes already heard. The piano's accompanying figures ripple and glitter up and down the keyboard as the orchestra states material that grows more familiar. The piano alternates from the background to the foreground as the music grows more majestic and solemn.

V. Moderato - What at first sounds like a solemn ending to the concerto leads to the final section where the end of the struggle is starting to shine in the light of the stars. The music grows more into the key of C major as modulations grow and swell into the light of the closing theme which is richly repeated. With strings shimmering,  the rest of the orchestra is punctuated by brilliant figures on the piano until bells are added to the already glistening orchestra and soloist, and the music ends in a brightness of light.

Bortkiewicz is compared to Rachmaninoff, and there are similarities. His melodic gift was great, his workmanship likewise. He was an unabashed late Romantic  who didn't embrace 20th century music innovations.   And the more I hear his music, the better I like it. He is one of my favorite lesser-known composers.