Sergiusz Bortkiewicz - Lamenty i pociechy
Published in 1914
Pianist - Jouni Somero
0:00 - I. Lamentation
5:34 - II. Consolation
10:13 - III. Lamentation
14:25 - IV. Consolation
20:03 - V. Lamentation (Homesick)
24:09 - VI. Consolation
27:47 - VII. Lamentation
30:34 - VIII. Consolation
Biography
Sergei Bortkiewicz (1877-1952) was born into a Polish noble family in Kharkov which was then a part of the Russian Empire. His love for music and his talent was given to him by his mother, Sofia, who was a co-founder of the Kharkov school of music [1]. Growing up, he received a humanities education as well as a musical one, and he stopped just short of receiving a doctorate in Law to focus on music [1].
His musical education took place at home, then in St. Petersburg under Anatoly Lyadov and Karl von Arek, and finally in Leipzig under Alfred Reisenauer and Salomon Jadassohn. From 1904 to 1914, he lived in Berlin to focus on composing.
Unfortunately, life in the 20th Century would prove exceedingly complicated and perilous for Bortkiewicz. After the beginning of the First World War, Bortkiewicz was deported back to Russia, where just shortly afterwards, the Bolsheviks would seize power. Communists had occupied his family's estate at Artemovka, so they were only able to move back once the White Army had taken the territory. The respite was short, as the Bolsheviks would retake Kharkov soon after. Almost everything from the estate had been looted anyways, and his mother and sister, Vera, would soon die of Typhus.
Having very little left, Bortkiewicz did the sensible thing and escaped via Yalta to Istanbul, where he began impressing the locals and the many ambassadors at the embassies. The Yugoslav ambassador, Natalie Chaponitsch, arranged for Borkiewicz and his wife to obtain Yugoslav visas, moving to Belgrade at the first opportunity. For a while, the Bortkiewicz family considered staying permanently in Jugoslavia, but they decided against it and decided to wait to get Austrian visas instead [2].
Bortkiewicz was finally able to settle in Vienna and was given Austrian Citizenship. He lived there for five years only to move back to Germany whence he was cast out again by the Nazis, which was a disaster for his musical career. The Nazis began deleting his name from programmes, and at the outbreak of World War 2, they destroyed many of his scores. He returned to Vienna to stay, being kept afloat by his friend Hugo Von Dalen, thanks to whom, we still have most of Bortkiewicz's scores.
Lamentations and Consolations
Each lamentation creates a pensive, meditative, or even a restless mood which is then counteracted by a warmer consolation. The consolations are
quieter and more lyrical. They each sing a heartfelt song that can vary between extreme subtlety and unrestrained emotionalism. Overall, we see a more balanced, measured, and impressionistic writing style compared to the rest of Bortkiewicz's output. He follows Liszt's lead and directs himself inward to venture into his interior life to pull out these condensed reflections of life. Musically, Bortkiewicz may never achieve the profundity that Liszt captures in his "Poetic and Religious Harmonies," but the extreme personal effort that such writing requires brings the inner life into the concert hall in genuine way.
Bibliography:
[1] A. Kościelak-Nadolska, Życie i twórczość Sergiusza Bortkiewicza (1877-1952), cz. I - Sylwetka artysty,. „Notes Muzyczny”, nr 1 (5) 2016
The rest of the biographical info comes from Wikipedia
31 май 2024
