Russian & Soviet Composers - Part 3

[alpha]

Alfor, you can still get the Bortkiewicz recollections in an English translation from Bhagwan Thadani: http://www.oocities.org/vienna/strasse/7136/. Don't buy his synthesized recordings, which are awful, but the scores are fine.

[alfor]

Alfor, you can still get the Bortkiewicz recollections in an English translation from Bhagwan Thadani: http://www.oocities.org/vienna/strasse/7136/. Don't buy his synthesized recordings, which are awful, but the scores are fine.

Thank you for the hint! I will first try to get the German original "Erinnerungen" which had been published in a journal called "Musik des Ostens" (Vol. 6).

[mballan]

Alfor, you can still get the Bortkiewicz recollections in an English translation from Bhagwan Thadani: http://www.oocities.org/vienna/strasse/7136/. Don't buy his synthesized recordings, which are awful, but the scores are fine.

Thank you for the hint! I will first try to get the German original "Erinnerungen" which had been published in a journal called "Musik des Ostens" (Vol. 6).

Alfor

The original "Erinnerungen" by Bortkiewic only covers the period up to his move to Vienna [circ 1919-20]. What Thadani has added is a number of letters and documents we found that help to ilustrate the composer's life through to his death in 1952. Although piecemeal, it does help to build an understanding of his life from 1920 onwards.

Has been an interesting series of messages regarding Borkiewicz, which has been my live-long passion since I first heard the 1st piano concerto [and thank you Alex for your essay on the matter]. It was great to see that many others equally share an interest in the composer. I have been at the fore-front in promoting the composer's music cluminating with the recording of the two symphonies that I re-discovered; finding sereral manuscripts that had been deemed lost, recording of the other two piano concertos and piano works through my good friend Wouter Kalkman in Holland; and getting Boosey to republish a number of the piano scores originally published through Benjamin / Rahter. I am still hunting for the remaining missing manuscripts that must lie somewhere in Europe..............but like many treasrue hunts, there are many twists and turns before one strikes gold. I have posted on PP the odd scan of manuscripts I have found in the past few years [item from Pleasant Suite and a few pages from the Tom Sawyer Suite] but the main works - the last piano works, cello sonata, opera 'Akrobaten', Olympic Scherzo and piano trio still remain elusive.

It good to know that interest in Bortkiewicz remains ever strong.

Malcolm

[Alex]

That reminds me that Thadani's website was what directed me towards Blumenfeld! It's such an old website. Is he still active/alive?

Malcolm, I had NO idea you were involved with Bortkiewicz in such a way! You have now reached the status of scholar-celebrity in my eyes. You were directly involved with the discovering of those different pieces??? Including the symphonies? Oh my gosh. That is fantastic! I requested the Second Symphony's manuscript score through interlibrary loan and scanned it for the purposes of possibly transcribing it, but I'm concerned about copyright. That is one of my favorite symphonies, and besides the First Piano Concerto, it directly spurred my interest in Bortkiewicz. I am intensely looking forward to the possible discovery of those others works. There were some pieces you left out. Do you have the scores of or know about the violin sonata and different lieder sets? I found that one set was recently posted to IMSLP and was blocked for a while (now unblocked for CA) so I contacted the uploader, who graciously shared the score with me and we have had a nice discussion of Bortkiewicz. I'm planning on learning and hopefully recording those pieces with my wife, so everyone can enjoy the vocal side of Bortkiewicz. It is so good to know that someone like you is on the lookout for the remaining works. I hope they are not lost forever.

[fleubis]

Malcolm, I am quite astonished to learn of your involvement with Bortkiewicz and delighted to learn of your continued pursuit of his remaining works. It is very gratifying to know that your work research is ongoing from which we all may benefit. I hope more of Bortkiewicz music gets recorded which will help drag him into the mainstream as it is such a travesty that he has been marginalized by the select few in the standard repertoire.

[mballan]

Alex and Fleubis - thank you for your comments, much appreciated.

Alex - I have posted the Bortkiewicz Violin Sonata in the Chamber Music thread [apologies my copy is very old and the pages are somewhat yellow so scanned in greyscale - hence large file size].

I also have most of the song cycles and will try to scan those as soon as I can [also includes a number of manuscripts as well].

Regarding the 2nd symphony - this has only ever been available in manuscript and was never published. The actual manuscript still remains missing, the copy I found was sent by the composer to the Fleisher Collection a few years before his death and performances etc. has been made from that photocopy. I would suggest that if you transcribed the symphony then it would be termed a different work and the copyright of that arrangement would then belong to you [but happy to be corrected if I'm wrong].

If you have any questions regards the composer and his works then please feel free to ask. My friend Wouter Kalkman runs the Bortkiewicz website, which has a fairly sizable amount of information on the composer and my works list [updated version also added here - those items highlight in yellow are still deemed missing, everything in bold I hold in my personal collection].

Bortkiewicz works list v.2.doc

Malcolm

[Alex]

Malcolm, thank you sooooo much for sharing the score, and for your information. I'll be printing out that sonata once I get home from work, and hopefully in the future can have a violinist play it with me. I am looking forward to any more vocal music you are able to scan, and if the range works, I will be trying these with my wife and can provide recordings eventually. I think I can also typeset any manuscripts you provide, in order to make the music more accessible for future Bortkiewicz-lovers. I have not done that before, but I believe I have the skills to do it from my transcription work. If what you say is true about the symphony, I think it will now be highest on my list of works to transcribe. I haven't wandered far into Romantic transcriptions, so we shall see. I definitely borrowed that copy from the Fleisher Collection, and fortunately, although I was not a music or piano student (criminal justice), I worked in my school's music office so I was able to obtain a signature and seal of the school to request the symphony from Fleisher. I was also only able to take photographs of each page due to time constraints, and I hope that once I delve into it, the score is legible enough. I can only assume that Sergei would appreciate my work in transcribing his symphony, and if there is no other copyright being held, I shall proceed.

[Aggelos]

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=570&p=19940&hilit=gliere#p19940
Yes indeed by the composer.

Let's post the entire Red Poppy ballet as transcribed for solo piano by Reinhod Gliere.
http://www.mediafire.com/?0a3blao73at9ict
A nice info page about Gliere's works
http://www.reinhold-gliere.net/default.htm

[mballan]

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=570&p=19940&hilit=gliere#p19940
Yes indeed by the composer.

Let's post the entire Red Poppy ballet as transcribed for solo piano by Reinhod Gliere.
http://www.mediafire.com/?0a3blao73at9ict
A nice info page about Gliere's works
http://www.reinhold-gliere.net/default.htm

Aggelos

Simply amazing - mega thanks from me for this score. I am very grateful to you.

Malcolm

[fleubis]

Bortkiewicz works list v.2.doc

Malcolm

Malcolm, I am delighted to have this works list. Almost everywhere else the list is incomplete and I'm sure this is as complete as you can make it. I think ALL of Bortkiewicz music is worth exploring--not just his piano music and I am happily playing through the violin sonata today.