Russian & Soviet Composers - Part 3

[relative]

Karnitskaya Nina (1906-1983) (Карницкая, Нина Андреевна)

Karnitskaya Preludes and Fugues part 1.pdf

Karnitskaya Preludes and Figues part 2.pdf

Preludes and Fugues

[caostotale]

Karnitskaya Nina (1906-1983) (Карницкая, Нина Андреевна)

Fantastic! Thanks for this!

[Alex]

I have had something on my mind for quite some time and thought it might be interesting to point out to my fellow Pianophilia community. Here is my "essay".
I believe it was the enthusiasm of certain people here long ago, that I unfortunately do not remember now, that led me to a work or two of Sergei Bortkiewicz. I read the name here and there, and so collected a couple scores and played a few pieces. Sometimes I like to stick to early opuses of a composer I do not know much of (maybe not the best idea) and go from there, so I played through his Piano Sonata Op.9 and a few other works that shared similarly youthful numbers. The Esquisses de Crimée, Op.8 definitely left a large impression on me, but in general I thought the music was nice but not earth shattering. That lasted until I randomly picked the Three Pieces Op.24 (published 1922) and my idea of Bortkiewicz completed changed when playing the third and final piece, the Impromptu (Eros), and I discovered Bortkiewicz' sound and pianistic style. It is the perfect piece for performance, and makes me tear up each time I play it, because the melodies and harmonies just go so well together, and it is pure Romanticism at its' best. One of the defining features of the pieces, a descending chordal pattern (I really don't know how to describe it. It is the right hand at the beginning of the piece) made a deep impression on me. It was from there that I noticed this pattern in several other of his pieces, most notably in Ein Roman Op.35 No.7 Ein Brief, where it appears towards the end, but also in a few other pieces as well (have you noticed any?). Every time that makes an appearance in his works, it is a very special moment that passes by all too quickly.

Pressing on, after I explored his works further, he took a place in the forefront of my favorite composers. After hearing, feeling, and understanding his music (Symphony No.2 WOW), I could not value him more highly. So where can one find another composer that has a gift for melody, the interplay of harmony, the romantic tendency, and immense beauty and depth I feel? I enjoy other composers for the emotions they provide me, but I never feel that sense of melancholy and pure beauty that wraps me up when I play and listen to Bortkiewitz. This became an elimination process for me. I first was wondering, did Bortkiewicz' native Ukraine have anything to do with his sound, and were other composers there influenced in a similar fashion, or that had maybe influenced Bortkiewicz? First I looked to his teacher, Anton Arensky, and did find some similarities in harmony and melody, but not quite what I was looking for. I then looked through a list of Ukranian contemporaries and chanced upon Felix Blumenfeld. Here was a composer that wrote a large amount of piano music that I could play through and see if I find similar sounding music. Through Blumenfeld, could I find a Bortkiewicz prototype? I printed all of Blumenfeld's piano music from IMSLP at my school and began to play through his works. I played some very interesting and beautiful Preludes (some selections from 24 Preludes for Piano, Op.17) which did sometimes remind me of the (not much) later Bortkiewicz. And then I reached the prototype for the Eros Impromptu. The Etude de Concert (published 1897), which magically has the Op.24 (Bortkiewicz, you were aware of this were you not?). This piece is like the father of the later Impromptu, and shares so many similarities, I know that it either directly influenced Bortkiewicz in his piece and possibly his writing in general, or he was aware of Blumenfeld's music but was unconciously affected so greatly that he almost directly quoted it in multiple of his own pieces. Take a listen, please if you will.

Bortkiewicz Three Pieces Op.24 no. 3 Impromptu (Eros) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkMbWtuJdxQ
http://imslp.org/wiki/3_Pieces,_Op.24_( ... z,_Sergei)

Blumenfeld Etude de Concert Op.24 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr69tYRKuaY
http://imslp.org/wiki/Etude_de_Concert, ... ld,_Felix)

So, did Blumenfeld help father Bortkiewicz's music? Do you think it is worth exploring Blumenfeld's music more, given this connection to Bortkiewicz (assuming you love Bortkiewicz already)? Is this all a load of rubbish?

[fleubis]

I am glad to see such enthusiasm for Bortkiewicz's music, a passion which I share. There is certainly a great similarity in the figuration to the Blumenfeld piece and having the same Opus number is very interesting. Clearly you have made an interesting observation and the Blumenfeld and may very well have been the prototype for Bortkiewicz.

But IMHO, Bortkiewicz created a greatly superior composition, and Blumenfield doesn't get all that much play on my piano when Bortkiewicz is at hand.

That said, I feel the urge to again play Bortkiewicz's Op.29 Etudes again, and think many of us would enjoy that journey if they haven't already taken it.

[relative]

Ukrainian composer Mikola (Nikolai) Dremlyuga

Dremliuga Etude.pdf

http://www.russiancomposers.org.uk/page405.html

[fhimpsl]

Dear Alex,

I read your posting relating Bortkiewicz to Blumenfeld with great interest, having been in awe of these great composers for much of my life. To me one of the main differences is in the gift of melody. Bortkiewicz is a supreme melodist. Virtually all of his work leaves you humming the melody afterwards. While there are significant beautiful moments in Blumenfeld as well, they are much scarcer. I also find Blumenfeld's music much more difficult to play, let's say "less accessible" than that of Bortkiewicz. Just think of the wonderful left hand etude which Simon Barere played so effortlessly as an encore. It is so very difficult, as are all of his etudes. Just a few thoughts to share this sunny morning...

All Best,

Frank

[fleubis]

Hi Frank,

I completely concur with your sentiments. And as a composer, I well know how hard it is to write a good melody, yet they just seem to flow off the pen of Bortkiewicz with the greatest of ease.

fleubis

[alpha]

I've had a similar view for a long time regarding the connection between the two. I came to Bortkiewicz's Op. 17 #7 Lamentation first, and then heard Blumenfeld's Op. 2 #1 etude and immediately thought that's where Bortkiewicz got the idea from.

[Alex]

Thank you both so much for replying! Fleubis, I completely agree with you. Bortkiewicz's "version" (if you will) is completely superior, and in fact I feel is flawless in every respect. It is a perfect piece. I also agree that it is hard to drift away from Bortkiewicz when his pieces just drag us back in. Frank mentioned some significant moments in Blumenfeld, and I recommend these pieces for you to enjoy music that is quite close to Bortkiewicz' beauty (and possibly style): 24 Preludes Op.17 nos.4 and 22. Bortkiewicz is a composer that yields greater and greater reward the mroe you delve into his works.
Frank, I definitely agree that Blumenfeld's music is typically hard to play. I am very glad that these composers continued to write music in this vein during the early 20th century. Where would we music lovers be if Bortkiewicz went atonal? Not to say anything bad at all against other composers (I love everything, everyone), but I couldn't do without my First Piano Concerto, the Second Symphony, and the Eros Impromptu, along with everything else. Are there any particular Blumenfeld pieces that move you in a way that Bortkiewicz typically does?
Another observation I noticed is a motif that Bortkiewicz liked to use in most of his major pieces. I don't really want to expose it, and it's very obvious. But it happens in the last movement of the piano concerto, in the first symphony, all over in the second symphony, and on the last page of the second piano sonata. This is Bortkiewicz declaring victory in art, and I feel victorious each time I hear and/or play it. Do you guys know what I'm talking about?

PS: Ooh, Alpha! I'll take a look! There are definitely other similarities here and there that I felt when playing through Blumenfeld, but unfortunately the one I talked about was the only one that lasted in my memory for this post.

[alfor]

My first encounter with the music of Bortkiewicz was through this piano roll recording by Rosenthal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9JM4RO9RWg

It was issued in the 1970s in an LP series of Ampico roll recordings. While one LP was dedicated to Rachmaninov and Rosenthal (http://www.ebay.de/itm/UK-Argo-DA-42-ov ... 460f81e10c), there was another with pianists like Buhlig, Tina Lerner with a breath-taking Chopin Eude op. 10 No. 4, Nyiregyházi with Liszt's Mazeppa, Godowsky with an extremely "speedy" Leggierezza Etude, etc.

Then I read Bortkiewicz's interesting recollections - from which I mainly remember what he wrote about his teacher Reisenauer. These "Erinnerungen" had been published in German in a German music journal called "Musik des Ostens" (Vol. 6).

When relistening to Rosenthal and this Etude, I still wonder why the initial couple of bars sounds so familiar to my ears (it is definitely early Scriabin plus????). B.'s music goes down extremely well, falls under the hands very easily (much easier than that of Blumenfeld, which cannot be called complicated, though), but it surely cannot be denied that in many cases it is saturated with "sugar" - but I have prooved that I DO like an occasional dose of "sweetness", see for example my posting of a really "Bortkiewiczian" piece like that by Suk:
viewtopic.php?t=68&p=13866#p13866

A careful selection of B. - who to my knowledge is today still mainly alive on CD - would surely please and entertain even the most "serious" concertgoers.