Bortkiewicz - ein lyrisches intermezzo for violin and Orchestra opus 44

[semloh]

Thank you all for such an interesting series of exchanges. The prospect of hearing some 'lost' Bortkiewicz is one to relish! 

[MHBallan]

Christopher

I shall check my records regards the performance of Acrobats and let you know as soon as possible.

Malcolm

[FBerwald]

Any updates reg.  Acrobats?

[Christopher]

Malcolm Henbury-Ballan (MHBallan on here) has been kind enough to send me his DAT-format cassette on which this Lyrical Intermezzo was recorded, together with a number of other Bortkiewicz works (see below).  I have transferred them to MP3 format and put in the Downloads section. According to Malcolm all come from the archives of Austrian Radio and were recorded in the 1940s and 1950s.  I hope you enjoy.  Many thanks to Malcolm!

Des Frühlings und des Pans Erwachen - ein lyrisches Intermezzo nach Gemälden von Sandro Botticelli, Op.44

Aus der Kinderzeit, Op.39 - arr. string orchestra

Im 3/4 Takt

Overture to a Fairytale Opera, Op.53

Elegie, Op.46 arr. cello & piano

Berceuse for violin & piano

Piano Concerto No.1 in B♭ major, Op.16

Piano Sonata No.2 in C♯ minor, Op.60

Etude No.6, Op.15


The arrangements are the composer's own.

[Ilja]

Christopher, thanks for these.


The final movement of the piano concerto appears to be very heavily cut (to my ears it sounds as though it was primarly the sound engineer who was responsible), and sparsely arranged if I compare it to the Hyperion recording.

[Richard Moss]

Belated reply to Aramierz,

I didn't have  a copy of Op 44 prior to this exciting upload.  I had a couple of 'synthesised' orchestral works on CDs from Mr Thadani but this wasn't included. I'm sorry I missed replying to your post of Nov 2014 - I hadn't noticed it, rather than I was deliberately ignore it.

Many tks Christopher for both the upload and the research /good work by all that made it possible - looking forward to a good listen!

Richard

[Christopher]

My top Bortkiewicz goal would be for the (reported) recording of Die Akrobaten to be found!

[Christopher]

Bortkiewicz has been discussed enthusiastically in a few threads recently, so I thought I would resurrect the quest for his Olympic Scherzo score, which is among a number of his works which are missing though not proved to have been destroyed (see the list above in this thread). 

I don't know if Malcom Henbury-Ballan is still on this forum, but he wrote above the following about this piece:

... the Olympic Scherzo / Overture written for the Olympic Games in 1948 is here somewhere in England.  It was performed in 1971 by the Lancashire Youth Orchestra, but unfortunately the conductor does not know where the leader of the orchestra obtained the score although I suspect somewhere in the North West [and the leader is now deceased].  I have tried looking on line through OPAC and checked with numerous libraries with no success, yet am positive it must be in the area and likely on a card catalogue waiting to be re-discovered !!             

More recently, he wrote to me saying

The Olympic Scherzo (later referred as Olympic Overture), written for the 1948 Olympic Games. Last time it was performed was at the Round House in Camden, London in the 1970s (likely around 1971/72) by students from the Royal Academy, the conductor was David Wright.  I had pondered if they might have records back to that period to see if this was ever listed in a concert programme (it was a last minute replacement - the conductor can only remember that the leader of the orchestra disappeared for half an hour and turned up with the manuscript......so I speculate that it must be somewhere close to the Round House).   
My last port of call would be the libraries of the various (and numerous) London orchestras. 


If this leads anyone to suggest further search avenues, I would be very interested to hear.

Separately, I remember reading years ago that Bortkiewicz's wife Elizabeth had relatives in the USA, and that when she died she left everything to them, including Sergei's papers.  So there's a possibility that some of his scores could be in an attic somewhere in the US.  The problem is, I can't remember where I read this! It could be an avenue for further investigation.

[Christopher]

There's also this from Wikipedia:

When [his publisher] van Dalen died in 1967, he bequeathed to his family manuscripts of several Bortkiewicz compositions and an autobiography Erinnerungen (published in German in Musik des Ostens, 1971, pp. 136–69, in Dutch by Hugo van Dalen in De Zevende Dag, July–August 1939, and in English by B. N. Thadani, Recollections, 2nd ed., Cantext, 2001). A number of letters and printed scores were donated to the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, which later became part of the collection of the Netherlands Music Institute. The latter has the only existing copy of the manuscript of the Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 60, and of two of the Preludes, Op. 66.[citation needed]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Bortkiewicz

[Theodore S.]

I'm very grateful this thread now exists, it gives me hope that more of Bortkiewicz's music will soon resurface (especially hearing that works like the Piano Trio and Cello Suite and Sonata may still exist and not be destroyed).

in the same way as the symphonies were deemed missing or destroyed in WW II until I located them

If you don't mind me asking, would you still happen to have the scores of the Symphonies? If so, would you be willing to share them in any capacity?