Sergei Bortkiewicz - Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 28 (audio + sheet music)
Музыка
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.
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.
(muswrite.blogspot.com)
Please take note that the audio AND the sheet music ARE NOT mine. Change the quality to a minimum of 480p if the video is blurry.
Original audio: • Bortkiewicz - Piano Co...
Original sheet music: imslp.org
![Bortkiewicz - Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 16 (Shadrina, Sukach) [Christmas Special No. 4]](/img/d.gif)
Пікірлер: 209
If this pianist is actually using just his left, I'd love to see it because those (4:56 is just one example) were just too quick to be done with one. I could very well be wrong I admit, but it seems too clean and too quick. If someone has a video I'm curious.
@thenameisgsarci
4 жыл бұрын
Hmmm, maybe this might help you compare, this is by a different performer: kzread.info/dash/bejne/e5qbs8qofafKibw.html
@onlinetheory5115
4 жыл бұрын
@@thenameisgsarci Right, the individual who played It in the linked video did those grace notes as I would have expected them to be: almost as an 8th note leading into beat 1.
@123eldest
4 жыл бұрын
I just tried it and it's not that hard, I imagine for someone practising this piece on a concert pianist level that it's not a problem at all. I can't imagine why anyone would choose to play it with both hands anyway.
@AEPMUSlC
3 жыл бұрын
@@onlinetheory5115 Yeah some of those grace notes seems to be played almost instantaneous with the melody. 5:07 and 5:17 got me really confused
@mikedaniels3009
2 жыл бұрын
Wondering what his right hand is doing all this time?
I think this composer deserves more popularity.
@thenameisgsarci
8 жыл бұрын
I'm thinking what you're thinking as well. :)
@peteredwards8737
6 жыл бұрын
This reminds me of Rachmaninoff but with better orchestration.
@jackcurley1591
5 жыл бұрын
Peter Edwards significantly worse orchestration imo. I think that’s what held back Bortkiewicz’ popularity
@musik350
4 жыл бұрын
@@jackcurley1591 With better orchestration*
@PhilippeRR1
4 жыл бұрын
Agreed! The best "Bad Rachmaninoff" I've ever heard! Actually, Rachmaninoff would've been impressed...
Wow, that first movement and other parts in this concerto scream Rachmaninoff to me. Another gem of a concerto that should get played more often.
This work holds a candle to Ravel's Concerto for the left-hand. Hands (both of them) down, this is a masterpiece of eloquent piano playing.
@user-fi8sm8ov9l
4 жыл бұрын
З
easily one of the best piano concertos ever, let alone for the left hand. on par with moszkowski. unbelievable. i've spent hours listening and crying to this recording
Part I (Allegro dramatico) 0:19 // Part II (Andante) 9:04 // Recapitulation 18:21 // Finale 22:32
Beautiful orchestration with majestic and virtuosic piano part! Very "romantically" harmonized! It's hard to believe that only one hand is playing the solo piano with such rich harmonies!
3:09 - OK, I think I just saw Rachmaninov's soul in this part... 3:44 - Hmmm, for some reason... 3:49 - I can imagine this part playing in a James Bond film. 3:54 - "The name's Bortkiewicz. Sergei Bortkiewicz' 3:59 - Well, that would be VERY interesting. XD 6:07 - I'll bet I've heard that 8-note melody before... 6:35 - A cliffhanger, really, Mr. Sergei? *laughs... in dissapointment* (by the way, it's spelt "disappointment") 6:39 - Hmph, fine... >:/ 7:23 - Awww, god, yes, that climax... Thank you very much. I forgive you now. XD 7:28 - Oh, wow, I remember, it's the melody from his own Etude Op. 29 No. 6... 7:35 - I know how you play your cards now... mwahahahahhh... Sorry. Did I miss anything?
@thenameisgsarci
6 жыл бұрын
Yes, you did. XD
@joshscores3360
5 жыл бұрын
There's one near the start
If someone did not understand, then 7:23 is a direct fragment from his etude op. 29 no. 6 called "Le Heros"
Why I don't know this today... This is so amazing
@thenameisgsarci
8 жыл бұрын
Now you know... :)
I really love this piano concerto . Excellent orchestration, wonderful piano score and full of passion. I wish it could be performed more often .
Confining such a sensational piece of music to obscurity is indeed a shame. The world should hear the piano concerto no.2, a masterpiece of the rarest kind! Intensely musical & romantic. It speaks a fresh & sublimely beautiful language! Thank you you tube! You've done stellar service to music by unearthing this composer & composition! Jamshed Delvadavala from Mumbai.
C'est vraiment le meilleur concerto que j'ai pu écouter jusqu'à présent, c'est tellement triste que ce compositeur ne soit pas + connu, je le trouve vraiment incroyable ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Stunning writing of the left hand !! Great influences from Rachmaninov and Chopin !!
for one hand solo, this is transcendental; just wow!
This Piano Concerto desearves a place in standard repertoire. It has no envy with Chopin or Liszt music...
@kaleidoscopio5
2 жыл бұрын
@God justify yourself 🤨
Grande concerto pra orquestra e piano! Grande compositor! Não entendo como um compositor desse nível não é tão difundido como os outros mais tradicionais!
A masterpiece! Thanks so much for posting.
Apparently Mr. Bortkiewicz couldn't choose between Chopin's revolutionary and Saint Saëns's Agnus dei at 19:43 and so he went for both :)
Thank you for the detailed description. Very interesting to read while listening.
Incredible! I keep coming back to listen.
An amazing piece. Amazing.
Remarkably charming work rendered beautifully. ❤️
I think your comments are great! We almost never get the chance to experience music, live with a friend -- it's always hushed during the performance or talked about in general terms afterwards. I learned about your interpretation and about some references I missed! For those who are too stuck-up to enjoy it, they don't deserve to take advantage of your work putting the video together for free. Keep doing your thing!
Прекрасная музыка! Чувствуется вдияние Оахманиновской этетики и пианизма! Хамечательный композитор! Благодарю аатора канала!
A spectacular and moving musical event.
One handed or two - this is one of the most beautiful piano pieces I've heard in a long time. David Porcelijn is remarkable. Thank you for posting.
19:40 I love this part so much. It feels me like I lost my lover... So disperatic melodies. Also, the later melodies are so lovely. I think Bortkiewicz is a magical composer. His music never disappoints me. Why he isn't so popular?
@kaleidoscopio5
Жыл бұрын
He has to compete with the "Rachmaninov style". And this Concerto is really difficult. But it is true that the lack of popularity of this composer is a crime.....he has many wonderful pieces 😀
@presto4076
Жыл бұрын
@@kaleidoscopio5 I agreee
@kaleidoscopio5
Жыл бұрын
@@presto4076 I have a list of pieces of Bortkiewicz to study and try to play in public. So much beauty, so great, so personal music. Love him 😁
@presto4076
Жыл бұрын
@@kaleidoscopio5 Oh, have a good luck to try them!!
@kaleidoscopio5
Жыл бұрын
@@presto4076 It will take a lot of time and effort but I hope I can play them with the dignity those pieces desearve 🤔
Amo esta pieza, reminiscencia de otras obras y compositores. Cada vez que la escucho encuentro un nuevo detalle que hace que me guste todavía más. Gracias por compartirla!!.
Magnifique ! Et bravo au pianiste et à l’orchestre 👏👏
This is stunning music!
Es perfecto!! Increible el piano y la orquesta!! ❤
such a delight to listen to and watch! thank you :)
@thenameisgsarci
8 жыл бұрын
You're welcome. ^_^
Gorgeous music!
Omg this is so beautiful!!!
This is an extraordinary piano concerto! Enjoyable from end to end and very well performed.
This exact piano concerto obsessed me for the past few days and now you bring my favourite interpretation with sheet music, what a coincidence. I am soo grateful to you good sir. Btw I didn't recognize right away the Le Heros etude omg xD you are a genius
@thenameisgsarci
8 жыл бұрын
Let's get obsessed together, my friend. >_
Your "color commentary" is fun! Thanks!
Eu amo este concerto!
This is so amazing
A pleasant style for the afternoon
I've never heard of a Bortkiewicz's concerto before, and it's so nice! It feels like Russia+Rachmaninov. Thank you for the good music.🤗👍
@randomcubing7106
2 жыл бұрын
ok but rach is Russian already lol
@marcusvsf
2 жыл бұрын
I fiel the same
@ludwig2019-
Жыл бұрын
Rachmaninov is russian composer.
@igarok6520
Жыл бұрын
Bortkiewicz has nothing in common with russia itself
Now I have lost track of where I am in life, and have blurriness instead of straight thoughts about my future actions... That painful feeling of nostalgia, causing chest to burn and heart to ache, without any possibility to access so many things, no possibility to experience so much, loosing so many opportunities and being late to nice things, and all those feelings seem to stem from greed for more good moments, for checking everything, reading everything, experiencing all and crossing most possible things off the list.
@SeigneurReefShark
2 жыл бұрын
Exactly me right now...
It does resemble a bit of Chopinistic features, like 15:10. But in the first bit, with the heavy chords in both the solo piano and orchestra, Russian style is definitely presented as well!
@elliottgyll8453
2 жыл бұрын
Sounds like Liszt Funérailles to me
Beautiful👍🎶
My left hand hurts insanely just from watching this. Thanks very much :D
@matthewclarke5008
5 жыл бұрын
Anytime! Would you like something to make your right hand hurt also?
@thenameisgsarci
5 жыл бұрын
Are you implying something else here? 😁😉
@james920249
4 жыл бұрын
rachmaninoff concerto 3 he means. both leftand right hands hurts.........
Fantastic!!!
I like the comments at the bottom of the score, It's fun to see your perspective of the piece.
@thenameisgsarci
2 жыл бұрын
my perspective is full of jokes, if anything. XD
Everyone here saying they hear Rachmaninoff, and I do too, but I also get lots of Wagner and lots of Puccini too. Like some of those chromatic passages that are so lyrical feels so Puccini. Anyway yes, a lovely and wonderful work. 🌷
Wonderful melodies
Magnificent!
What a masterpiece!!
I was looking for this sheet music so badly
Ok this is number one on my list of music that makes pooping epic.
The opening is tragic, instantly got my attention
Una belleza!
The opening reminds me of both Medtner 1 and Atterberg, who's piano concertos precede and follow this one respectively.
Its good to have you back, old friend!...
@thenameisgsarci
3 жыл бұрын
^_^
5:51 Motif from Bortkiewicz's Etude "Le Heros" 5:41 Same motif but modified to resolve in the same key
The video you took the audio from is deleted.
@thenameisgsarci
8 жыл бұрын
OK, fixed it. Apparently, the URL is incomplete. :P
I hate he lost his arm, but grateful for these amazing commissions. Pretty amazing a billionaire's son was in combat and ended up in a POW camp. Can't imagine that happening today.
+ thenameisgsarci Thank you for posting such amazing composition!
Heh C minor I knew there was a reason it sounded so good.
Mahler + Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto = Bortkiewicz's Second Piano Concerto
0:30 Sounds like imperial march or is it just me?
@hussamalkaissi4453
4 жыл бұрын
I thought that was just me too LOL
@viddork
2 ай бұрын
It's probably just because the radio in the other room is currently actually playing the _Imperial March._ True story! (It happens to be May the Fourth as I write this!)
19:44 chopin étude révolutionnaire anyone?
@thenameisgsarci
8 жыл бұрын
That's what I was thinking as well. :D
@88wooper88
8 жыл бұрын
+thenameisgsarci also, the force is strong in this concerto ;)
@thenameisgsarci
8 жыл бұрын
LOL XD
@mruberduck
8 жыл бұрын
+thenameisgsarci I like the piece, but the fact that people keep saying it sounds like other things to me explains why it is not as famous as it might be... Still a highly enjoyable Listen though!
@dcar908
7 жыл бұрын
yes! clearly he was very influenced by chopin, you can also hear a glimpse of the "ocean etude" at 1:33
Vers la 7ème minute, fragment du thème de la censure dans "Liebesverbot" de Wagner!
Notice the big section in F sharp major, a tritone away from the home key of c minor! He ends the concerto in E flat major instead of the expected tonic C major, perhaps following the example of Gustav Mahler's Second Symphony!
Great.
28:20 : this very small phrase is so Borodine/Balakirev/Rimsky-Korsakov/Glazunov like !
@lutecedefrance
7 жыл бұрын
Hi can you contact me pls!
Actually the piano favors the left hand more than the right the reason being that it's easier to travel up and down the piano with your left verse your right and the left hand is able to get full resonance from the piano because the left hand is able to reach the base notes and a Melody at the same time. This was discovered by godowsky
Wittgenstein also commissioned Prok 4 but never played it!
I love the remarks in the bottom 😂😂
19:43 Where the fun begins. Or maybe that itself is just 0:00?
one big cliff hanger for me, so misterious
thanks so much for sharing this! hope you'll upload his others piano concertos ASAP. thanks deeply.
@thenameisgsarci
7 жыл бұрын
Well, someone has already uploaded No. 3 (kzread.info/dash/bejne/hWxol7uzidDcms4.html). So you want me to do No. 1?
@thenameisgsarci
7 жыл бұрын
Yes or no?
@bryan1198
7 жыл бұрын
yes!! number 1.
@thenameisgsarci
7 жыл бұрын
Alright then so you wait. :)
Piano entrance at 1:34 reminded me Chopin's Etude Op. 25 no. 12
I'd told you I was working on this :( I guess on the Bright side I'd only got through cleaning up the score and halfway through setting up all the different frames though. Good video anyway, guess you saved me the work! :D Though I think you should check some of the frames midway through. They're not matching up with the music! D:
@thenameisgsarci
8 жыл бұрын
1) I should've actually advised you NOT to give out your plans away. Treat it like a trade secret. 2) For some reason, my equipment suffered a glitch. Either that, or I've gone video-blind. XD
@Medtnaculuss
8 жыл бұрын
+thenameisgsarci Good choice in pieces anyways! Love it!
@Xanadu2025
6 жыл бұрын
Medtnaculus h Mmmmv dvccccvbhjklkkkkiolouiiikkkkkoopjn. Hju
@Xanadu2025
6 жыл бұрын
Medtnaculus jnjjkjjm. Love it when it
@erikbreathes
3 жыл бұрын
@@Xanadu2025 yes
Nice to hear such full blown romanticism!
0:51 exactly my thought :D
What do you think Gsarci, who is the violinist playing from 15:17 onwards? I am desperate to know xD
@thenameisgsarci
8 жыл бұрын
I'm gonna look like a stalker, so, no. Sorry. :/
Lil bit of Liszt in here too. Un suspiro and sonata in b Minor come to mind.
0:21 Tristan chord!😊🥰
3:27 damn!
The very beginning sounds a lot like the 1st movement of Mahler's 6th symphony
2:28 13:56 21:31
Une seule main donne par ailleurs plus de clarté à la partition, belle prestation.
Wow, I heard some passage that sounds like Liszt funerailles in the 1st movement
I love the video comments :D (and the music of course)
19:40 Chopin Revolution Etude
Huh, I didn't know our left hands could do that... 😂
😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍
I've heard people criticize this piece for sounding too Rachmaninoff, but I think we have to put things into context here. I've read somewhere this concerto was composed for a pianist (I think for his friend can't remember) who got his right hand amputated during war, and has no chance of playing any of Rachmaninoff concertos. There's little material about this concerto's history so correct me if I'm wrong.
@thenameisgsarci
6 жыл бұрын
The description box should give you the answer. :)
@SpaghettiToaster
4 жыл бұрын
Sounding like Rachmaninoff is not criticism, it's the highest praise you can give to a piano concerto.
@erikbreathes
4 жыл бұрын
@@SpaghettiToaster moszkowski? Maybe. I might also be obsessed tbh but give it a listen. (no.2 specifically)
19:40 20:06
19:41
0.39 SW Imperial March ? :)
oh he must be fond of Rachmaninov. even used his chords...
19:43-21:48
C'est quand même curieux que l'on connaisse si mal ce compositeur... Ce concerto devrait,au moins, être connu ! Messieurs les pianistes : qu'attendez-vous pour l'inscrire au programme ?
@catherineanstett126
6 жыл бұрын
Oui! Tout comme Atterberg, Medtner et bien d'autres...
@catherineanstett126
6 жыл бұрын
Rien ne m'énerve plus que les commentaires qui comparent ces compositeurs méconnus avec les "grands" autres compositeurs "connus"!
@piarullicarlo6041
3 жыл бұрын
@@catherineanstett126 apparemment ils sont grands connaisseurs... Oups
Есть место, очень похоже на 2 концерт Рахманинова