Since the release of Stephen Coombs’s recording of the Piano Concerto No 1 (CDA66624) Bortkiewicz has become something of a cult composer amongst lovers of late romantic piano music. A man after his time, Bortkiewicz became all

but forgotten after the First World War. He fled communist Russia to live first in Istanbul and then Vienna but his music remained resolutely that of pre-Revolution Moscow; like Rachmaninov in style but with even more ‘tunes’ and

sentiment.

These discs of solo pieces include some of Bortkiewicz’s most imposing works. The Op 9 Sonata is his largest solo composition and the Ballade and Elegy are two of his finest. The Lamentations and Consolations set is among his most

characteristic works: intensely melodic with a brooding romanticism often reminiscent of Liszt. The fairy-tale interpretations of Aus Andersens Märchen, subtitled ‘A Musical Picture Book’, come from the large corpus of pieces Bortkiewicz composed with children in mind, while the Op 33 Preludes owe much of their character to Chopin.