SERGEI BORTKIEWICZ (1877-1952): Jugoslavische Suite, Op. 58*, 6 Fantasiestücke, Op. 61*, España, Op. 63/4*, 3 Mazurkas, Op. 64*, Lyrica Nova, Op. 59, Preludes, Op. 66, Nos. 1 and 3, Sonata No. 2 in C Sharp Minor, Op. 60. * - First Recordings.

Description: By now, after eight volumes of Bortkiewicz on the Finnish label FC-Records, three from the Netherlands Music Institute and two others on Hyperion, everyone out there is familiar with his darkly burnished brand of Russian Romanticism, quite in the line of Medtner and Rachmaninov, often melancholy, anguished, brooding or agitated. What stands out about the three first recordings here is how much they are unlike that. The Yugoslavian Suite of 1940 is a six-section piece of rich and colorful depictions of places and sounds of that pre-war country; the Fantasiestücke of 1942 have only one instance of minor-key angst and the Mazurkas of the same year are more joyous than this genre often gives us. Bortkiewicz with a trace of a smile! Nadejda Vlaeva (piano).