We should be indebted to Jouni Somero rather than criticise his playing. He has brought us some relatively unknown gems, and this is one of the best. He points out the composers little tributes to Chopin Scriabin, Rachmaninoff and others in a carefully crafted way. Bortkiewicz is in the shadow of Rachmaninoff Scriabin ands Medtner, but his music is compelling in it's own way. This is a great listen for lovers of late romantic piano music as I am.

His 2 Sonatas sound like a mix of Chopin's Ballades, Scherzi and Nocturnes and I love it.

The most underrated sonata ever

1:25 - The sequence at measure 30 is lifted straight out of Rachmaninoff's second piano concerto.

0:13 - the first theme from etude “La Brunne”, op.29-3 0:50 - again 1:09 - the second theme from op.29-3 1:26 - Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No.2, op.18 1:38 - Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto No.1, op.23 1:57 - Taneev - Prelude and fugue, op.29 2:50 - Chopin - Piano Concerto No.2, op.21

4:13 starts the main theme of Kalinnikovs 1st Symphony.

Honestly Bortkiewicz Sonatas are amazing. Who cares they sound like Chopin or Scriabin in parts? It's amazing anyways.

24:14 what a wonderful climax!

He really did love to imitate other composers and add his own style. One piece and I hear Rach 3's 2nd Mov, Grieg's Peer Gynt (Aese's Death), Chopin's Berceuse and other themes I can't remember right now but that I've already definitely heard. Like W.H. Davenport Adams once said, "Great poets imitate and improve, whereas small ones steal and spoil.", same goes for music.

4:13 4:39 note for myself. unforgettable melody

This is the best thing I have ever heard in my live

I've been losing my mind for some time but that darkly sunny music, among many others, helps me to float, to keep my head above water💥

Чудовий украінський композитор! На жаль, мало відомій украінському суспільству. Тепер повертається на батьківщину. Велика подяка всім виконавцям!

It's been a while since I came across a piece that moved me so much that I had to start learning it straight away. This is an absolutely wonderful piece.

I. Allegro ma non troppo - C# minor - 0:12 II. Allegretto - C# minor 8:20 III. Andante misericordioso - C# major 14:02 IV. Agitato - C# minor 22:35

Measure 30 sounds great👍

I love how he uses the first Motiv in every movement. He's such a genius.

The Allegretto is so wonderful!

Thank You!

Breathtaking Performance !……… Genius Pianist....A la Horowitz 📣📣📣📣

I’m so happy to have stumbled upon this beautiful sonata while I was quite new to classical music. After having listened to much of Bortkiewicz music for solo piano I found his first concerto. Before that I hadn’t listened through a whole concerto because I lacked the concentration, but his op 16 was just so amazing. I usually only listened to single movements of long pieces but after hearing how amazing a longer piece can be when in its complete form I learned to listen to many great concertos, symphonies and sonatas. Bortkiewicz music has changed my abilities to understand musical context and harmony and I will forever be grateful to him.

He COOKED omg! Both the composer and performer did fantastic with this

i think what makes me enjoy it so much are the „unexpected“ chord combinations quite everywhere. like you expect a certain chord but a completely different is played, but it somehow sounds good.

What a sublime 3rd movement. Otherworldly! Serendipity! Sheer pulchritude! What a melodist! 🎼😇👌

Thank you for bringing this composition to light. An impressive piece of music. Much appreciated.

It is so enjoyable to play, I love this sonata

Piano has lovely tone.

A fantastic piece of music! It creates some other worldly emotions and is full of these wonderfully contrasting moments of beauty and darkness!!!

Grande sonata,grande prestazione ! Il finale in tonalità maggiore è semplicemente stupendo ed eroico.Bravo. Ottimo post!

I love playing it so much

A fantastic, beautiful and powerful performance by Jouni Somero. Thank you for posting this.

Another awesome upload of somebody I would probably never have heard of. I love your channel Azur. You and the others who upload this music for us. Thank you.

Fantastic! 🤩🤩🤩

Thank you so much

Thanks to a pianist on KZfaq called Claire Black and her recording of his Eros, I've been introduced to Bortkiewicz. This little gem of a sonata has played on repeat the last few days. I'm finding that it's typical of his quality. He really is an overlooked composer.

Beautiful✨👍💓🎶

Puissante cette pièce. .

Bar 60 reminds Chopin piano concerto, this sonata is so beautiful

Who else noticed Brahm's Rhapsody no. 2 in the 2nd mvt of this sonata? 👁️

ah... 317 likes and 0 dislikes. fully deserved, this sonata is one of his best achievements

Thank you for making a score video for this sonata. I couldn't find any and was hoping I wouldn't have to make one myself!

Glorious Finale, wonderful Sonata and "Boo!" to the naysayers. I cannot recall a single performance by - take your pick - Cliburn, Horowitz, Gould, Wang, etc - that I've not read, "Well, they did miss the d sharp on measure 234" or "The accented notes should have been more pronounced" or even "Uninspired". It just burns me up knowing the effort and time entailed. OK, this is not a Lyaponov transcendental etude but so what? Bravo.

How wonderfully played this beautiful Sonata no: 2 Jouni. 👍🌷🌷🌷 (Holland)

Вторая часть божественна!!!

Last movement is reminiscing a lot from variation 18 in Rach's Rhapsody

Not going to dislike this great upload, but reading the score makes me realise that the pianist could actually have done an even better job. He probably plays through thousands of pieces every year.

Never heard ov him. This quite good music.

I've heard some criticisms of this composer. I hear a lot of derivations in his music (Chopin, Rach, Greig, etc), but now I wonder if this was intentional? How could it not be? After listening to the music more carefully, this is very good. It's different enough and the composer clearly has his own voice where the derivations seem like intentional tributes. But I'm not sure, what do you think? Was the composer aware or unaware of utilizing Chopin's motif from his Piano Concerto 2 in F, Rach's theme from his Piano Concerto 2, or Grieg's theme from Peer Gynt Suite?

13:34 Oh, I like that! Sounds heroic!

very good

1:24 sounds like Rach 2 1st mvmt 1st theme!!

Very beautiful I hear Rahmaninov in it. Do you too?

The 3rd movement has a quote from the fourth movement of Rachmaninoff's Fantaisie-Tableaux (1st Suite for 2 Pianos)

4th movement sounds like a mix of scriabin etude op 8 no 3 and 4th movement of his 3rd sonata

действительно красивая соната, некоторые моменты создают впечатление, что слушаешь Рахманинова. Интересно наблюдать рахманиновские приемы в музыке этого композитора. Главная тема отдаленно напоминает "Манфреда" Чайковского, а именно мотив (фа#-до#-ре-ми-си-до#-ре-си - у Чайковского) соль#-ре#-ми-фа#-до#-ре#-ми Напев "Христос Воскресе" в 3 части поразителен.

Beautiful. Hints of Rachmaninoff.

4:12 😍

Touches of his own 2nd piano concerto but with different accompaniment

rach 2 1st movement at 1:23

1:25 2:50 23:40

2:49 theme is so beautiful, that change from Eb to F7 is really beautiful and innovative.

Do you like more first or second sonata?

The first motif of this sonata is the same as that of his Prelude in C-sharp minor which was written around 20 years prior: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/r6ehnLipzbi9Y6c.html

The very beginning sounds like of of his Etudes

Bortkiewicz: I paid for all the keys so I‘m gonna use them all!

20:10 I have been waiting for that resolution to I M79 (Db major with major seventh and ninth) for the whole 3rd mov and it didn't happen...

2:49 This reminds me of that one part in the first movement of Chopin's F minor Concerto.

Thanks! Please Upload Czerny Op.145

what „tutta forza“ means: how much force? ALL THE FORCE!!

Sounds like Cesar Cui.

4:13 I thought of un barque Sur l'ocean for a second

At around 17-18 minutes the pedal sounds are really loud and distracting.

4:12

Такая потрясающе красивая соната!так "пахнет"Рахманиновым

24:13

First theme is right out of Tchaikovsky’s manfred symphony

1:25 ayy its rach 1:49 i heard liszt 2:49 also chopin 4:39 sheesh even kalinnikov

Sounds as if Rachmaninov bit Tchaikovsky's hand (or something else) and the latter was very inspired by this. This is obviously an epoch-making thing!

4:03-4:06 that sounded like part of La la land's main theme LOL

Да ну, вполне вторичная музыка

Рахманиновым веет от сонаты.

Do i hear a direct quote from Rachmaninov?

1:49 Liszt piano concerto #2

It's funny how out of place those fully diminished chords at measure 3 sound. Beethoven ruined them for me then silent movies put the nail in the coffin for every using fully diminished chords again (especially arpeggiated). It sounds like Rachmaninoff until those small lapses in judgement remind you it is not. Still, there is something charmingly odd about this piece, like the way it just jumps right in as if in the middle of a piece from the start.

start sounds a lot like his third etude "the brunette"

Un the minute 3 uses a similar chords as rachmaninnof

look like Rachmaninoff

N. II sounds like Brahms’s rapsody

It's a bit surprising that he borrowed so liberally from Rachmaninov.

How difficult is this piece?

Scriabin

Wonderful sonata! At bar 30 has stolen a bit from Rach :)

Measure 29 et seq. rips off Rachmaninoff so shamelessly, I abandoned this turgid bore and went over to R's second concerto. I came back only to find measure 60 cribs from Chopin. Shlocky hack work.

1:24-1:30 Heavy Rachmoninoff 2nd piano concerto influence hahah

More than a hint of Rachmaninov 😏

You've just seen and felt the leaves and detritus of the 19th century die . Thank Goodness now go listen to Boulez 2nd Sonata and CarlVine 's 1st Sonata . This makes me realize the genius of Rachmaninoff . Bortkiewicz is trite .Amazing he hwas taken seriously as a composer .

Jouni Somero has the merit of having recorded Bortkiewicz's complete works. But his technique is really limited. Many of Bortkiewicz's works lack precision and clarity, especially in the sonatas, Midnight, etc.

2. movement: The Death of Aase by Grieg. OMG, and I'm afraid that the composer didn't realize

When Rachmaninov (if he had a stroke) meets Clayderman

it sounds like rachmaninov ....too often ...the music lacks of genuin character...unfortunately...