A Letter - Sergei Bortkiewicz: Solo Piano Works / Zhenni Li-Cohen

Release Date: 05/05/2023

Label: Steinway & Sons Catalog #: 30129

Composer: Sergei Bortkiewicz Performer: Zhenni Li-Cohen

Works on Recording
Notes and Reviews

For her latest release on the Steinway & Sons label, Zhenni Li-Cohen presents a survey of Ukrainian composer Sergei Bortkiewicz's solo piano works. Li-Cohen says that through Bortkiewicz's music she has found yearning, nostalgia, and the ineffable, expressing the whole spectrum of emotion that makes us human; tears, joy, sweeping love, passion, and humor.

Album Credits:
Recorded September 2018-2021 at Steinway Hall, New York City.
Producer: Jon Feidner
Engineers: Joshua Frey, Lauren Sclafani, Melody Nieun Hwang
Mixing and Mastering: Daniel Shores

Executive Producer: Jon Feidner
Art Direction: Jackie Fugere
Design: Cover to Cover Design, Anilda Carrasquillo
Read more Photo of Zhenni-Li Cohen: Brent Calis
Production Assistant: Renée Oakford
Piano Technician: John Veitch
Piano: Steinway Model D #607799 (New York)

Reviews:

It's gratifying to see more and more pianists exploring the luxuriant keyboard idiom of Sergei Bortkiewicz (1877?1952) on disc. He was not the most memorable nor original tunesmith on the planet; one immediately thinks of Grieg, Rachmaninov, or early Scriabin. Even Chopin: the fifth of Bortkiewicz's Six Pensées Lyriques Op. 11 wouldn't exist without that composer?s Nocturne Op. 37 No. 2. Yet you?re captivated while you listen, mainly because Bortkiewicz understood everything about the piano. His keyboard writing deploys registers with the utmost mastery, while imaginatively varying decorative figurations.

Zhenni Li-Cohen mixes and matches 13 short works that showcase her fine technique and sympathy with the idiom. In the Nocturne Op. 24 No. 1, she shapes the right-hand cantabiles more like a singer than a pianist, while giving the left hand its vocal due as well. Ein Brief is an especially cogent example of Li-Cohen's smoothly proportioned rubato, along with the organic interaction of bass lines, inner voices, and melodies.

Her smartly timed pauses and hesitations throughout the Gavotte-Caprice bring out the music's wistful undercurrents, even though I personally prefer a brisker, more straightforward approach. Similarly, the fourth of the Op. 13 Preludes could stand a little more ferocity and dynamic oomph. But because most of the selections are reflective in nature, they play to Li-Cohen's lyrical and poetic strengths.

While newcomers to this composer will find more musical variety in the selections encompassing Nadejda Vlaeva?s terrific all-Bortkiewicz CD on Hyperion (including his Sonata No. 2: a minor masterpiece), Li-Cohen's attractive program is no less satisfying, as are the informative booklet notes by the pianist?s husband Matthew Cohen.

-- ClassicsToday.com

"...Music that is heard far less frequently than Beethoven's can be equally likely to inspire first-rate performances - perhaps more so when the music is heard in the context of sociopolitical events. A new Steinway & Sons release featuring Zhenni Li-Cohen performing works by Sergei Bortkiewicz (1877-1952) falls into this category. Bortkiewicz has generally been described as a Russian composer born in Kharkov (a transliteration of the name of his birth city from Russian). Given current geopolitics, however, he is being branded or rebranded as a Ukrainian composer born in Kharkiv (a transliteration of the city?s name from Ukrainian). In fact, it may be more accurate to associate him with Austria, since he moved to Vienna in 1922 and became a naturalized citizen of Austria four years later. Bortkiewicz was in any case a musical citizen of the Romantic era: a fine pianist himself, he was strongly influenced by Liszt, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, and never fully absorbed or cared to absorb 20th-century compositional techniques. His piano music reflects both his Romantic leanings and his own performance style, as is easily heard in any survey of it - a six-CD set on the Grand Piano label includes it all. For those unfamiliar with Bortkiewicz, Li-Cohen's single disc is a very worthy introduction to his piano works. The disc is best thought of as a sampling, since every piece on it is a selection from a multi-movement collection. From the four pieces of Lyrica Nova, Op. 59, there is the fourth, Con slancio (with enthusiasm); from Trois Morceaux, Op. 24, the first, Nocturne; from the eight Lamentations and Consolations, Op. 17, the second, Consolation; from Ten Preludes, Op. 33, the seventh and eighth (separated on the disc by other works); from Four Pieces, Op. 3, the last, Gavotte-Caprice; from Six Preludes, Op. 13, the fourth, Appassionato; from the eight pieces in Ein Roman, Op. 35, the seventh, Ein Brief (A Letter), and third, Erwachende Liebe (?Awakening Love?), again separated by other works; from Six Pensées Lyriques, Op. 11, the fifth, Poco moto con amabilita; from the four works in Lyrica Nova, Op. 59, the third followed by the first; and from the six Fantasiestücke, Op. 61, the second, Ein Traum. There are pluses and minuses to hearing the music all jumbled together this way. It is certainly true that Li-Cohen takes all this music out of context and robs it of whatever connections it was intended by the composer to have. But it is also true that, although Bortkiewicz wrote two piano sonatas and a few other standalone works, the vast majority of his solo-piano music does indeed consist of small, essentially independent pieces of the type heard here. Notably, Li-Cohen does not pull individual items from the Bortkiewicz groupings that really do interrelate in various ways: the 12 pieces based on Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales, Op. 30; the 14 Tolstoy-focused miniatures collectively called Kindheit (Childhood), Op. 39; or the nine Marionettes, Op. 54. Choosing one or two from these sets would be more problematic than what Li-Cohen has in fact done. As a result, this CD portrays Bortkiewicz as basically a miniaturist with a strong inclination to what is essentially salon music: little here seeks profundity and nothing attains it. What the disc also shows, though, is that Bortkiewicz had a very well-developed sense of the expressive capabilities of the Romantic piano, and that Li-Cohen grasps those capabilities very well and is a strong advocate for the lyricism and simple beauty underlying so many of these pieces. Most of the works Li-Cohen has chosen are in slow or moderate tempos, and that is a tad unfortunate, since it lends the disc a drifting, almost soporific air that is not typical of Bortkiewicz's music as a whole. The delicacy and occasional pointillism of these small pieces come through quite clearly in Li-Cohen's finely balanced and thoughtful interpretations. What is missing - from the selected music, not the performance - is any sense of verve or brightness. These are by and large crepuscular pieces, which certainly reflect Li-Cohen's predilections - not to mention the current geopolitical circumstances evoked by Bortkiewicz's birthplace - but which make this composer seem rather more monochromatic than in fact he is. For those unfamiliar with Bortkiewicz, this disc will serve as a fine invitation to his piano music and, hopefully, an inspiration to seek out other works in which he offers a wider variety of musical experiences."

-- Infodad

On this release, up-and-coming Zhenni Li-Cohen sets herself a substantial challenge. To begin with, Ukrainian-born Sergei Bortkiewicz is a hard sell. He led a peripatetic life; but while he was constantly uprooted geographically, he remained firmly rooted stylistically ? perhaps too firmly for listeners who prefer music that reflects its times. And even for people who don?t mind his retrograde idiom and his magpie aesthetic (ideas picked up from Liszt and early Scriabin dot ? even dominate ? this recital), his music may seem too plain-spoken. He had a gift for melody, but his textural and rhythmic workings are no match for Medtner?s.

To compound the difficulties, Li-Cohen focuses on a limited slice of his output. Her sampler gives us selections from across Bortkiewicz?s career (not in chronological order - although that hardly matters for a composer who progressed so little); but she represents him primarily with lingering, introspective works infused with nostalgic regret. Thus, she leaves to one side such virtuoso exhibitions as the Études; and when picking an excerpt from the Fantasiestücke, she chooses the dream piece ?Ein Traum? rather than the dramatic awakening that follows it. Given this inclination towards moderation, the recital could easily sag, especially since Li-Cohen tends to pull back even in those rare moments where the music turns vehement. She plays down the martellato marking in the Prelude, Op 13 No 4, for instance; and the final piece from Lyrica nova sounds less agitated in her hands than it does in Nadejda Vlaeva?s.

Fortunately, Li-Cohen has the skills necessary to bring it off: a fluent legato and a refined sense of rubato and phrasing, coupled with an ability to bring out the subtle harmonic surprises that, from time to time, rescue the music from anonymity. Add to this her tonal richness and her exquisite balance (evident in her handling of the decorations in the third of the Lyrica nova), and you have performances that will keep you enthralled. I wouldn?t want to be without the more vital and wide-ranging collections by Vlaeva and by Pavel Gintov (Piano Classics), but Li-Cohen?s may be the most consistently beautiful Bortkiewicz recording in the catalogue. The excellent sound only augments the pleasure.

--Gramophone

"The young pianist Zhenni Li-Cohen, trained at Juilliard, Yale and McGill, plays with strong musical commitment and a fine control of nuance, rising to meet the few passionate moments with aplomb? The recorded sound of her Steinway D is appropriately mellow."

-- International Piano

Sergei Bortkiewicz's (1877 - 1952) is a name new to me, I must confess. He was born in the old Russian Empire, but his parents were Polish aristocrats. Eventually, after much struggle during World War One and the Russian Revolution, he settled in Austria, and became a citizen. And then, with World War Two, more misery ensued. Bortkiewicz was taught early on by two former students of Franz Liszt's. Bortkiewicz's compositional style seems to have been influenced not in the least by musical Modernism.

Zhenni Li-Cohen was born in China, but was educated at Juilliard, Yale, and McGill. Britain's authoritative music magazine Gramophone hailed her début recording Mélancholie (also on Steinway's house label), as "A bolt from the blue." However, as before, she leaves the pyrotechnics in the practice room, and concentrates on soulfulness.

-- John Marks, Positive Feedback

Sergei Bortkiewicz (1877?1952) was born in Ukraine, lived a difficult life through two World Wars and the Russian Revolution, and ended up in Vienna. His music, influenced by Tchaikovsky, will remind you of Rachmaninoff with less Slavic melancholy and virtuosity. It is much more positive, mostly in major keys, but still well crafted and quite tuneful. There is even a little influence of Scriabin here and there.

Recorded at Steinway Hall in New York over the period 2018?21, this is Li-Cohen's quite engaging exploration of piano music by Bortkiewicz. The title of the CD is A Letter, which is the seventh piece of Ein Roman, op. 35. She has selected a wide range of pieces, covering the entire compositional career of the composer. While the program is rather short, it gives the listener a beautifully played overview of rather neglected music. I do have this composer?s entire solo piano works: nine CDs from Finnish pianist Jouni Somero on FC Records (recorded 2005?11, four volumes reviewed in Jan/Feb 2011, Fanfare 34:3), which I would still recommend if completeness is your goal. Li-Cohen provides a great place to start with this program.

Li-Cohen has all of the technical and musical expertise to convincingly bring her selection of beautiful pieces to you. She can spin the softest legato phrase or build to some quite exciting climaxes. The detailed inner voices are nicely balanced with the melodies. Steinway has its customary detailed and well recorded piano sound. There is a good introduction to the music by the pianist and the detailed booklet essay by Matthew Cohen covers every piece. This is a must-add to your listening list if you enjoy Romantic piano music.

-- Fanfare Read less

1. Lyrica Nova, Op. 59: 4th movement, Con slancio