Serhii Bortkiewicz &Karol Szymanowski

The music of Serhii Bortkiewicz and Karol Szymanowski was shaped within the same cultural space – on the territory of present-day Ukraine at the end of the 19th century. Nearly contemporaries, both composers came from affluent Polish families and grew up in an environment where Polish tradition, the Ukrainian landscape and European musical education coexisted naturally. This shared background formed the foundation of their artistic worlds and marked the beginning of different yet inwardly related creative paths.

Serhii Bortkiewicz was born in Kharkiv and studied in St. Petersburg and Leipzig. After the Revolution of 1917, he lost his family estate in Slobozhanshchyna and was forced to flee Ukraine. Settling in Vienna, he became a respected pedagogue and composer, enjoying considerable popularity; his piano works were widely performed and published. At the same time, like many Ukrainian composers in emigration, his name was suppressed for political reasons for decades, which is why his music is still rarely performed in Ukraine today.

Karol Szymanowski was born in the village of Tymoshivka, on the territory of present-day Ukraine. His creative path went through several stages – from late Romanticism to musical modernism and a profound engagement with folk traditions. Ukraine played an important role in shaping his worldview, as the composer himself emphasized:

“I was born and raised in Ukraine… I feel close to its gentle climate – its wildness and its tenderness.”

The concert programme brings the two composers together through both historical context and genre. Bortkiewicz’s Violin Sonata is a large-scale, passionate work in the late-Romantic style, rich in expansive lyricism. This sound world resonates with the cycle Lyrica nova, where the composer turns to an intimate, concentrated musical language: four miniatures that create a dreamlike atmosphere through subtle harmonic shades and impressionistic colours. A special place is held by the Mazurkas op. 64 – a personal and lyrical dialogue with the Polish tradition.

The mazurka becomes the central point of connection with Szymanowski’s music as well. In his Mazurkas op. 50, the genre appears in a modern form, marked by bold rhythms and harmonies. Alongside them, the Romance for violin and piano is performed – an early work of great cantabile beauty. Together, the programme unfolds as a living dialogue between two composers united by shared origins, the dramatic history of the 20th century, and a deep connection to the Ukrainian land.