the other sergei

Everybody loves Rachmaninov, but how many people have even heard of Bortkiewicz? (Or perhaps the more pertinent question should be, How many people who have heard of Bortkiewicz actually know how to pronounce his name? Not more than 5 in Singapore, i reckon. Of which i am not one.)

Allow me to introduce Sergei Bortkiewicz, little-known Ukrainian composer, whose work is only just enjoying a mini-revival (or, should that be, a shadow of a dream of a mini-revival) in his home country. His music, or rather, the one piece of his music that i have heard in full, is a lush cross between Rachmaninoff's rich harmonisation and deep-felt lyricism, and (early) Debussy's dreamy dissonance.

His work, going by the fragments i've heard of this album from amazon.com, is not any lesser in quality than those of other East European composers like Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, or Dvorak. And the reason he is not as famous as them is a combination of historic circumstance and pure bad luck.

All of which casts doubt on the idea that time is the great arbiter when it comes to judging the quality of a work of art.
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