Per Aspera Ad Astra

Pianist Zhenni Li-Cohen, together with Marin Alsop and the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester, present Per Aspera ad Astra, an album of sweeping lyricism, virtuoso brilliance and powerful orchestral drama by Ukrainian composer Sergei Bortkiewicz. The album presents the world-premiere commercial recording of Bortkiewicz's Rhapsody, Op. 45. Originally commissioned by the legendary one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein, this brilliant, continuous set of variations on the folk song Zvonili zvon v Novgorode ("The church bells were ringing in Novgorod") vanished into history following the composer's flight from Nazi Berlin in 1933 and was never performed in his lifetime. Rescuing this lost score is a major musicological triumph that restores a vital, deeply personal chapter of Bortkiewicz's legacy. Standing alongside it is the composer's monumental Piano Concerto No. 3, Per aspera ad astra ("Through hardships to the stars"), celebrating the centennial of it's 1927 publication and Vienna premiere. Written in the grand virtuoso tradition of Rachmaninoff and Medtner, the concerto unfolds in a single continuous arc, moving from a turbulent C-minor opening through searching lyricism to an ecstatic, radiant conclusion complete with church bells and a triumphant major-key transfiguration. Together, these works reveal a composer whose life was marked by war, revolution, and exile, yet whose music remained expansive, emotionally direct, and richly colored. Per Aspera ad Astra marks Zhenni Li-Cohen's debut on PENTATONE and begins a long-term, multi-album partnership with Marin Alsop, with the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien at the centre of this new partnership.

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