Sergei Bortkiewicz - Minuit, Op. 5

Minuit, or “Midnight”, and not to be confused with “Minuet”, is a set of one of the earliest pieces in Bortkiewicz’s catalogue, written when he was thirty. The first movement sways like a berceuse, and serenely depicts a picturesque nightscape, similar to a Nocturne. Then there is the tumultuous, and Revolutionary second movement, giving a sense that another round of artillery shelling is being aimed at Warsaw. The piece finds succor in the development, which gives way to another flight from danger. Incidentally, a real revolution, one that would kill the Emperor of Russia and his entire family, is brewing and due in ten years’ time when the piece was signed by Bortkiewicz. That revolution would be Bortkiewicz’s own hour of Midnight. And much like Chopin’s permanent exile from Poland, Bortkiewicz’s escape from Revolutionary Russia marks the point after which he would never see his homeland of Ukraine, ever, again. Date: 1907 Catalogue: Op. 5 Dedicatee: Ernst Seger