First Berlin period (1904-1914).

 

From 1904 until 1914, Bortkiewicz continued to live in Berlin and started to compose seriously. He gave his first piano recitals in Berlin, Leipzig, Munich and Vienna. He became friends with the opera diva Emmy Destinn (1878-1930) and went on concert tours with her to all the larger cities of Germany.

 

Photo: Emmy Destinn (1878-1930)

 

He also appeared in Russia, Paris and Italy. In Berlin he gave private lessons, except for one year when he was engaged as a teacher in the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory, where he was to meet his lifelong friend, the Dutch pianist Hugo van Dalen (1888-1967).

 

Photo: Hugo van Dalen in 1915

 

Van Dalen owed his marriage with his wife Sophia Wilhelmina Alberdina Rijckholt to Bortkiewicz. In his Erinnerungen Bortkiewicz says: "My opus 15 ten études for piano had just appeared with the publisher D. Rahter, when in Berlin I got acquainted with my present dear friend, the Dutch pianist Hugo van Dalen. When Van Dalen returned to Berlin after a long absence, he introduced me to his young pretty wife and assured me that he owed his married happiness to me. Naturally, I agreed. He then told me that my concert étude opus 15 no. 8 in D flat major pleased a Dutch young woman so much, that se had herself introduced to the pianist in order to ask him about the piece and the composer. From this acquaintance came love, engagement and marriage. Yet more noteworthy is the fact that exactly the same story was told to me later in Vienna by my friend, mr. Ernst Horicky, [...] who came to know his wife in the same way. This time he was the curious one. Since then I have named the piece in D flat major as the Betrothal étude, and look on myself as a matchmaker.

 

Van Dalen premiered Bortkiewicz's pianoconcerto no. 1 opus 16 in November 1913 in Berlin with the Blüthner Orchestra conducted by the composer.

 

Photo: Sergei Bortkiewicz in 1905