Bortkiewicz studied at the Kharkov Music School, the St Petersburg Conservatory and the Leipzig Conservatory. He enjoyed some fame as a pianist but was best known as a composer and performer of his own works. He returned to Russia at the outbreak of WWI but was forced to leave in 1919. He settled in Vienna where he remained until his death. His piano style is of the post-romantic Russian style that is based on that of Chopin and Liszt and contains Russian folklore. He was a fine technician, composing with lush instrumentation and colorful sentimentality. ~ Lynn Vought, Rovi