Pianist Margaret Fingerhut has made a fun-raising video for Ukraine with film-maker Viktoriia Levchenko. In the video, Fingerhut plays a stirring piano piece by the Ukrainian composer Sergei Bortkiewicz (1877-1952), Les Rochers d’Outche-Coche which he wrote in 1908, inspired by the mountain scenery in Crimea. Levchenko has matched it with a series of extraordinary images, including powerful footage of the devastation caused by the war.
Margaret Fingerhut's grandfather was born in Odesa and she has always felt a proud connection with the country. In 2019 she undertook a major recital tour, devising and performing a special programme of words and music called Far from the Home I Love across the UK to raise money for refugees and asylum seekers. She was presented with a ‘Champion of Sanctuary’ award by City of Sanctuary UK in recognition of her humanitarian work.
Sergei Bortkiewicz had a career that was buffeted by the various European conflicts of the 20th century. Born in what was then Kharokov in the Russian Empire (now Kharkiv in Ukraine) he was taught by Lyadov at the St Petersburg Conservatory and in Berlin by two pupils of Franz Liszt. He settled in Berlin and started to compose, but in 1914 was forced to flee back to Russia. The revolution saw him fleeing again, ending penniless in Constantinople where he ultimately ended in Vienna and took Austrian citizenship. He had to flee Germany again in 1933 because of the Nazis and spent the Second World War suffering extreme privation in Vienna.
Fingerghut has set up a JustGiving page to raise funds for British-Ukrainian Aid, a charity which sends over vital supplies such as ambulances, first aid kits and portable generators. It also provides assistance to the victims of the war:
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