April 21, 2014.Prokofiev and Torelli.Sergei Prokofiev’s birthday is this week: he was born on April 23rd (new style) of 1891.Prokofiev was not only a composer of huge talent, he was also a wonderful pianist (his recording of Mussorgsy’s Pictures at an Exhibition, for example, is one of the best).He premiered all but one of his piano concertos, even though some of them are among the most difficult works for the instrument (his concerto no. 4, for the left hand and written for Paul Wittgenstein who lost his right arm during WWI, was never performed during Prokofiev’s lifetime).Prokofiev wrote his first concerto in 1911-1912, while still at studying at the St-Petersburg Conservatory.The premier took place in Moscow in August of 1912.Two years later he submitted the same work for the Anton Rubinstein competition, which was to determine the best pianist in the graduating class.At the time Prokofiev joked that as the work was new, the judges wouldn’t know whether he was playing it right or not.We don’t know if that was the reason, but Prokofiev indeed won the competition, even if Glazunov, the head of the jury, was rather reluctant to award him the first prize.The first piano concerto is in one movement and the shortest of the five he’d eventually write.It’s full of energy and youthful charisma.Here it is, in the 1952 performance by Sviatoslav Richter with what used to be called the Moscow Youth Symphony, the orchestra, which one year later became the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra.Kirill Kondrashin, its music director of many years, is conducting.
Prokofiev started working on his second piano concerto almost immediately after completing the first one, in 1912.He finished it in 1913 and dedicated it to Maximilian Schmidthof, his friend from the Conservatory, who committed suicide in the spring of that year.The work was premiered in Pavlovsk, outside of St.-Petersburg, in August, in a concert for the Russian Musical Society.The public was scandalized.Viacheslav Karatygin, a critic, reported that the concerto “left listeners frozen with fright, hair standing on end.”Another critic called it “a cacophony of sounds that has nothing in common with civilized music.”During the Revolution of 1917 the orchestral score was lost, and Prokofiev rewrote it in 1923, changing it considerably in the process.By then Prokofiev had emigrated from Russia, married a Spanish singer, and was living in Paris.He played at the second premier in Paris in 1924, with Serge Koussevitzky conducting, and the reception was not much better than that of 10 years earlier in Russia.These days it’s considered a classic.The concerto is technically extremely challenging.Prokofiev himself stopped playing it shortly after the premier. Sviatoslav Richter never played Piano concerto no. 2, even though he considered it one of the most fundamental in all piano literature.Martha Argerich didn’t play it either.We’ll hear it in the performance by Evgeny Kissin, technically one of the most gifted pianists of his generation; the Philharmonia Orchestra is lead by Vladimir Ashkenazy.
Giuseppe Torelli, a minor Baroque composer, was born on April 22nd, 1658 in Verona.He studied the violin, but ended up composing a large number of trumpet concertos (he also wrote many concerti grosso).Here’s one of them, a very pleasant Trumpet concerto in D Major.Alison Balsom is playing the trumpet, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen is lead by Thomas Klug.
Prokofiev and Torelli, 2014
April 21, 2014. Prokofiev and Torelli. Sergei Prokofiev’s birthday is this week: he was born on April 23rd (new style) of 1891. Prokofiev was not only a composer of huge talent, he was also a wonderful pianist (his recording of Mussorgsy’s Pictures at an
Exhibition, for example, is one of the best). He premiered all but one of his piano concertos, even though some of them are among the most difficult works for the instrument (his concerto no. 4, for the left hand and written for Paul Wittgenstein who lost his right arm during WWI, was never performed during Prokofiev’s lifetime). Prokofiev wrote his first concerto in 1911-1912, while still at studying at the St-Petersburg Conservatory. The premier took place in Moscow in August of 1912. Two years later he submitted the same work for the Anton Rubinstein competition, which was to determine the best pianist in the graduating class. At the time Prokofiev joked that as the work was new, the judges wouldn’t know whether he was playing it right or not. We don’t know if that was the reason, but Prokofiev indeed won the competition, even if Glazunov, the head of the jury, was rather reluctant to award him the first prize. The first piano concerto is in one movement and the shortest of the five he’d eventually write. It’s full of energy and youthful charisma. Here it is, in the 1952 performance by Sviatoslav Richter with what used to be called the Moscow Youth Symphony, the orchestra, which one year later became the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. Kirill Kondrashin, its music director of many years, is conducting.
Prokofiev started working on his second piano concerto almost immediately after completing the first one, in 1912. He finished it in 1913 and dedicated it to Maximilian Schmidthof, his friend from the Conservatory, who committed suicide in the spring of that year. The work was premiered in Pavlovsk, outside of St.-Petersburg, in August, in a concert for the Russian Musical Society. The public was scandalized. Viacheslav Karatygin, a critic, reported that the concerto “left listeners frozen with fright, hair standing on end.” Another critic called it “a cacophony of sounds that has nothing in common with civilized music.” During the Revolution of 1917 the orchestral score was lost, and Prokofiev rewrote it in 1923, changing it considerably in the process. By then Prokofiev had emigrated from Russia, married a Spanish singer, and was living in Paris. He played at the second premier in Paris in 1924, with Serge Koussevitzky conducting, and the reception was not much better than that of 10 years earlier in Russia. These days it’s considered a classic. The concerto is technically extremely challenging. Prokofiev himself stopped playing it shortly after the premier. Sviatoslav Richter never played Piano concerto no. 2, even though he considered it one of the most fundamental in all piano literature. Martha Argerich didn’t play it either. We’ll hear it in the performance by Evgeny Kissin, technically one of the most gifted pianists of his generation; the Philharmonia Orchestra is lead by Vladimir Ashkenazy.
Giuseppe Torelli, a minor Baroque composer, was born on April 22nd, 1658 in Verona. He studied the violin, but ended up composing a large number of trumpet concertos (he also wrote many concerti grosso). Here’s one of them, a very pleasant Trumpet concerto in D Major. Alison Balsom is playing the trumpet, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen is lead by Thomas Klug.