Classical Music | Violin Music

Recorded on 03/17/2010, uploaded on 06/01/2010

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

When the war engulfing the rest of the European continent came to the Soviet Union with Nazi Germany’s brutal hammer stroke in 1941, Sergei Prokofiev, along with many other artists, were evacuated away from the major cities and the Nazi’s ruthless advance. In August of that year, Prokofiev was taken to Nalchik, the capital city of the Kabardino-Balkar Republic in the North Caucasus, some nine hundred miles south of Moscow. Late, he was in Perm in the Ural Mountains. While Stalin and the Soviets were forced to focus their attention on the threat from the Nazis, they temporary relaxed the restrictions that they had placed on their artists, leaving composers such as Prokofiev to indulge their true creative impulses. Many of the works that flowed from the composer’s pen during this time may have perhaps been the expression of anti-Stalin sentiments. Yet, flying in the face of the tragedy of Stalin’s regime and a world engulfed in war, is the blithe and lyrical Second Violin Sonata.

The Second Violin Sonata, however, was not originally composed as such. In 1942, Prokofiev composed his Flute Sonata in D major. At the urging of his friend, the violinist David Oistrakh, Prokofiev arranged the sonata for violin the following year. Both share the same opus number, and while the origins as a flute sonata are still present in the work’s inherent lyricism, it is the violin transcription that has become the most popular. Oistrakh premiered the work on June 17, 1944 in Moscow. Comprising four movements, the sonata embodies a typical Romantic form. A lyrical and elegant opening sonata form is followed by a typical Prokofievian scherzo full of wit and energy. The Andante third movement opens with an arching tune for the violin, but later indulges in jazz-inspired inflections during its middle section. Lastly, the Finale provides a joyous conclusion.       Joseph DuBose

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Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano in D major, Op. 94bis        Sergei Prokofiev

     Moderato; Presto; Andante; Allegro con brio

Sergei Prokofiev's Violin Sonata No. 2 op. 94bis was transposed by the composer himself from his flute sonata for David Oistrakh in 1943.  Normally associated with the percussive effects and shocking dissonances of his piano compositions, Prokofiev distinguished this piece first of all by his selection of the flute, which demands a more lyrical, elegant, and airy compositional style, and secondly by the largely angelic accompanying harmonies. The first movement, Moderato is built upon a beautiful, floating melody and imaginative, dreamlike harmonies from the outset.  A slightly military allusion then spirals into an intense (both rhythmically and harmonically) whirlpool of embroidered motifs.  Finally, the listener is returned to the dream world of the beginning, but with a completely new perspective, having gone through the development. 

The rhythmically energetic Scherzo: Presto (the main theme could be interpreted as waltzing) remains light and joking, true to the original sense of a scherzo.  A reoccurring theme begins, as the second movement also contains a drastically differing middle section - a "childish" recitative.  The Andante remains comfortably sung from tempo (the sonata contains no real slow movement) with again an eerie contrasting second theme.  A heroic last movement, Allegro con brio, brings the listener back to Prokofiev's more real, although still emphatically optimistic world with the strong repeated eighth-note motif so characteristic of his writing for piano.  After the loving middle section, the return to the main theme is filled with even more joie de vivre and a real sense of pure enjoyment as the violin and the piano finally truly dialog to finish the piece in style.       Michael Cansfield

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.