April 22, 2019.Prokofiev and Menuhin.Sergei Prokofievwas born on April 27th of 1891.He’s one of our favorites, and we’ve written about him year after year (and, of course, on his 125thanniversary).His short Piano sonata no. 3, op. 28, an early masterpiece, was premiered by Prokofiev himself on April 15th of 1918 in St. Petersburg (then, Petrograd).By then, Prokofiev had already made the decision to leave for America.He applied to Anatoly Lunacharsky, the Commissar of Culture, for permission to leave, and received it shortly after.Just three weeks after the concert, on May 7th of 1918, Prokofiev left Petrograd and travelled through Siberia to Vladivostok and then on to Tokyo.He gave several concerts in Japan, boarded a ship and arrived in New York in September of 1918.Here’s what our own Joseph DuBose wrote in the notes to the Sonata: “Sergei Prokofiev composed his Third and Fourth Piano Sonatas in 1917. Both sonatas bore the subtitle “D'après de vieux cahiers,” or “From Old Notebooks,” and were wrought from sketches the composer had made a decade earlier during his student years at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. The Third Sonata, in A minor, marked a significant departure for the composer, its demeanor being far more serious than its predecessor... Like his First Piano Sonata composed in 1909, the Third is comprised of a single movement in sonata form. Where the First Sonata was segmented in its form and even derivative, the Third is evidently the work of a more mature mind, one that has learned to follow the natural course of its ideas and allows the form to proceed organically from them. It juxtaposes two diverse themes—an angular theme in Prokofiev’s “motoric” style, and a lyrical second theme. Both themes are then worked extensively in the Sonata’s development… The Third Piano Sonata is regarded as one of Prokofiev’s best compositions for piano, and, interestingly, was one of his few works to receive similar praise from critics.”Here it is in the performance by the pianist Andrei Gavrilov.
One of the greatest violinists of the 20th century, Yehudi Menuhin, was also born this week, on April 22nd of 1916, in New York.He started his lessons at the age of five; by then he was living in San Francisco, where his family settled in 1918.At the age of seven he played in public for the first time, a year later he gave a full recital (both times in San Francisco), at nine he debuted in New York and the same year played his first concert with the San Francisco Symphony.At the age of 12 he played violin concertos by Bach, Beethoven and Brahms with the Berlin Philharmonic under the direction of Bruno Walter and a week later he went to Dresden and repeated the program at Semperoper with the Dresden Staatscapelle.He studied with Adolf Busch in Basel and in the early 1930s moved to Paris where George Enescu became his teacher.In the late 30s he moved back to California but continued performing around the world.During WWII he gave 500 concerts for the US troops; he was the first to play at the Opéra of the just liberated Paris, to the survivors of the Belsen concentration camp; he was also the first Jewish musician to perform with the Berlin Philharmonic, with Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting.In mid-career, Menuhin experienced a crisis: his phenomenal technique abandoned him.“As a child, I never practiced scales and things like that either; and now that I find myself often playing every other night, I see my technical problems accumulating,” he said in his autobiography.To continue performing, he had to rethink his technique; his new approach and insights eventually led him to openi an international music school.Here is Yehudi Menuhin performing Bach’s Chaconne from Partita no. 2.The recording was made in 1956.
Prokofiev and Menuhin, 2019
April 22, 2019. Prokofiev and Menuhin. Sergei Prokofiev was born on April 27th of 1891. He’s one of our favorites, and we’ve written about him year after year (and, of course, on his 125th anniversary). His short Piano sonata no. 3, op. 28, an early masterpiece, was premiered by.jpg "Sergei Prokofiev, by Konchalovsky")
Prokofiev himself on April 15th of 1918 in St. Petersburg (then, Petrograd). By then, Prokofiev had already made the decision to leave for America. He applied to Anatoly Lunacharsky, the Commissar of Culture, for permission to leave, and received it shortly after. Just three weeks after the concert, on May 7th of 1918, Prokofiev left Petrograd and travelled through Siberia to Vladivostok and then on to Tokyo. He gave several concerts in Japan, boarded a ship and arrived in New York in September of 1918. Here’s what our own Joseph DuBose wrote in the notes to the Sonata: “Sergei Prokofiev composed his Third and Fourth Piano Sonatas in 1917. Both sonatas bore the subtitle “D'après de vieux cahiers,” or “From Old Notebooks,” and were wrought from sketches the composer had made a decade earlier during his student years at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. The Third Sonata, in A minor, marked a significant departure for the composer, its demeanor being far more serious than its predecessor... Like his First Piano Sonata composed in 1909, the Third is comprised of a single movement in sonata form. Where the First Sonata was segmented in its form and even derivative, the Third is evidently the work of a more mature mind, one that has learned to follow the natural course of its ideas and allows the form to proceed organically from them. It juxtaposes two diverse themes—an angular theme in Prokofiev’s “motoric” style, and a lyrical second theme. Both themes are then worked extensively in the Sonata’s development… The Third Piano Sonata is regarded as one of Prokofiev’s best compositions for piano, and, interestingly, was one of his few works to receive similar praise from critics.” Here it is in the performance by the pianist Andrei Gavrilov.
One of the greatest violinists of the 20th century, Yehudi Menuhin, was also born this week, on April 22nd of 1916, in New York. He started his lessons at the age of five; by then he was living in San Francisco, where his family settled in 1918. At the age of seven he played in public for the first time, a year later he gave a full recital (both times in San Francisco), at nine he debuted in New York and the same year played his first concert with the San Francisco Symphony.
At the age of 12 he played violin concertos by Bach, Beethoven and Brahms with the Berlin Philharmonic under the direction of Bruno Walter and a week later he went to Dresden and repeated the program at Semperoper with the Dresden Staatscapelle. He studied with Adolf Busch in Basel and in the early 1930s moved to Paris where George Enescu became his teacher. In the late 30s he moved back to California but continued performing around the world. During WWII he gave 500 concerts for the US troops; he was the first to play at the Opéra of the just liberated Paris, to the survivors of the Belsen concentration camp; he was also the first Jewish musician to perform with the Berlin Philharmonic, with Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting. In mid-career, Menuhin experienced a crisis: his phenomenal technique abandoned him. “As a child, I never practiced scales and things like that either; and now that I find myself often playing every other night, I see my technical problems accumulating,” he said in his autobiography. To continue performing, he had to rethink his technique; his new approach and insights eventually led him to openi an international music school. Here is Yehudi Menuhin performing Bach’s Chaconne from Partita no. 2. The recording was made in 1956.