Born on April 23, 1891, in Sontsovka, Ukraine (part of the Russian Empire at the time); Died on March 5, 1953, in Moscow
Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 19
Andantino
Scherzo: Vivacissimo
Moderato
Composed: 1917
Estimated length: 22 minutes
First performance: October 18, 1923, in Paris, with Marcel Darrieux as the soloist and the Paris Opera Orchestra led by Serge Koussevitzky.
First Nashville Symphony performance: These are the Nashville Symphony's first performances of this work.
The first of Sergei Prokofiev’s two violin concertos straddles years of dramatic change in his early career. Composition of the D major Violin Concerto occurred during the tumult of the 1917 Revolution. Prokofiev had sketched the opening melodic idea as far back as 1913 but then set his original plan for a more compact “concertino” aside until he could concentrate on it again, now envisioning a full-scale concerto.
Prokofiev composed the D major Violin Concerto during the fateful year of 1917 (which turned out to be an immensely productive one creatively for him). The biographer David Nice describes Prokofiev’s trips into the countryside and time spent contemplating nature while chaos was brewing in the major cities, suggesting that these idyllic moments left their mark on the Concerto’s outer movements.
The premiere scheduled for St. Petersburg had to be canceled amid the worsening situation. Prokofiev decided in the spring of 1918 to take leave of his native Russia and go into exile in the West. The Concerto was not unveiled to the public until after he had resettled in Paris in the 1920s. (Between his departure from Russia and subsequent move to Paris, he had tried and then abandoned the project of establishing himself in the United States.)
In Paris, Prokofiev had burst on the scene as an enfant terrible eager to shock audiences. But the Violin Concerto made a pallid impression at first. The middle movement was a bit too wild for archconservative ears, while the soul of the concerto overall was too “beautiful” for the sophisticates accustomed to the ballets of Sergei Diaghilev (for whose Paris-based company Prokofiev himself had already written some rather daring music indeed). In 1924, as Nice points out, the composer made some revisions and added material for the clarinet and flute, because, as he explained, “without some sort of divertissement like that it sounded dreadfully like [Wagner’s Prelude] to Lohengrin.”
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
The Concerto begins with an intoxicating lyricism. Another theme strikes a more showy, even argumentative, pose. Prokofiev allots a key role to the flute in the reprise, ending the movement with a soaring fantasy—perhaps of an inner utopia, not the one to be forced through the violence of revolution.
The scherzo, marked Vivacissimo, brings to the fore Prokofiev’s more audacious, sardonic personality and calls for an array of dazzling techniques from the soloist. Another Prokofiev signature—the ticking of a musical clock—sets off the finale, while the bassoon presents the theme and then hands it over to the soloist. Once again, the flute has a prominent role as well. Prokofiev recalls the soaring, dreamy textures of the first movement to bring the Concerto to a serene conclusion.
In addition to solo violin, scored for 2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, tuba, timpani, snare drum, tambourine, harp, and strings
− Thomas May is the Nashville Symphony's program annotator.
Featured on Wagner & Dvořák — September 28 & 29, 2024
Nashville Symphony
Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor
Simone Porter, violin
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