Sergei Prokofiev

Sergei Prokofiev

Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...

's Violin Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op 80, written between 1938 and 1946 (completed two years after Violin Sonata No. 2

Violin Sonata No. 2 (Prokofiev)

Sergei Prokofiev's Violin Sonata No. 2 in D Major, Op. 94 bis, was based on the composer's own Flute Sonata in D, Op. 94, written in 1942 but arranged for violin in 1943 when Prokofiev was living in Perm in the Ural Mountains, a remote shelter for Soviet artists during the Secord World War...

), is one of the darkest and most brooding of the composer's works.

The work is about 30 minutes long and is in four movements:

1. Andante assai
   Musical terminology
   This is a list of musical terms that are likely to be encountered in printed scores, music reviews, and program notes. Most of the terms are Italian , in accordance with the Italian origins of many European musical conventions. Sometimes, the special musical meanings of these phrases differ from...
   
   
2. Allegro brusco
   Musical terminology
   This is a list of musical terms that are likely to be encountered in printed scores, music reviews, and program notes. Most of the terms are Italian , in accordance with the Italian origins of many European musical conventions. Sometimes, the special musical meanings of these phrases differ from...
   
   
3. Andante
4. Allegrissimo - Andante assai
   Musical terminology
   This is a list of musical terms that are likely to be encountered in printed scores, music reviews, and program notes. Most of the terms are Italian , in accordance with the Italian origins of many European musical conventions. Sometimes, the special musical meanings of these phrases differ from...
   
   , come prima
   Musical terminology
   This is a list of musical terms that are likely to be encountered in printed scores, music reviews, and program notes. Most of the terms are Italian , in accordance with the Italian origins of many European musical conventions. Sometimes, the special musical meanings of these phrases differ from...
   
   

Prokofiev had described the slithering violin scales at the end of the 1st and 4th movements as 'wind passing through a graveyard'.

The work was premiered by David Oistrakh

David Oistrakh

David Fyodorovich Oistrakh , , David Fiodorović Ojstrakh, ; – October 24, 1974, was a Soviet violinist....

 and Lev Oborin

Lev Oborin

Lev Nikolayevich Oborin was a Russian pianist. He was the winner of the first International Chopin Piano Competition in 1927.The family moved a lot during his early childhood. When they settled down in Moscow in 1914, he was sent to music school. He studied with Yelena Gnessin, a pupil of...

, under the personal coaching of the composer.
During rehearsals, Oborin played a certain passage, marked forte, too gently for Prokofiev's liking, who insisted it should be more aggressive. Oborin replied that he was afraid of drowning out the violin, but Prokofiev said "It should sound in such a way that people should jump in their seat, and people will say 'Is he out of his mind?'".

The first and third movements of the sonata were played at Prokofiev's funeral by Oistrakh and Samuil Feinberg

Samuil Feinberg

Samuil Yevgenyevich Feinberg was a Russian and Soviet composer and pianist. Raised in Moscow, he entered the Moscow Conservatory and studied under Alexander Goldenweiser. He is most remembered today for his complete recording of Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier and many transcriptions. Feinberg...

.

External links

• Recording of Violin Sonata No. 1 featuring violinist Sergei Ostrovsky