Violin Recital: Andrey Bielov

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Cat No: 8555904

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Release Date: 09 January 2002

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 747313590421

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: Violin Recital

Description
Sergey Prokofiev (1891-1953)Violin SonatasChamber music forms a modest but significant component in the output of Sergey Prokofiev. As well as two String Quartets, a Sonata and a Ballade for cello and piano, a Sonata for Two Violins and a Wind Quintet, there are the works for violin and piano featured here. Both of the sonatas were inspired by the artistry of David Oistrakh (1907-74), who, along with the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, was the pre-eminent champion of contemporary music in the Soviet era. The First Violin Sonata had its beginnings as far back as 1938, while Prokofiev was finishing work on his score for Eisenstein’s film Alexander Nevsky. Despite the encouragement of Oistrakh, the work was not completed until 1946. First performed on 23rd October that year, its brooding intensity and often explosive emotional contrasts must have come as a shock after the celebratory optimism of the works that preceded it. Yet along with the equally powerful Sixth Symphony, completed in 1947, the sonata can be regarded as Prokofiev’s most convincing attempt to reconcile his rhapsodic melodic thinking with the demands of large-scale abstract form. The Andante assai opens with moody piano chords and hollow violin trills. A brief climax is reached, before the central section, a haunting theme in close harmony for both instruments. The piano recalls the first idea, over which the violin has slithering arabesques and fugitive pizzicati, leading to an uncertain close. The Allegro brusco sets off with incisive violin gestures over pounding piano accompaniment. A more sustained and lyrical theme duly provides contrast, and both ideas are freely developed then heard in reverse order, before the curt final gesture. The Andante begins with a magical ostinato pattern on the piano, over which the muted violin spins a melody of wistful melancholy. The music grows more pensive, then the initial theme is resumed, leading to a spare coda. The Allegrissimo finale opens with a decisive theme shared between the players, complemented by a more restrained idea. The initial theme is vigorously elaborated, presaging the heightened recall of its successor. A falling away of activity marks the return of the first movement’s main theme, bringing the work to a quiet and resigned conclusion. It was during 1942, while at work on the score for Eisenstein’s epic Ivan the Terrible, that Prokofiev wrote his Flute Sonata, ostensibly as a relaxation and as an escape from the traumas of war. The work’s effective contrasts of lyricism and virtuosity attracted the attention of Oistrakh, who, no doubt wondering if the sonata promised to him some years earlier would ever materialise, encouraged the composer to transcribe it for violin. This version, published as the Second Violin Sonata, was a great success at its première in June 1944, and has overshadowed the flute original ever since. The opening Moderato features a limpid but capricious theme, wit
Tracklisting