Prokofiev: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 And 5

Description

SergeyProkofiev (1891 - 1953)PianoConcerto No.2 in G Minor, Op. 16 PianoConcerto No.5 in G Major, Op. 55SergeyProkofiev was born in 1891 at Sontsovka in the Ukraine, the son of a prosperous estatemanager. An only child, his musical talents were fostered by his mother, a culturedamateur pianist, and he tried his hand at composition at the age of five, later beingtutored at home by the composer Gli?¿re. In 1904, on the advice of Glazunov, his parentsallowed him to enter the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he continued his studies as apianist and as a composer until 1914, owing more to the influence of seniorfellow-students Asafyev and Myaskovsky than to the older generation of teachers,represented by Lyadov and Rimsky-Korsakov.Even as astudent Prokofiev had begun to make his mark as a composer, arousing enthusiasm andhostility in equal measure, and inducing Glazunov, now director of the Conservatory, towalk out of a performance of The Scythian Suite,fearing for his sense of hearing. During the war he gained exemption from military serviceby enrolling as an organ student and after the Revolution was given permission to travelabroad, at first to America, taking with him the scores of The Scythian Suite, arranged from a ballet originallycommissioned by Dyagilev, the Classical Symphonyand his first Violin Concerto.UnlikeStravinsky and Rachmaninov, Prokofiev had left Russia with official permission and withthe idea of returning home sooner or later. His stay in the United States of America wasat first successful. He appeared as a solo pianist and wrote the opera The Love for Three Oranges for the Chicago Opera. By1920, however, he had begun to find life more difficult and moved to Paris, where here-established contact with Dyagilev, for whom he revised The Tale of the Buffoon, a ballet successfullymounted in 1921. He spent much of the next sixteen years in France, returning from time totime to Russia, where his music was still acceptable.In 1936Prokofiev decided to settle once more in his native country, taking up residence in Moscowin time for the first official onslaught on music that did not sort weIl with thepolitical and social aims of the government, aimed in particular at the hithertosuccessful opera A Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk Districtby Shostakovich. Twelve years later the name of Prokofiev was to be openly joined withthat of Shostakovich in an even more explicit condemnation of formalism, with particularreference now to Prokofiev's opera War and Peace.He died in 1953 on the same day as Joseph Stalin, and thus never benefited from thesubsequent relaxation in official policy to the arts.As acomposer Prokofiev was prolific. His operas include the remarkable Fiery Angel, first performed in its entirety in Paristhe year after his death, with ballet-scores in Russia for Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella. The last of his seven symphonies wascompleted in 1952, the year of his unfinished sixth piano concerto. His piano sonatas forman important addit