You Had Me at ‘One of Prokofiev’s Most Moving Melodies’
Written for Rostropovich, this cello work is challenging but worth the effort
Composer Sergei Prokofiev
Title of Work Symphonie Concertante in E minor, Op. 125
Edition International Edition (1963); Boosey & Hawkes (1951)
Considered by Ovidiu Marinescu, cellist, conductor, educator, and highly sought-after soloist and recitalist. He is the director of the West Chester University Symphony, which under his leadership made a sold-out debut at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia and embarked on its first European tour. His most recent recording is of the Bach Solo Cello Suites on the Navona label.
Recently, I have been working on the Symphonie Concertante in E minor, Op. 125, by Sergei Prokofiev, preparing for performances with the West Chester University Symphony and Helena Symphony. The work was composed between 1950–51 (revised in 1952). Politics and drama affected the approval of the work by the censors at the Composers’ Union, for whom the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and pianist Sviatoslav Richter had to present a private performance. In addition to Prokofiev having been declared “an enemy of the people” in 1948 by Soviet Union officials, the work raised concern for his paraphrase of a theme by composer Vladimir Zacharov.
The piece is based on his Cello Concerto, Op. 58 (1933–38), which had been poorly received at the premiere—after years of insistence, Rostropovich persuaded Prokofiev to revise the earlier work.
This article, "You Had Me at ‘One of Prokofiev’s Most Moving Melodies’," is part of the Strings Archive, which you can access with a paid site subscription.
If you have a paid subscription, you are seeing this message because you have not logged in.
What do you want to do?
Log in using my current paid subscription account.
Subscribe now and get our best offer.
- The Theofanidis Cello Concerto Reaches the Lyrical Heights of the Instrument
-
- David Oistrakh Plays Russian Violin Concertos
-
- Prokofiev: String Quartet No. 2, Op. 92; Ballade Op. 15; Adagio from Cinderella, Op. 97b; Cello Sonata, Op. 119
-
- Cellist Wendy Warner: From Russia with Love
-
- Remembering the Human Side of the Late Cello Titan Mstislav Rostropovich
-
- Gautier Capuçon Goes the Distance with Prokofiev Cello Concerto
-
ARE FULLY MODERATED
You must be logged in to rate and comment. Log in or Subscribe now.