Prokofiev's Violin Sonata No. 1

Synopsis

Prokofiev began sketching his First Violin Sonata in 1938, but its premiere performance didn’t take place until today’s date in 1946, some eight years later, when the great Ukrainian violinist David Oistrakh performed it in Moscow.

Between 1938 and 1946, dramatic changes occurred in Prokofiev’s world. In 1936, after years abroad, the composer returned to the Soviet Union, wooed by official promises of both creative and personal privileges. Within a year of Prokofiev’s return, however, the infamous “Great Terror” was unleased by Stalin, whose secret police arrested millions of Soviet citizens for offenses real, suspected, or imagined.

Patrons, friends, and creative partners of the composer were rounded up, including Nataliya Sats, who had commissioned Peter and the Wolf. She was one of the lucky ones, surviving years in a labor camp. Many others were summarily executed shortly after their arrests. The most recent estimates suggest that almost 1 million Soviets citizens were killed or died in labor camps during the Stalin’s Great Terror.

Against this dark background, Prokofiev began work on his Violin Sonata No 1 in F minor, Op 80, in 1938, but after completing the first movement and part of the second, put the score aside for six years, completing it only at the urging of Oistrakh, who recalled that while rehearsing the Sonata, Prokofiev told him that the rushing scale passages in the first and final movements should sound "like the wind in a graveyard.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) Violin Sonata No. 1 in f, Op. 80 David Oistrakh, vn; Lev Oborin, p. (r. 1946) Brilliant Classics 8402

On This Day

Births

• 1801 - German composer Albert Lortzing, in Berlin;

• 1906 - American composer Miriam Gideon, in Greeley, Colorado;

• 1923 - American composer Ned Rorem, in Richmond, Indiana;

Premieres

• 1754 - Rameau: opera-ballet "Anacréon," at Fortainebleau;

• 1890 - Borodin: opera "Prince Igor" (completed posthumously by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov) at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, with K.A. Kuchera conducting (Gregorian date: Nov. 4);

• 1897 - Scriabin: Piano Concerto, in Odessa, with the composer as soloist (Gregorian date: Nov. 4);

• 1903 - MacDowell: symphonic poem “Lamia” (after Keats), by the Boston Symphony, Max Fiedler conducting;

• 1913 - Delius: "On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring" and "Summer Night on the River," by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra,Artur Nikisch conducting;

• 1931 - Stravinsky: Violin Concerto, in Berlin, by the Berlin Radio Orchestra conducted by the composer, with Samuel Dushkin as soloist;

• 1941 - William Grant Still's "Plain Chant for America," by the New York Philharmonic, John Barbirolli conducting;

• 1959 - Piston: "Three New England Sketches" for orchestra, in Worcester, Mass., by the Detroit Symphony, Paul Paray conducting;

• 1959 - Rorem: "Eagles," by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting;

• 1963 - Hovhaness: Symphony No. 17 ("Symphony for Metal Orchestra"), in Cleveland;

• 1970 - Crumb: "Black Angels (13 Images from the Dark Lord)" for string quartet,in Ann Arbor, Mich.;

• 1981 - Sessions: "Concerto for Orchestra," by the Boston Symphony; This work won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1982;

• 1997 - Danielpour: "Celestial Night," by the New Jersey Symphony, Zdenek Macal conducting;

• 2002 - Peter Maxwell Davies: "Naxos Quartet" No. 1, at Wigmore Hall, London, by the Maggini Quartet;

Others

• 1739 - Handel completes in London his Concerto Grosso in Bb, Op. 6, no. 7 (see Julian date: Oct.12);

• 1881 - First concert by Concerts Lamoureux, in Paris, founded by Charles Lamoureux.