Serge Prokofiev, the composer, was a brilliant pupil who had been writing music since childhood and possessed a formidable piano technique by age eighteen.
Composition History
Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto was composed between 1917 and 1921, but sketches for the work date back to 1911, incorporating material from other uncompleted projects.
Composition History
Prokofiev's Second Piano Concerto was largely planned structurally based on the first movement of Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto, which had deeply impacted the younger composer.
Critical Reception
Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto, despite a lukewarm reception at its 1921 premiere, has become the most popular of his five piano concertos.
Composition History
The Second Piano Concerto was revised by Prokofiev in 1924, and evidence from 1996 suggests an original version may exist in the Glinka Museum.
Compositional Technique
The Scherzo of Prokofiev's Second Piano Concerto demands the soloist play continuously in octaves for 187 bars without a single rest, a potential first in concerto writing.
Critical Reception
The premiere of Prokofiev's Second Piano Concerto in 1913 received a mixed reception, with the audience divided between hissing and applauding.
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Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D-flat Major, Op. 10
Prokofiev: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 3
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26: III. Allegro, ma non troppo
