Prokofiev, S.: Cello Concerto / Cello Concertino / Symphony-Concerto / Cello Sonatas

Featuring

Alexander Ivashkin
Valery Polyansky
Tatyana Lazareva
Russian State Symphony Orchestra
Sergei Prokofiev

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Critical Reception

Prokofiev's Concerto in E minor, Op. 58, had an unsuccessful premiere in 1938 and was not performed again in Russia until 1947, when Mstislav Rostropovich played it.

Composition History

The Concertino in G minor, Op. 132, was left unfinished by Prokofiev, with only the piano score completed up to the second movement, and no orchestral score started.

Composition History

The Symphony-Concerto, Op. 125, was a drastic revision of Prokofiev's earlier Cello Concerto No. 1, with substantial changes made after performances by Mstislav Rostropovich and Sviatoslav Richter.

Composition History

The Concertino, Op. 132, was completed by Prokofiev expert Vladimir Blok, who worked on the score until his deathbed in August 1996, mirroring Prokofiev's own final days.

Composition History

Prokofiev's three major late-life cello works, including the Symphony-Concerto and Concertino, were all inspired by the then-emerging virtuoso cellist Mstislav Rostropovich.

Compositional Technique

For the Concertino, Op. 132, the cadenza for the first movement was created from two fragments by Alfred Schnittke, a contemporary composer, including a piece for solo cello and an arrangement of a Bach aria.

Composer Biography

Prokofiev was fascinated with the cello throughout his life, with one of his earliest compositions being a cello and piano Ballade in 1912, and his very last being an unfinished solo cello sonata in 1952.