Maria Milstein plays a violin by Michel Angelo Bergonzi and a bow by Léonard and François-Xavier Tourte, on loan from the Dutch Musical Instruments Foundation.
Composer Biography
The two concertos on this album represent two distinct periods in Prokofiev's life, with the First Concerto being poetic and the Second having a more earnest and sombre tone.
Composer's Artistic Vision
For his Violin Concerto No. 1, Prokofiev deliberately aimed for a poetic and heavenly mood, choosing not to reflect the reality of the October Revolution and Red Terror in Russia.
Performer Biography
Maria Milstein, the violinist on this album, won the Dutch Music Prize in 2018, the highest award for a classical musician in the Netherlands.
Compositional Technique
Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2 features a percussive character, including the use of a bass drum and castanets, and is noted for its 'diabolically difficult' virtuoso passages.
Composition History
The premiere of Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1 was postponed from 1917 to 1923 due to the Russian Revolution and the fall of Nicholas II.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2, written almost twenty years after the first, reflects his personal dilemma as he was about to return from the West to the USSR.
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