Prokofiev: Violin Sonata No. 1, 5 Mélodies & Selections from Cinderella and Romeo & Juliet

Featuring

Lisa Oshima
Stefan Stroissnig
Sergei Prokofiev

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Performer Biography

Stefan Stroissnig, the pianist on this album, was nominated for the Credit Suisse Award in 2014 by the Vienna Philharmonic for his contributions to the international musical world.

Critical Reception

Prokofiev's Violin Sonata in F minor was called 'the pride of Soviet music' by the Stalin Prize Committee and won him the First Class Stalin Prize in 1947.

Performer Biography

Lisa Oshima, the violinist on this album, won the Yehudi Menuhin Award, Ian Stoutzker Prize, and Isolde Menges Prize at the Royal College of Music.

Compositional Technique

In the opening movement of the Violin Sonata, Prokofiev described a passage with the violin's muted runs as conjuring an 'autumn evening wind blowing across a neglected cemetery grave'.

Composer Biography

The Soviet ballerina Galina Ulanova, who danced Juliet in the Kirov production of Romeo and Juliet, found Prokofiev to be an intimidating figure.

Composition History

Prokofiev began his Violin Sonata in F minor in 1938, but found it difficult to progress, possibly due to the political turmoil of the time.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Prokofiev stated that he wished to express 'the poetic love of Cinderella and the Prince, the birth and flowering of that love, the obstacles in its path, and finally the dream fulfilled' in his ballet Cinderella.