3rd piano concerto (Prokofiev)
Sergei Prokofiev composed his Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, opus 26, from 1917 to 1921; it was premiered on December 16, 1921 in Chicago with Prokofiev as the soloist.
The piano concerto No. 3 is considered to be the easiest to understand piano concerto by Prokofiev, because, unlike the 2nd piano concerto , it dispenses with the excessive use of dissonances and is rich in musical ideas. It is still very popular today (for example, this concert was performed by the two best-placed pianists in the final of the 2007 Tchaikovsky Competition ). The premiere in Chicago was received cautiously, only in the Paris premiere of 1922 (conductor Sergei Alexandrowitsch Kussewizki , pianist Prokofiev) was the work accepted by the public.
The three sentence names are
- Andante Allegro
- Tema con variazioni, Andantino
- Allegro ma non troppo
occupation
The work requires the following orchestral line-up:
Woodwind:
Brass:
Striking mechanism:
- Timpani , bass drum , cymbals , castanets , tambourine
Strings:
- Violins , violas , cellos , double basses
music
First sentence
The first movement opens with a lyrical melody , performed by the clarinet and then taken over by the strings, and then leads to the piano in a staccato run. From then on, the music radiates a strong rhythmic vitality . After a continuous increase, the strength ebbs; the grotesque secondary theme is introduced by the oboes and repeatedly taken up and varied by the piano. Instead of the return of the main theme, there is a relatively short passage that leads to implementation .
This begins with the lyrical opening thought performed again by the orchestra, but this time getting quieter and quieter in fortissimo . After the orchestra has presented this topic once, a romantic processing of the same by the piano sets in, after which a harmonic section of relatively simple chord breakdowns is carried out. The same staccato transition as at the very beginning has now been transferred to the piano and leads to the recapitulation .
However, this deviates from the exposition very quickly and again takes on grotesque features. Finally, the staccato passage leads to the end of the first movement.
Second sentence
The second movement ( E minor ) is a theme with five variations and a recurrence of the theme at the end, in which, surprisingly for a slow middle movement, the fast variations predominate.
The theme is introduced by flutes and oboes in the form of a gavotte . In this purely orchestral episode, Prokofiev's genius when it comes to instrumentation comes into its own.
After the orchestra introduces the theme, there is a slow, very romantic processing by the piano in the first variation, which begins with a kind of transition in the form of a long trill followed by a glissando-like run. This introduction must be viewed as a model for the clarinet introduction to George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue .
The second variation consists largely of very fast scales and octave decompositions for the piano while the orchestra processes the theme.
The third variation, characterized by harsh dissonances throughout and further disturbed by syncopated emphasis, breaks up the theme in such a way that it can hardly be found again.
In the fourth variation (Andante meditativo) the piano ponders the main theme in free dialogue with the orchestra. Falling thirds with the performance designation freddo (cold), together with the mystical harmonies in this variation, create an enraptured mood. The piece ebbs away in pianissimo from which the fifth variation arises.
This is actually in two parts: the first part resembles a grotesquely funny dialogue, which alternates between joking suggestions and quick-tempered arpeggios; the second part processes the mirrored theme in large chord ranges.
A series of runs that encompass the entire keyboard lead back to the theme, which is accompanied by the piano with pianissimo and staccatissimo chords. The speed of the coda is double that at the beginning due to the continuous increase in the speed of the preceding movements, but the note values are also double, which gives the impression that the theme is being played just as slowly as at the beginning.
Third sentence
The third movement is characterized by brilliant, continuously increasing virtuosity. After a particularly virtuoso beginning there follows a reflective episode and shortly thereafter a very romantic middle section, which is reminiscent of the middle section of the last movement of Prokofiev's 2nd piano concerto. This is followed by a recapitulation, which takes up the theme again and again, increasing continuously and finally culminating in a furious finale.
Discography
The third is by far Prokofiev's most frequently performed concert. It is the only concert that the composer himself recorded as a pianist in 1932 with the London Symphony Orchestra under Piero Coppola for His Master's Voice . Another early recording, with William Kapell in 1949 under Antal Doráti , has also remained in the catalog to this day. Van Cliburn's recording with Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1960 was the first recording of the concert in the Chicago Orchestra Hall, where it had premiered in 1921. Byron Janis ' 1962 Moscow recording was the first recording in the Soviet Union that was overseen by non-Russian sound engineers. Martha Argerich recorded the concerto twice; 1967 with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Claudio Abbado , 1997 with Charles Dutoit . The latter received a Grammy . The recording by Terence Judd at the Tchaikovsky Competition in 1978 under Alexander Lasarew was released on record and CD and is still available today. Yevgeny Kissin has even made three recordings so far; the last under Vladimir Ashkenazy also received a Grammy. Among the complete recordings of all 5 piano concertos are Ashkenazy (with Previn ), Alexander Toradse (with Gergijew ), Wladimir Krainew (with Kitajenko ), Yefim Bronfman (with Mehta ), Michel Béroff (with Masur and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig ) and Horacio Gutierrez in the joint Complete recording with Boris Berman (under Neeme Järvi ) should be mentioned.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Brief description and classification of the work on kulturserver.de. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 5, 2009 ; Retrieved October 10, 2008 .