String Quartet No. 1 (Prokofiev)

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The String Quartet No. 1 in B minor op.50 is a chamber music work by the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev from 1930.

Prokofiev wrote the String Quartet No. 1 in B minor, Op. 50, on behalf of the American Library of Congress , which wanted to have original manuscripts by contemporary composers in its holdings. “The string quartet has an internal structure that is unusual for this genre, not four but three movements, but the middle section consists of two contrasting sections, a slow introduction and a fast main section; But the finale is a slow movement, the most important in this cycle. ”Prokofiev later wrote:“ I finished the quartet with a slow movement because the material for it turned out to be the most important. The main key of the cycle, B minor , ... in which one usually does not write quartets is also unusual . "

Stylistically, two main lines in Prokofiev's oeuvre cross in this work, the classicistic one, which continues the tradition of the “ Classical Symphony ”, and on the other hand a “distinctive, wide-breathing melody through which some themes emerge from the central ballet composed by the composer five years later Bringing Romeo and Juliet closer "

Prokofiev prepared for composition by studying Beethoven's quartets in order to acquire his quartet technique. The symphonic suite “Portraits” op. 49 for The Player (1931) and the 4th Symphony , also commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, were written parallel to the 1st String Quartet . He began work in La Naze on the Seine not far from Paris and in the early winter of 1930 while traveling by train in the United States. It premiered at a Festival of the Library of Congress on April 25, 1931 in Washington DC with the Budapest Roth Quartet. Prokofiev's first string quartet was very well received in both the SA and the USSR .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Valentine Cholopowa: Prokofiev's Chamber Music . In: International Music Festival - Sergei Prokofiev and contemporary music from the Soviet Union. Program book. City of Duisburg, 1990, p. 258
  2. ↑ Gabriele Beinhorn: 1st String Quartet Op. 50 in B minor . In: International Music Festival - Sergei Prokofiev and contemporary music from the Soviet Union. Program book. City of Duisburg, 1990, p. 269 f.