Piano Concerto No. 4 (Prokofiev)

Last updated

Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 4 in B-flat major for the left hand, Op. 53, was commissioned by the one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein and completed in 1931.

Contents

It was the only one of Prokofiev's complete piano concertos that never saw a performance during his lifetime. It was premiered in Berlin on 5 September 1956 by Siegfried Rapp and the West Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Martin Rich. The United States premiere was in 1958, by Rudolf Serkin and the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy. [1] The British premiere was in 1961, by Malcolm Binns. [2]

Prokofiev expressed some interest in making an arrangement for piano two-hands and orchestra, but never went through with this idea. [3]

Structure

The four movements last around 25 minutes:

  1. Vivace (4–5 mins.)
  2. Andante (8–13 mins.)
  3. Moderato (8–9 mins.)
  4. Vivace (1–2 mins.)

The outer movements serve in a way as prelude and postlude, with the middle two comprising the bulk of the concerto. The Andante is reflective and makes rhetorical use of the strings, expanding with Romantic grandness. The remarkable third movement in modified sonata form, punctured and playful — some have said “sarcastic” — offers arresting, emphatic dialogs between the piano and the percussion section; it is marked Moderato and to be effective must be played strictly as such: not the least bit hurried. The Vivace ends abruptly, with the piano running up pianissimo to a high B-flat7.

Instrumentation

The work is scored for solo piano (left hand), 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 1 trumpet, 1 trombone, bass drum and strings.

Recordings

PianistOrchestraConductorRecord CompanyYear of RecordingFormat
Siegfried Rapp Loh-Orchester Sondershausen (Orchester Der Deutsch-sowietischen Freundschaft)Gerhart WiesenhutterETERNA1962LP
John Browning Boston Symphony Orchestra Erich Leinsdorf RCA Victor 1968LP
Vladimir Ashkenazy London Symphony Orchestra André Previn Decca 1975LP
Kun-Woo Paik Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Antoni Wit Naxos 1991CD
Boris Berman Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Neeme Järvi Chandos 1989CD
Michel Beroff Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra Kurt Masur EMI1974LP
Abdel Rahman El Bacha Théâtre de la Monnaie Orchestra Kazushi Ono Fuga Libera2004CD
Nikolai Demidenko London Philharmonic Orchestra Alexander Lazarev Hyperion 1998CD
Gabriel Tacchino Orchestra of Radio Luxembourg Louis de Froment Vox Records 1977LP
Gabriel Tacchino Orchestra of Radio Luxembourg Louis de Froment Vox Records 2003CD
Leon Fleisher Boston Symphony Orchestra Seiji Ozawa Sony Classical 1992CD
Vladimir Krainev Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra Dmitri Kitajenko Atlantic/TeldecCD
Alexander Toradze Kirov Theatre Orchestra Valery Gergiev Philips 1995,1996,1997CD
Viktoria Postnikova USSR Ministry of Culture State Symphony Orchestra Gennadi Rozhdestvensky CD
Yefim Bronfman Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Zubin Mehta Sony Classical 1993CD
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet BBC Philharmonic Gianandrea Noseda Chandos 2012CD
Alexei VolodinSt. Petersburg Mariinsky Theatre OrchestraValery GergievMariinsky2012CD

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Symphony No. 3 (Prokofiev)</span>

Sergei Prokofiev wrote his Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 44, in 1928.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piano Concerto No. 1 (Mendelssohn)</span>

Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25, was written in 1830–31, around the same time as his fourth symphony, and premiered in Munich on 17 October 1831. This concerto was composed in Rome during a travel in Italy after the composer met the pianist Delphine von Schauroth in Munich. The concerto was dedicated to her. Mendelssohn attended one party after another in Munich in October 1831, the month of the premiere, but he also played chamber music and taught double counterpoint. He performed the piece himself at the premiere, which also included performances of his Symphony No. 1 and the Overture from Midsummer Night's Dream. He had already written a piano concerto in A minor with string accompaniment (1822) and two concertos with two pianos (1823–24).

Sergei Prokofiev began his Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 19, as a concertino in 1915 but soon abandoned it to work on his opera The Gambler. He returned to the concerto in the summer of 1917. It was premiered on October 18, 1923 at the Paris Opera with Marcel Darrieux playing the violin part and the Paris Opera Orchestra conducted by Serge Koussevitzky. Igor Stravinsky made his debut as conductor at the same concert, conducting the first performance of his own Octet for Wind Instruments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piano Concerto for the Left Hand (Ravel)</span> Concerto by Maurice Ravel

The Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D major was composed by Maurice Ravel between 1929 and 1930, concurrently with his Piano Concerto in G major. The piece was commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein, a concert pianist who had lost his right arm in the First World War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piano Concerto No. 4 (Saint-Saëns)</span>

The Piano Concerto No. 4 in C minor, Op. 44 was composed by Camille Saint-Saëns in 1875. It was premièred on October 31, 1875, at the Théâtre du Châtelet of Paris, with the composer as the soloist. The concerto is dedicated to Anton Door, a professor of piano at the Vienna Conservatory.

Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26, is a piano concerto by Sergei Prokofiev. It was completed in 1921 using sketches first started in 1913.

Sergei Prokofiev set to work on his Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16, in 1912 and completed it the next year. However, that version of the concerto is lost; the score was destroyed in a fire following the Russian Revolution. Prokofiev reconstructed the work in 1923, two years after finishing his Piano Concerto No. 3, and declared it to be "so completely rewritten that it might almost be considered [Piano Concerto] No. 4." Indeed, its orchestration has features that clearly postdate the 1921 concerto. Performing as soloist, Prokofiev premiered this "No. 2" in Paris on 8 May 1924 with Serge Koussevitzky conducting. It is dedicated to the memory of Maximilian Schmidthof, a friend of Prokofiev's at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, who had committed suicide in April 1913 after having written a farewell letter to Prokofiev.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Symphony No. 4 (Mendelssohn)</span> Symphony by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy

The Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. Posth. 90, MWV N 16, commonly known as the Italian, is an orchestral symphony written by German composer Felix Mendelssohn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Violin Concerto No. 2 (Prokofiev)</span>

The Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63, written in 1935 by Sergei Prokofiev, is a work in three movements:

  1. Allegro moderato
  2. Andante assai
  3. Allegro, ben marcato

Sergei Prokofiev's Symphony No. 7 in C-sharp minor, Op. 131, was completed in 1952, the year before his death. It is his last symphony.

The last complete piano concerto by Sergei Prokofiev, Piano Concerto No. 5 in G major, Op. 55, dates from 1932.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piano Concerto No. 18 (Mozart)</span> 1784 composition by W. A. Mozart

The Piano Concerto No. 18 in B major, K. 456, is a piano concerto by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In Mozart's own catalogue of his works, this concerto is dated 30 September 1784.

The Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, Op. 88a, was written by Max Bruch in 1912. It is in 4 movements, written in the rarely seen key of A-flat minor, and takes about 25 minutes to perform.

The Concerto pour orgue, cordes et timbales in G minor, FP 93, is an organ concerto composed by Francis Poulenc between 1934 and 1938. It has become one of the most frequently performed pieces of the genre not written in the Baroque period.

Benjamin Britten's Violin Concerto, Op. 15, was written from 1938 to 1939 and dedicated to Henry Boys, his former teacher at the Royal College of Music. Britten worked on it while staying with Aaron Copland and completed it in Quebec. It was premiered in New York on 29 March 1940 by the Spanish violinist Antonio Brosa with the New York Philharmonic conducted by John Barbirolli. A year after its first performance in New York, the concerto was performed for the first time in England at Queen’s Hall on 6 April 1941. It was conducted by Basil Cameron, and the soloist was Thomas Matthews, leader of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. It received its first broadcast performance with the BBC Orchestra, conducted by Clarence Raybould and Thomas Matthews as soloist, on 28 April 1941.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siegfried Rapp</span> German pianist

Siegfried Rapp was a German pianist who lost his right arm during World War II and then focused on the left-hand repertoire. He is now mainly remembered for being the first to perform Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 4 for the Left Hand, Op. 53.

<i>Klaviermusik mit Orchester</i> 1923 piano concerto by Paul Hindemith

Klaviermusik mit Orchester, Op. 29, is a 1923 piano concerto by Paul Hindemith. Subtitled Klavier nur linke Hand, it is a piano concerto for the left hand alone. It was commissioned by the pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm in the World War. He never played the piece, and when he died, his widow refused access to the score. The premiere, after her death, was played in Berlin in 2004, with Leon Fleisher as the soloist and the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Simon Rattle. It was published by Schott.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piano Concerto (Ichmouratov)</span> Piano concerto

The Piano Concerto, Op. 40, is a work for piano and orchestra completed by Airat Ichmouratov between 2012 and 2013. Composition remained untouched for a span of ten years until the composer crossed paths with a soloist, Montreal-based pianist Jean-Philippe Sylvestre. Sylvestre's keen enthusiasm for performing the concerto, coupled with his ability to "do it justice and add finishing touches," as described by the composer, led to the revival of the piece. The Piano Concerto was recorded by Chandos on April 19–20, 2022, at St. Luke's in London, with Jean-Philippe Sylvestre as the soloist and the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the composer. Its first public performance took place on May 1, 2024, at the Palais Montcalm in Quebec City, with Sylvestre as the soloist, accompanied by the Quebec Symphony Orchestra under Ichmouratov.

References

  1. "Piano Music for the Left Hand Alone". www.left-hand-brofeldt.dk.
  2. "Classical Music | ArkivMusic". www.arkivmusic.com.
  3. Howe, Blake (2010). "Paul Wittgenstein and the Performance of Disability". The Journal of Musicology . 27 (2): 135–180. doi:10.1525/jm.2010.27.2.135. JSTOR   10.1525/jm.2010.27.2.135 . Retrieved 9 July 2021.