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The Sinfonietta in A major is a composition for orchestra by Sergei Prokofiev.
Sergei Prokofiev wrote his Sinfonietta in A major, Op. 5, in 1909 and dedicated it to Nikolai Tcherepnin, his conducting professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.
Prokofiev subsequently modified it twice, once in 1914 and finally in 1929, publishing the final revision as Op. 5/48. The premiere of the final revision was under Konstantin Saradzhev on 18 November 1930. [1]
The Sinfonietta is rather similar to the better-known Classical Symphony, being light in character, while infusing Prokofiev's typical twists of harmony. However, it is rarely performed.
The piece is in 5 movements, lasting around 25 minutes.
The music is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets and strings.
Orchestra | Conductor | Record Company | Year of Recording | Format |
---|---|---|---|---|
Vienna Symphony Orchestra | Henry Swoboda | Westminster WL 50-31 | 1950 | 12-in. LP |
Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra | Dzhemal Daigat | Melodiya | 1972 | LP |
Philharmonia Orchestra | Riccardo Muti | HMV | 1978 | LP |
Scottish National Orchestra | Neeme Järvi | Chandos | 1986 | CD |
Lausanne Chamber Orchestra | Alberto Zedda | Virgin Classics | 1989 | CD |
Chicago Chamber Orchestra | Dieter Kober | Centaur Records | 1995 | CD |
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor who later worked in the Soviet Union. As the creator of acknowledged masterpieces across numerous music genres, he is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century. His works include such widely heard pieces as the March from The Love for Three Oranges, the suite Lieutenant Kijé, the ballet Romeo and Juliet—from which "Dance of the Knights" is taken—and Peter and the Wolf. Of the established forms and genres in which he worked, he created—excluding juvenilia—seven completed operas, seven symphonies, eight ballets, five piano concertos, two violin concertos, a cello concerto, a symphony-concerto for cello and orchestra, and nine completed piano sonatas.
Sergei Prokofiev wrote his Symphony No. 2 in D minor, Op. 40, in Paris in 1924-25, during what he called "nine months of frenzied toil". He characterized this symphony as a work of "iron and steel".
Sergei Prokofiev's Symphony No. 4 is actually two works, both using material created for The Prodigal Son ballet. The first, Op. 47, was completed in 1930 and premiered that November; it lasts about 22 minutes. The second, Op. 112, is too different to be termed a "revision"; made in 1947, it is about 37 minutes long, differs stylistically from the earlier work, reflecting a new context, and differs formally as well in its grander instrumentation. Accordingly there are two discussions.
Sergei Prokofiev wrote his Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, Op. 100, in Soviet Russia in one month in the summer of 1944.
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 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.
Sergei Prokofiev's Violin Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op 80, written between 1938 and 1946, is one of the darkest and most brooding of the composer's works. Prokofiev was awarded the 1947 Stalin prize for this composition.
Sergei Prokofiev's Violin Sonata No. 2 in D Major, Op. 94a, was based on the composer's own Flute Sonata in D, Op. 94, written in 1942 but arranged for violin in 1943 when Prokofiev was living in Perm in the Ural Mountains, a remote shelter for Soviet artists during the Second World War. Prokofiev transformed the work into a violin sonata at the prompting of his close friend, the violinist David Oistrakh. It was premiered on 17 June 1944 by David Oistrakh and Lev Oborin.
The last complete piano concerto by Sergei Prokofiev, Piano Concerto No. 5 in G major, Op. 55, dates from 1932.
Sergei Prokofiev's String Quartet No. 1 in B minor, Op. 50 (1931) was commissioned by the Library of Congress. The Quartet was first performed in Washington, D. C. on 25 April 1931 by the Brosa Quartet and in Moscow on 9 October 1931 by the Roth Quartet. The string quartet is in three movements, lasting around 20–25 minutes.
Sergei Prokofiev's Quintet in G minor, Op. 39 is a piece of chamber music for oboe, clarinet, violin, viola and double bass, written in 1924. The quintet, closely related to Prokofiev's ballet, Trapèze, contains six movements and lasts 20–25 minutes.
Sergei Prokofiev's String Quartet No. 2 in F Major, Op. 92 (1941) was first performed by the Beethoven Quartet in Moscow on 7 April 1942. A later concert in Moscow, on 5 September 1942, was delayed by a Nazi air raid and started late. Prokofiev thought it "an extremely turbulent success." The string quartet, lasting for 20–25 minutes, is in three movements.
Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 7 in B♭ major, Op. 83 (1942) is a sonata composed for solo piano, the second of the three "War Sonatas". The sonata was first performed on 18 January 1943 in Moscow by Sviatoslav Richter. Performances of this sonata can last anywhere from 17 to about 20 minutes.
Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 8 in B♭ major, Op. 84 is a sonata for solo piano, the third and longest of the three "war sonatas", with performances typically lasting around 30 minutes. He completed it in 1944 and dedicated it to his partner Mira Mendelson, who later became his second wife. The sonata was first performed on 30 December 1944, in Moscow, by Emil Gilels.
Great Pianists of the 20th Century – Martha Argerich is the second volume of the Great Pianists of the 20th Century box set and is the first of two volumes dedicated to her. The album features music by the composers Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Liszt, Sergei Prokofiev, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Maurice Ravel. The works were recorded between 1967 and 1982.
The Sinfonietta in B major, Op. 5, is the first large-scale orchestral work written by the 20th-century Austrian composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Korngold began sketching the work in the spring of 1912, just before his 15th birthday and finished the sketches in August 1912. The orchestration of it dragged on for another year, until September 1913, by which time Korngold had composed his Violin Sonata, Op. 6, and had begun his first opera Der Ring des Polykrates, Op. 7. The Sinfonietta was premiered in Vienna on 30 November 1913 under the direction of Felix Weingartner, and was a sensational success, resulting in further performances all over Europe and America.
Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 14, is a sonata for solo piano, written in 1912. First published by P. Jurgenson in 1913, it was premiered on 5 February 1914 in Moscow with the composer performing. Prokofiev dedicated the work to his friend and fellow student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Maximilian Schmidthof, who committed suicide in 1913. Concert pianist Boris Berman has said of this sonata that it 'covers a huge emotional range: from Romantic lyricism to aggressive brutality'.
Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 3 in A minor, Op. 28 (1917) is a sonata composed for solo piano, using sketches dating from 1907. Prokofiev gave the première of this in St. Petersburg on 15 April 1918, during a week-long festival of his music sponsored by the Conservatory.
Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 5 in C Major, Opus 38, was written at Ettal near Oberammergau in the Bavarian Alps during the composer's stay there in 1923. He would revise it thirty years later, at the end of his life, but not drastically, as his Opus 135, and it is this version that is usually played. The work is dedicated it to Pierre Souvtchinski, a musicologist and friend. All eight of Prokofiev's other piano sonatas were written in Russia. The revisions to this piece, made in 1952–53 in Russia, are mostly in the last movement.
The Piano Sonata No. 9 in C major, Op. 103 by Sergei Prokofiev is his final completed piano sonata. It is dedicated to pianist Sviatoslav Richter.
String Quartet in D major by English composer Benjamin Britten was written in 1931. He revised it during his final illness, and it was first published in 1974.