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Sergei Prokofiev's Symphony-Concerto in E minor, Op. 125 (also widely referred to as Sinfonia Concertante [1] ) is a large-scale work for cello and orchestra.
The Symphony-Concerto was premiered on 18 February 1952 by Mstislav Rostropovich, to whom the work was dedicated. Presented at that time as Prokofiev's Second Cello Concerto – following his earlier Cello Concerto, Op. 58 – it was subsequently revised and retitled. It is among Prokofiev's final completed works.
Prokofiev began work on what would become the Symphony-Concerto after completing his Cello Sonata in 1949. The work was commissioned by Aleksandr Kholodilin, the head of the music division of the Committee on Artistic Affairs, with the completion date specified as 1 November 1951. [2]
The work drew, in part, on material contained in Prokofiev's earlier Cello Concerto, which was premiered in 1938. [3] Drafts of the new work were provided to Rostropovich for technical correction and refinement. [3]
The work was first performed, as Prokofiev's Second Cello Concerto, on 18 February 1952 in Moscow, with Rostropovich as soloist and Sviatoslav Richter as conductor. [4] Following a review by the Union of Soviet Composers, the concerto was further revised and retitled as the "Симфония-концерт" (commonly rendered in English as "Symphony-Concerto"). [5] Prokofiev died before the final version was performed: the first performance of that version took place on 9 December 1954 with Rostropovich as soloist, accompanied by the Danish State Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Thomas Jensen. [1]
The Symphony-Concerto was one of several compositions for cello on which Prokofiev worked from the late 1940s until his death. In addition to the Cello Sonata, Prokofiev also commenced work on two unfinished works: a sonata for unaccompanied cello (for which he wrote 14 pages of sketches), and a Cello Concertino (later completed by Rostropovich). [6]
The work is scored for two flutes (second doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, tambourine, triangle, bass drum, snare drum, celesta, and strings.
It has a typical performance duration of about 40 minutes and consists of three movements with the following tempo markings:
The piece is noted for its extreme difficulty due to the length of the concerto, runs, and high positions among many other technical difficulties. The end of the concerto requires the cellist to play off of the fingerboard, reaching as high as an E7, the extreme upper limit of the cello's range.
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A concerto is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The typical three-movement structure, a slow movement preceded and followed by fast movements, became a standard from the early 18th century.
Franz Ignaz Danzi was a German cellist, composer and conductor, the son of the Italian cellist Innocenz Danzi (1730–1798) and brother of the noted singer Franzeska Danzi. Danzi lived at a significant time in the history of European music. His career, spanning the transition from the late Classical to the early Romantic styles, coincided with the origin of much of the music that lives in our concert halls and is familiar to contemporary classical-music audiences. In his youth he knew Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whom he revered; he was a contemporary of Ludwig van Beethoven, about whom he — like many of his generation — had strong but mixed feelings and he was a mentor for the young Carl Maria von Weber, whose music he respected and promoted.
The Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 107, was composed in 1959 by Dmitri Shostakovich. Shostakovich wrote the work for his friend Mstislav Rostropovich, who committed it to memory in four days. He premiered it on October 4, 1959, at the Large Hall of the Leningrad Conservatory with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yevgeny Mravinsky. The first recording was made in two days following the premiere by Rostropovich and the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Aleksandr Gauk.
The Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra in E♭ major, K. 364 (320d), was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Sinfonia concertante is an orchestral work, normally in several movements, in which one or more solo instruments contrast with the full orchestra. It emerged as a musical form during the Classical period of Western music from the Baroque concerto grosso. Sinfonia concertante encompasses the symphony and the concerto genres, a concerto in that soloists are on prominent display, and a symphony in that the soloists are nonetheless discernibly a part of the total ensemble and not preeminent. Sinfonia concertante is the ancestor of the double and triple concerti of the Romantic period corresponding approximately to the 19th century.
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.
The Symphonie espagnole in D minor, Op. 21, is a work for violin and orchestra by Édouard Lalo.
Camille Saint-Saëns composed his Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 33, in 1872, when he was 37 years old. He wrote this work for the French cellist, viola da gamba player and instrument maker Auguste Tolbecque. Tolbecque was part of a distinguished family of musicians closely associated with the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, France's leading concert society. The concerto was first performed on January 19, 1873, at the Paris Conservatoire concert with Tolbecque as soloist. This was considered a mark of Saint-Saëns' growing acceptance by the French musical establishment.
The Symphony for Cello and Orchestra or Cello Symphony, Op. 68, was written in 1963 by the British composer Benjamin Britten. He dedicated the work to Mstislav Rostropovich, who gave the work its premiere in Moscow with the composer and the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra on 12 March 1964. The work's title reflects the music's more even balance between soloist and orchestra than in the traditional concerto format.
Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 58 is a concerto written by Sergey Prokofiev between 1933 and 1938. Its duration is approximately 35 minutes. It consists of three movements:
An organ concerto is an orchestral piece of music in which a pipe organ soloist is accompanied by an an orchestra, although some works exist with the name "concerto" which are for organ alone.
Viktor Kalabis was a Czech composer, music editor, musicologist, and husband of harpsichordist Zuzana Růžičková.
The Sinfonia Concertante in B flat major, by Joseph Haydn was composed in London between February and March 1792. The work is a sinfonia concertante with four instruments in the solo group: violin, cello, oboe and bassoon. It is believed to be a response to similar works composed by Ignaz Pleyel, a former student of Haydn's who London newspapers were promoting as a 'rival' to Haydn. In addition to the solo group the Sinfonia Concertante is scored for flute, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings.
Zdeněk Lukáš was a Czech composer. He authored over 330 works.
Lawrence Power is a British violist, born 1977, noted both for solo performances and for chamber music with the Nash Ensemble and Leopold String Trio.
Alexander Ivashkin, was a Russian cellist, writer, academic and conductor. He was a professor of music and the Chair of Performance Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London since 1999, the director of the Centre for Russian Music, and the curator of the Alfred Schnittke Archive. In 1996, he published the first English-language biography of the composer Alfred Schnittke.
Ernst Dietrich Adolph Eichner [Ernesto Eichner] was a German bassoonist and composer.
Graham Whettam was an English post-romantic composer.
The Cello Concerto, Op. 27, is a concerto for cello and orchestra by Graham Waterhouse, composed in 1990. It was first performed in 1995 in Toluca and Mexico City with the composer as the soloist, and published by Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag in Leipzig in 2000.
