Allegrissimo – Andante assai, come prima (F major → F minor)
Prokofiev had described the slithering violin scales at the end of the 1st and 4th movements as "wind passing through a graveyard".[This quote needs a citation]
The violin sonata was premiered by David Oistrakh (violin) and Lev Oborin (piano) on 23 October 1946, coached by the composer. During rehearsals, Oborin played a certain passage, marked forte, too gently for Prokofiev's liking, who insisted it should be more aggressive. Oborin replied that he was afraid of drowning out the violin, but Prokofiev said "It should sound in such a way that people should jump in their seat, and people will say 'Is he out of his mind?'".[1]
The first and third movements of the sonata were played at Prokofiev's funeral by Oistrakh and Samuil Feinberg.[2]
Notes
↑ Barney Zwartz, "A masterclass in Prokofiev", The Age, 5 July 2008. This anecdote was supplied to the writer by Boris Berman, who studied with Oborin.
↑ Simon Morrison, The People's Artist: Prokofiev's Soviet Years, Oxford University Press, 2009 ISBN9780199830985[pageneeded]
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.
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