Chan 9615 Front Cover.qxd 17/10/07 1:30 pm Page 1 CHANDOS Chan 9615 15 Visions fugitives Prokofiev arr. R. Barshai Ilya Grubert violin Prokofiev Violin Concerto No.1 Symphony No.1 ‘Classical’ Moscow Chamber Orchestra violin Ilya Grubert Constantine Orbelian CHAN 9615 BOOK.qxd 17/10/07 1:32 pm Page 2 Sergey Sergeyevich Prokofiev (1891–1953) Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 1, Op. 19* 20:56 in D major • D-Dur • ré majeur 1 I Andantino 9:29 2 II Scherzo: Vivacissimo 3:51 AKG 3 III Moderato 7:28 from 20 Visions fugitives, Op. 22 17:54 (arr. for string orchestra by Rudolf Barshai) 4 1 Largamente 1:07 5 2 Andante – 1:31 6 3 Allegretto – 1:10 7 4 Animato 0:59 8 5 Molto giocoso 0:29 9 6 Con eleganza 0:45 10 8 Commodo 1:23 11 9 Allegretto tranquillo 1:26 12 10 Ridiculosamente 1:02 Sergey Prokofiev 13 11 Con vivacita 1:03 14 12 Assai moderato 1:25 15 13 Allegretto 0:42 16 14 Feroce 1:03 17 15 Inquieto 1:00 18 16 Dolente 2:19 3 CHAN 9615 BOOK.qxd 17/10/07 1:32 pm Page 4 Symphony No. 1 ‘Classical’, Op. 25 14:55 in D major • D-Dur • ré majeur Sergey Prokofiev: Visions fugitives etc. 19 I Allegro 4:31 20 II Larghetto 4:33 1917, the year of the First Violin Concerto, ‘Mendelssohnism and the like’, the First Violin 21 III Gavotte: Non troppo allegro 1:42 the ‘Classical’ Symphony and the completion Concerto was orchestrated during a river 22 IV Finale: Molto vivace 3:59 of the Visions fugitives, was a significant one journey Prokofiev took to Siberia during the TT 54:00 for Prokofiev: not so much for the turbulent spring of 1917. ‘The [river] Kama is revolutionary upheavals which were soon to wild, virginally pure and incredibly beautiful Ilya Grubert violin* drive him abroad, but rather in that it marked here’, he wrote at the time, and the same Moscow Chamber Orchestra the first culmination of his lyrical genius. Of could be said for the long, silk-spinning the four lines along which the composer of melody dreamed up by the soloist in the first Constantine Orbelian the 1941 autobiography considered his work few bars (in fact, it belongs to the 1915 to have developed – the classical, the modern, sketches incorporated into the work). Its the toccata or ‘motor’ line and the lyrical – the transformations during the course of the last certainly took the longest to be noted. Concerto are especially magical: the first And its first blossoming could not be stressed features the theme on flute against harp and by the loyal Soviet composer in 1941: instead solo violin towards the end of the opening he had to admit that the febrile spirit of the movement, while the second involves an even February revolution had had little immediate more elaborate filigree texture emerging from impact on his music, and to claim the half- the conflicts of the finale. minute of frantic pianistic activity in the Elsewhere the Concerto bears the stamp nineteenth of the Visions fugitives – one of of Prokofiev’s barbed enfant terrible the five left untouched by Barshai in his string characteristics. The scherzo runs wild with transcriptions – as reflecting ‘the feeling of the every conceivable effect for the soloist – crowd rather than the inner essence of the pizzicato, harmonics, spiccato (or staccato revolution’. bowing) and sul ponticello (playing close to The two most familiar works on this disc, the bridge of the instrument) – as well however, were completed in productive as imaginative orchestral strokes such as isolation. Begun as a Concertino in 1915 and rushing clarinet figurations, pulsing horns unperformed until 1923, when a modish and baleful tuba. The opening of the finale, Parisian audience dismissed it as with its curious tension between the violinist’s 4 5 CHAN 9615 BOOK.qxd 17/10/07 1:32 pm Page 6 cantabile melody and the dry, tick-tocking careful not to unleash string effects for their over another composer’s style as one’s own. and as soloist with major orchestras such as accompaniment looks forward to the own sake, though the rushing middle section I… had written a “Classical” Symphony, but the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the ambiguous slow movement of the Second of No. 4 in this guise is surprisingly prophetic only in passing.’ Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Moscow Violin Concerto, composed nearly twenty of the slithery spirit-raising in the infernal Whatever the nature of the consequences, Philharmonic, the Netherlands Philharmonic years later under very different opera The Fiery Angel. Otherwise, the music the homage to Haydn is affectionate, the and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra circumstances. virtually scores itself; what could be more orchestral palette clean and clear – mostly under such conductors as Gennady Forthright waspishness plays an even fitting, or more spellbinding, than the dialogue spry dialogues between strings and wind, Rozhdestvensky, Dmitri Kitajenko, Maxim smaller part in the Visions fugitives, which of upper and softest lower strings at the though the brass does bring us forcefully into Shostakovich and Mariss Jansons. Prokofiev looked back on as initiating a beginning? the twentieth century in the first movement ‘softening of temper’ in 1915 following the The piano as a vehicle for first development. Prokofiev wrote the famous One of the world’s greatest ensembles, conscious modernism of the Sarcasms (also compositional thoughts played no part in the Gavotte, later to be protracted beyond its the Moscow Chamber Orchestra celebrated for solo piano) and the colossal barbarisms of ‘Classical’ Symphony; Prokofiev left his own natural length as exit-music for the guests in its fortieth anniversary in the 1995/96 the Second Piano Concerto. The title (in instrument behind when he left Petrograd (as Romeo and Juliet, in 1916, following it up season. The orchestra was founded in 1956 Russian Mimolyotnosti, ‘transiences’) suggests St Petersburg was by this time known) for the with the first movement and the limpid by the renowned conductor and violist Rudolf the introspection to which these short, country in the summer of 1917. Its absence Larghetto, and reflecting the untroubled Barshai who had brought together the most elliptical impressions most often incline and is was an important factor, he later reflected, in sunshine of that 1917 summer holiday in the talented musicians in Moscow. The orchestra drawn from lines by a poet whose words the strength of the Symphony’s inspirations: high spirits of the finale. His last good- has attracted some of Russia’s greatest Prokofiev had already set to music in several …until this time I had always composed at the humoured tribute to eighteenth-century soloists including Mstislav Rostropovich songs, Konstantin Balmont: piano, but I noticed that thematic material manners was to go through the last movement and Sviatoslav Richter and it has made In every fugitive vision composed without the piano was often better. and free it of every minor chord. numerous recordings. After Barshai’s I see whole worlds; Another was the resolution to follow the emigration the Orchestra’s Musical Directors They change endlessly teachings of the only professor of © 1998 David Nice were the eminent violinists Igor Bezrodny, Flashing in playful rainbow colours. composition at the Petrograd Conservatory he Victor Tretiakov and Andre Korsakov and in The withdrawn quality is beautifully preserved had truly respected, Nikolai Tcherepnin, and Ilya Grubert first received international 1991 Constantine Orbelian took up the in Rudolf Barshai’s arrangement of fifteen out make his own exercise in the style of Haydn. acclaim when he won the Silver Medal at the position, the first American to lead an of the twenty pieces, made in 1962 for his Homages to the eighteenth century were to Jean Sibelius Competition in Helsinki in 1975. ensemble in Russia. own Moscow Chamber Orchestra. The lyrical proliferate in his music, especially in the stage He then went on to receive the Grand Prize at heart of the series remains Prokofiev’s No. 8 works; but none are as pure in their intentions. the International Paganini Compeition in American conductor Constantine Orbelian has (seventh in Barshai’s sequence), where the Prokofiev was at pains to stress that it was, Genoa, Italy. In 1978 he was awarded the First held the position of Music Director and simple melody gains extra expressive impact after all, an exercise not to be repeated, Prize and Gold Medal at the International Conductor of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra on its return by the delayed appearance of the noting his differences with Igor Stravinsky in Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Ilya since 1991. Brought up in San Francisco first violins. Elsewhere, Barshai is rightly the early 1920s: ‘I didn’t approve of taking Grubert has performed in recitals, at festivals where he also studied at the Conservatory, he 6 7 CHAN 9615 BOOK.qxd 17/10/07 1:32 pm Page 8 subsequently attended the Juilliard School of performed in some of Europe’s most Music. As a pianist he has performed in prestigious concert halls including Sergey Prokofjew: Visions fugitives usw. America, Europe, Asia and Australia and he Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the Berlin has appeared with many of the world’s best Schauspielhaus and the Queen Elizabeth Hall orchestras. As Music Director of the Moscow in London, and he and the orchestra 1917, das Jahr des Ersten Violinkonzerts, der Die beiden bekanntesten Werke auf der Chamber Orchestra Constantine Orbelian has undertake regular tours abroad. “Klassischen” Sinfonie und der Fertigstellung vorliegenden CD entstanden dagegen in der Visions fugitives, war bedeutsam für produktiver Abgeschiedenheit.