PROKOFIEV Sinfonietta Sinfonia Concertante Divertimento
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CHAN 10312 x Front.qxd 15/9/06 10:15 am Page 1 CHAN 10312 X CHANDOS CLASSICS PROKOFIEV Sinfonietta Sinfonia Concertante Divertimento Raphael Wallfisch cello Scottish National Orchestra Neeme Järvi CHAN 10312 BOOK.qxd 15/9/06 10:20 am Page 2 Sergey Sergeyevich Prokofiev (1891–1953) Divertimento, Op. 43 15:15 1 I Moderato molto ritmico 4:14 2 II Larghetto (non troppo lento) 3:40 3 III Allegro energico 3:39 4 IV Allegro non troppo e pesante 3:43 Sinfonia Concertante, Op. 125* 37:19 For cello and orchestra in E minor • in e-Moll • en mi mineur Lebrecht Music &Lebrecht Arts Photo Library To Mstislav Rostropovich 5 I Andante 10:00 6 II Allegro giusto 17:11 7 III Andante con moto 10:04 Sinfonietta, Op. 5/48 20:00 in A major • in A-Dur • en la majeur To Nikolay Tcherepnin 8 I Allegro giocoso 5:20 9 II Andante 4:07 10 III Intermezzo. Vivace 2:50 11 IV Scherzo. Allegro risoluto 3:32 12 V Allegro giocoso 3:58 TT 72:49 Raphael Wallfisch cello* Scottish National Orchestra Edwin Paling leader Sergey Sergeyevich Prokofiev Neeme Järvi 3 CHAN 10312 BOOK.qxd 15/9/06 10:20 am Page 4 An earlier excursion into ballet produced composer went backstage and according to Prokofiev: Sinfonia Concertante and other works Trapeze, a short work on a circus theme for the cellist, the touring company of Boris Romanov, told me that after listening carefully to the composed for instrumental quintet as the Concerto he had decided to rewrite it. I reminded Something of Haydn’s sense of formal manner of the Classical Symphony, to which company could not afford a full orchestra. him of this each time I met him after that, but proportion, as well as elegance and the Sinfonietta has a close relationship of style Two movements from this were adapted by without success… transparency of thought in general, is behind as well as of instrumentation and harmonic Prokofiev in 1929 as the first and third Rostropovich and the pianist Sviatoslav Richter the Sinfonietta, which Prokofiev composed in structure. A prominent recurring feature is the movements of the Divertimento, Op. 43. He finally introduced the Cello Sonata, Op. 119, 1909 as his Op. 5, while still at the sudden characteristic shifts of key, not always then added a Larghetto he had sketched the composed for them by Prokofiev, in 1949. St Petersburg Conservatory. He twice revised it in the direction one might expect, while the previous year, and ended it with a finale that By this time the composer was talking of a before publishing it a second time twenty texture is often noticeably coloured by the emerged from music intended for The Prodigal new concerto, but perhaps because his health years later as Op 5/48. It is dedicated to woodwind in general and by the occasional Son. He later felt his chosen title properly was failing and he was forbidden on medical Nikolay Tcherepnin, Prokofiev’s conducting prominence given to the bassoons: in the applied only to the first movement, and he advice to spend more than one hour a day on professor at the Conservatory, who gave solemn tread that begins the second acknowledged some influence of Stravinsky in composition, he decided instead on what he Prokofiev a taste for classicism at the same movement and continues under the woodwind the orchestration. himself called, in an article for Sovietskaya time as he encouraged his pupil’s interest in and strings; in leading the embellishment of Although it was given a new title and opus Muzika, ‘the revision of my Violoncello new musical trends of the day. the Intermezzo’s main theme; and in the trio number when it was first performed in 1952, Concerto’. Rostropovich was invited to spend Prokofiev was at his family home in the section of the Scherzo. the Sinfonia Concertante, Op. 125 for cello some time with him during the summers of Ukraine for the Summer when he first A 6/8 time-signature is common to the and orchestra is effectively an extended 1950 and 1951, at his country home in composed the Sinfonietta as ‘an attempt to first, third and last movements, imparting a revision of the Cello Concerto in the same key, Nikolina Gora, west of Moscow, where the create a transparent piece for small orchestra’. sprightly, even boisterous rhythmic momentum E minor, composed by Prokofiev in the 1930s. cellist played parts of the work as it emerged He later wrote: to contrast with the unfolding Andante and He began that in 1933, shortly before his and helped the composer with technical The attempt was not particularly successful, and it the grittier Scherzo. At the end the music momentous decision to return home to the advice. Rostropovich was the dedicatee, and is was only many years later that the Sinfonietta was dismisses itself almost nonchalantly in a Soviet Union after living and working for some also named as editor of the published score. finally whipped into shape. gesture typical of Prokofiev. We might well years in the West, but it was put on one side In its new form, premiered in Moscow on He conducted its first revision at a echo the composer’s surprise, in his for a few years before it was finished and first 18 February 1952 with Rostropovich as soloist St Petersburg concert in 1914, then ‘took it autobiographical sketch already quoted, that performed in 1938 as Op. 58. and Richter making his début as a conductor, apart and put it together again, rewriting the Sinfonietta was so rarely performed A decade later, the emergence of Mstislav the work divided opinion: had Prokofiev simply some sections but adding no new material’ for whereas the Classical Symphony was played Rostropovich as the outstanding Soviet cellist ‘incorporated in it, in radically altered form, a its final version at Moscow in 1929. everywhere: ‘I cannot understand why the of his time reawakened Prokofiev’s interest in certain amount of material from the first Cello The five short movements provide fate of these two pieces should be so the cello. After hearing Rostropovich play his Concerto’ (to cite his biographer, Israel immediately attractive listening much in the different.’ Concerto at a Moscow concert in 1947, the Nest’yev), or rather had he extended the older 4 5 CHAN 10312 BOOK.qxd 15/9/06 10:20 am Page 6 work by making the solo writing more quickening to dance-like vivacity, and with Orchestra) was formed in 1891 as the Scottish Since 2004 Neeme Järvi has been Principal virtuosic, the structure correspondingly longer, some of the old sardonic wit to characterise Orchestra, and was awarded the Royal Conductor of the New Jersey Symphony but the harmonic character simpler and less the contrast of soloist and orchestra. Patronage in 1991. Many conductors have Orchestra. He is also Music Director of the dissonant than before? contributed to its success, including Karl Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Principal As it stands, without any unusual © Noël Goodwin Rankl, Hans Swarowsky, Walter Susskind, Conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony instrumental elements but with an orchestra of Sir Alexander Gibson, Bryden Thomson and Orchestra since 1982, First Principal Guest classical size inventively used, the first Born into a family of professional musicians, Neeme Järvi. Currently, Walter Weller is Conductor of the Japan Philharmonic movement is mainly lyrical and lightly scored Raphael Wallfisch discovered the cello at the Conductor Emeritus, Alexander Lazarev is Orchestra and Conductor Laureate of the Royal as it develops its two principal themes. The age of eight. While studying with Gregor Principal Conductor, Marin Alsop is Principal Scottish National Orchestra. Born in Tallinn, first is heard from the cellist after a Piatigorsky in California he was chosen to Guest Conductor and Garry Walker is Estonia, he is one of today’s busiest preliminary orchestral flourish, and the second perform chamber music with Jascha Heifetz in Associate Conductor. The Orchestra gives more conductors, making frequent guest appearances is introduced by the violins with a poignant, the informal recitals that Piatigorsky held in his than 130 performances each year in Scotland, with the foremost orchestras and opera graceful character reminiscent of a Cinderella- home. At the age of twenty-four he won the appears regularly at the Edinburgh companies of the world, including the Berlin theme in Prokofiev’s ballet of that title (1945). Gaspar Cassadó International Cello Competition International Festival and the BBC Proms, and Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw The working-out of these themes is adorned in Florence. Since then he has performed has toured abroad through Austria, Croatia, Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, New York with some decorative writing for the soloist. continually worldwide. His extensive Slovakia and Spain. It has recorded a varied Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The central movement is the longest of the discography features works by a wide range of range of works, including film soundtracks Philadelphia Orchestra, Sydney Symphony three, the first few bars followed by an British composers, including concertos by Bax, such as Titanic, Superman, Star Wars, Jaws Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, unaccompanied introductory solo for the Bliss, Delius, Finzi, Leighton, Moeran and and Vertigo. The Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, cellist, who also has a long cadenza of Walton, besides Britten’s Cello Symphony. He The Orchestra’s education programme Opéra national de Paris-Bastille and the major considerable intricacy later in the movement. has also recorded rarer works by Barber, continues to develop musical talent and orchestras of Scandinavia. He also directs a Some alternative passages in this are marked, Dohnányi, Grieg, Kabalevsky, Menotti, Prokofiev, appreciation by working with people of all conductors’ master-class in Pärnu, Estonia, for on the composer’s instructions, Facilitazione.