PROKOFIEV Childhood Manuscripts Old Grandmother’s Tales • Six Pieces, Op. 52 Alexandre Dossin, Piano Sergey Sergey Prokofiev (1891–1953) PROKOFIEV Childhood Manuscripts · Old Grandmother’s Tales, Op. 31 · Six Pieces, Op. 52 (1891–1953) ‘At the age of three I struck my forehead against the edge than the composer Reinhold Glière arrived at the of an iron chest and raised a bump that lasted for about Prokofievs’ estate in Sontsovka to take care of Sergey’s Old Grandmother’s Tales, Pesenki (Little Songs), 25 years. “Perhaps all your talent lies in that bump”, musical education. Op. 31 (1918) 9:09 Series 4 (excerpts) (1905) 9:35 remarked an artist who painted my portrait many years Glière was the ideal teacher. Kind and generous, he 1 I. Moderato 2:25 ^ No. 2. Romance III in D minor 3:08 later.’ While stopping short of vainglory, this anecdote knew exactly how to strike the right balance between fun nevertheless demonstrates that even from an early age and strict musical discipline. Prokofiev loved the way that 2 II. Andantino 1:06 & No. 3. Allegretto in A minor 1:02 Prokofiev clearly knew his own worth. The recollection Glière always took him seriously, even when participating 3 III. Andante assai 2:47 * No. 5. Allegretto in C minor 1:02 appears in his short 1941 autobiography, which makes in childish games. This made the boy highly receptive to 4 IV. Sostenuto 2:51 ( No. 6. Allegro in A flat major 3:12 compelling reading on account of its unconstrained Glière’s rigorous teaching methods, which included a ) No. 11. Minuet in F minor 1:11 candour. good deal of keyboard improvisation, a skill that Prokofiev Six Pieces, Op. 52 (1931) 30:02 Prokofiev relates how, as a very small child, he loved was able to employ with great effect for the rest of his life. 5 I. Intermezzo (The Prodigal Son) 5:18 Pesenki (Little Songs), to listen to his mother playing Chopin and Beethoven on He later claimed that by 1904 he was writing pieces at the 6 II. Rondo (The Prodigal Son) 6:00 Series 5 (excerpts) (1906) 13:00 the piano. She recognised her son’s musical proclivities rate of about a dozen a year. In addition to operas and a and gave him every encouragement. ‘When I was five and symphony, his works included the earliest of the piano 7 III. Étude (The Prodigal Son) 2:24 ¡ No. 2. Scherzo in C major 2:55 a half I picked out a little tune and played it several times miniatures presented here: the Tarantella in D minor, the 8 IV. Scherzino ™ No. 4. Allegro non troppo in D minor 1:52 over. My mother decided to write it down […] It was in F Melody in E flat major, the Presto in C, the March in F, the (Songs Without Words, Op. 35) 1:47 £ No. 5. Waltz in G minor 0:59 major without a B flat, which was an indication not of any Vivo in G minor and the Romance in D minor. 9 V. Andante (String Quartet No. 1, Op. 50) 10:40 ¢ No. 6. March in F minor 3:55 preference for the Lydian mode but rather of my In 1904, at the age of 13, Prokofiev became the 0 VI. Scherzo (Sinfonietta, Op. 48) 3:53 ∞ No. 7. Prestissimo in C major 1:46 reluctance to tackle the black notes. But in writing it down youngest-ever student to be enrolled at the St Petersburg § No. 12. Étude-Scherzo in C major 1:33 my mother told me it would sound better with a “little black Conservatoire. His teachers there included Glazunov, Childhood Manuscripts ¶ Examination Fugue in D major note”, and she accordingly put it in.’ Rimsky-Korsakov and Liadov. The Revolution of 1905 For the eight-year-old Seryozha (as Sergey was had a chaotic effect on the day-to-day running of the (1908) 1:44 ! Tarantella in D minor (1901) 2:03 known in the family), the 20th century could hardly have Conservatoire. Of all the upheavals recorded by got off to a more auspicious start. His parents decided to Prokofiev, the one that affected him most directly was the • Scherzo in D major celebrate the New Year of 1900 by travelling to Moscow. fate of his teachers whose political views were at odds Pesenki (Little Songs), Series 2 (date unknown) 1:37 As a country boy, Seryozha was astonished by the bustle with those of the more conservative-minded board of @ No. 7. Melody in E flat major (1903) 4:34 and clamour of the big city, but what impressed him most directors. Glazunov, Rimsky-Korsakov and Liadov were were his visits to the theatre. Gounod’s Faust, Borodin’s all initially suspended, but were subsequently reinstated. Pesenki (Little Songs), Prince Igor and Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty left Judging from his own later remarks, Prokofiev found Series 3 (excerpts) 8:08 him spellbound: ‘I didn’t know whether it was the stage, or Liadov’s harmony lessons particularly irksome, and he the theatre, or just my head that was spinning.’ He seems to have been a disruptive pupil, at least for some # No. 4. Presto in C major (1904) 2:21 immediately began composing his first stage work, an of the time. Despite such youthful cockiness, he tirelessly $ No. 7. March IV in F major (1904) 2:09 opera, which he called The Giant. In December 1901, the applied himself to his work, and in the spring and summer % No. 8. Vivo in G minor (1904) 3:38 Prokofievs made another visit to Moscow and of 1905 he privately honed his knowledge of harmony, no St Petersburg. By now it was becoming clear that doubt mindful of Glière’s earlier exhortations about the Seryozha’s musical education had to be considered vital importance of acquiring a thorough understanding of seriously, and the composer Sergey Taneyev the subject. The Allegretto in A minor, the Allegretto in C recommended that the family should employ a live-in minor, the Allegro in A flat and the Minuet in F minor all music tutor. So, in the summer of 1902 no less a figure date from this period. In December 1908 Prokofiev made his first public filth’, it was staunchly supported by Myaskovsky. Four Alexandre Dossin appearance as a composer-pianist, and his powerful years, one world war and one revolution later, Prokofiev command of piano technique stunned his listeners. One composed Old Grandmother’s Tales, Op. 31, in 1918, by Photo: Erin Zysett particularly favourable review praised his piano pieces for which time he was living in New York and suffering from their ‘sincerity, absence of artificiality and intentional something akin to homesickness. Certainly, there is a search for the harmonically unusual’. This concert was distinct mood of nostalgia about these pieces, especially shared by several other students from the St Petersburg in the fourth and final number, which is reminiscent of Conservatoire, including the mature student Nikolay Rachmaninov, a composer whose musical thinking rarely Myaskovsky, who was ten years older than Prokofiev. converged with Prokofiev’s. The rocking accompaniments Despite their age difference, the two composers had invite us to imagine a child sitting wide-eyed on its already established a very fruitful musical friendship, grandmother’s knee as she tells a story. which blossomed on account of their shared dislike of In 1931 Prokofiev selected movements from some of Liadov’s teaching methods and their mutual admiration of his earlier works and republished them in the form of the piano music of Grieg. During the summer holidays arrangements for solo piano. They appeared with the they would exchange letters and discuss music at length. rather unexciting title Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 52. The Prokofiev wrote in his autobiography that ‘this first three are taken from The Prodigal Son, a 1929 ballet correspondence gave me much more than Liadov’s dull based on the Gospel of Saint Luke, which Prokofiev lessons’. It was during the early stages of his friendship produced in Paris in collaboration with the choreographer with Myaskovsky that Prokofiev completed the remaining George Balanchine. The fourth number, originally youthful pieces included on this disc: the Scherzo in C, composed in 1920, comes from one of Prokofiev’s five the Allegro in D minor, the Waltz in G minor, the March in Songs Without Words, Op. 35, for voice and piano. The F minor, the Prestissimo in C, the Étude-Scherzo in C, the fifth piece had first appeared only a few months earlier in Fugue in D and the Scherzo in D. When he showed his the String Quartet No. 1, Op. 50. The last piece is from the compositions to Myaskovsky, the adolescent Prokofiev Sinfonietta, Op. 5/48, a work dating back to Prokofiev’s was delighted when the older composer declared: ‘I never student years but which was subsequently revised in suspected what a little viper we had nursing in our 1929. Incidentally, the second number (Rondo) bosom.’ resurfaced yet again in the ballet Romeo and Juliet. Each Prokofiev finally left the Conservatoire in 1914 after of the Six Pieces is dedicated to a leading concert pianist playing his Piano Concerto No. 1. He subsequently of the day, including Arthur Rubinstein, Alexander Acclaimed by international critics, Brazilian-born Steinway Artist Alexandre Dossin has already firmly established maintained that this work was his ‘first more or less Borovsky and Vladimir Horowitz. himself as an artist of the first rank. He was awarded both the first prize and the special prize at the Martha Argerich mature composition in matters of artistic conception and International Piano Competition.