The year 1917 was a traumatic one for Russia. The February Revolution deposed the Tsar, and the October Revolution brought the Bolsheviks to power. Russia was losing disastrously in its war against the central powers, Germany and Austria. Sergei Prokofiev, shutting himself off from the earth-shattering turmoil around him, distanced himself physically as much as possible from the political turmoil. It was for him an exceptionally fruitful year, one of the products being the Violin Concerto No. 1. The Concerto had been one of the few things the composer took with him when he left Russia early in 1918, leaving most of his manuscripts for safekeeping either in Moscow with conductor Serge Koussevitzky or with his mother in Petrograd. Still, most of these works were lost during the desperate times of the civil war.

Envisioned as a modest violin concertino two years earlier, the Concerto gradually grew in scope and complexity. Prokofiev combined the harsh dissonances and spiky melodies that had so scandalized his professors at the Moscow Conservatory with romantic passages of elegant lyricism. Because of the political upheaval, however, he was forced to shelve it until 1923 when it premiered in Paris.

The first movement, during which the violin plays almost continuously, is designed as an arch. It opens on a tremolo in the middle strings, over which the soloist soon enters with the movement’s long, serpentine first theme, accompanied first by a solo flute, then by a pair of clarinets, and finally the strings and the orchestra. With a gradual increase in tempo, the Concerto spins out a series of subsidiary themes, some of them recalling Russian folk melodies and dances. Then, the tremolo—now in the cellos and basses—and the first theme is repeated with altered orchestration to gently conclude the movement.  

The Scherzo represents the “savage” Prokofiev of the piano works of the period. It has two trios, between which the Scherzo theme is used as a refrain. In the Scherzo proper the soloist plays a jagged theme high in its range against a rapid “clockwork” accompaniment in the pizzicato violins. The first trio drops the range suddenly for both soloist and orchestra, now against a pizzicato accompaniment in the low strings. The brass announce the second trio, in which the violin again plays low in its range. 

The finale takes up the “clockwork” accompaniment from the Scherzo, only this time with staccato bowing and a return to the more lyrical tone of the opening of the Concerto. The Concerto concludes not with the expected flourish, but with gentle conversations among the violin, harp, and solo winds and a whisper on the flute.

Program notes by:
Joseph & Elizabeth Kahn
Wordpros@mindspring.com
www.wordprosmusic.com