Sergei Prokofiev’s Overture on Hebrew Themes from 1920 originated primarily from an unexpected reunion that occurred halfway around the world. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, the twenty-six-year-old Prokofiev toured the United States as a virtuoso pianist and a promoter of his original works, both to escape artistic persecution in the burgeoning Soviet regime and to establish his reputation on an international scale. At the same time, the St. Petersburg-based  Zimro Ensemble , the touring face of the Society for Jewish Folk Music, was also concertizing in the United States in hopes of raising sufficient funds to establish a Jewish music conservatory in Jerusalem.

Following their Carnegie Hall debut, the Zimro Ensemble crossed paths with Prokofiev in New York in the fall of 1919; their intersection was noteworthy as all members of the group were former classmates of Prokofiev’s at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. The ensemble’s clarinetist Simeon Bellison, who went on to serve as the principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic, enlisted Prokofiev to compose a work for the sextet that highlighted their unique clarinet, piano, and string quartet configuration and expanded their Jewish-centered repertoire.

To assist the non-Jewish composer with the specific commission demands, Bellison provided Prokofiev with his own notebook of Jewish folk songs and other Hebraic-inspired melodies. After procuring two contrasting melodies from Bellison’s notebook, Prokofiev wrote the overture in a mere two days. The piece had its premiere in February of 1920 in New York by the Zimro Ensemble with Prokofiev serving as guest pianist. While Prokofiev preferred the texture of the piece’s original six-instrument lineup, he begrudgingly arranged the overture for chamber orchestra in 1934 to the delight of his publisher.

A one-movement work in sonata form, the overture begins with a stomping, klezmer-infused melody introduced by the clarinet. The unidentified theme, possibly an original one by Bellson, is taken up by the strings and builds to a raucous peak before tapering off to introduce the second theme, an aching and impassioned Yiddish wedding song first presented by the cello. The overture develops and recapitulates the themes in accordance with sonata form guidelines before racing to a feisty conclusion. The overture was one of countless works in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that successfully integrated folk music into a “high art” medium without sacrificing the verve and flavor of its source material.