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Prokofiev (arr. Andrei Pushkarev)
Sonata in F Minor for Violin, Strings and Percussion, Op. 80

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) settled in Moscow in 1936, nearly twenty years after he left Russia in the wake of the October Revolution of 1917. As an expatriate in Europe, he had found himself increasingly at odds with modern tastes; meanwhile, Soviet audiences and authorities proved receptive to the composer’s “new simplicity,” as he dubbed his developing style. A string of successful film score and ballet commissions enticed Prokofiev back to his homeland on a permanent basis, and he entered the stream of Soviet music firmly established as a star. 

The Violin Sonata No. 1 in F Minor (Opus 80) demonstrates how Prokofiev applied his clear and forthright style in music of the heaviest emotions. He began the score in 1938, amid the Great Purge in which Stalin killed or displaced millions of supposed enemies. Having stalled out after two movements, Prokofiev returned to the sonata in 1943, in the midst of World War II, and he finally finished it in 1946. After Prokofiev died in 1953 (on the very same day as the man who had become his tormentor, Joseph Stalin), the violinist for whom the sonata was written, David Oistrakh, played the first movement at the composer’s funeral. 

Andrei Pushkarev’s arrangement of the sonata embodies new percussive ornamentations alongside the orchestral expansion. He writes, “In the music of the sonata one can obviously hear wartime impressions, as well as it could be interpreted as a reflection of a man who has cooled his youthful ardor and is facing old age. The sonata begins in the mood of a funeral march - orchestrated with the timbres of low strings and tam-tam. Despite the slow tempo, required rhythmical precision creates the feeling of ruthless constancy and irreversibility of time. The passages of the violin of which Prokofiev said ‘is the wind passing through a graveyard’ conclude the movement, in my arrangement, accompanied by metallic tone of the vibraphone that adds to the gloomy feeling."

"The second movement, a maliciously-ironic scherzo, gains a lot from a possibility to add the percussion into the score. Its ‘military’ sound and character is reinforced by inclusion of a snare drum. The third movement is an example of penetrating lyricism, emotional purity and fairytale-like, magical harmonic language, which is another characteristic side of Prokofiev. The vibraphone sound helps to put a listener into this magical atmosphere." 

“The finale is full of joyous and glorious feeling, while its rhythmic pattern brings analogies with folk poetry and folk dance. However, throughout the movement, light-hearted tune undergoes dramatic changes, becoming smirking and vicious in character as the chromaticism and dissonance sonorities destroy its original image. The movement concludes in “graveyard” passages from the first movement followed by a coda that is a laconic philosophical restatement of what was said earlier, and Prokofiev ends with a rhetorical question rather than an affirmative exclamation.” 

Prokofiev (arr. Andrei Pushkarev)
Sonata in F Minor for Violin, Strings and Percussion, Op. 80

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) settled in Moscow in 1936, nearly twenty years after he left Russia in the wake of the October Revolution of 1917. As an expatriate in Europe, he had found himself increasingly at odds with modern tastes; meanwhile, Soviet audiences and authorities proved receptive to the composer’s “new simplicity,” as he dubbed his developing style. A string of successful film score and ballet commissions enticed Prokofiev back to his homeland on a permanent basis, and he entered the stream of Soviet music firmly established as a star. 

The Violin Sonata No. 1 in F Minor (Opus 80) demonstrates how Prokofiev applied his clear and forthright style in music of the heaviest emotions. He began the score in 1938, amid the Great Purge in which Stalin killed or displaced millions of supposed enemies. Having stalled out after two movements, Prokofiev returned to the sonata in 1943, in the midst of World War II, and he finally finished it in 1946. After Prokofiev died in 1953 (on the very same day as the man who had become his tormentor, Joseph Stalin), the violinist for whom the sonata was written, David Oistrakh, played the first movement at the composer’s funeral. 

Andrei Pushkarev’s arrangement of the sonata embodies new percussive ornamentations alongside the orchestral expansion. He writes, “In the music of the sonata one can obviously hear wartime impressions, as well as it could be interpreted as a reflection of a man who has cooled his youthful ardor and is facing old age. The sonata begins in the mood of a funeral march - orchestrated with the timbres of low strings and tam-tam. Despite the slow tempo, required rhythmical precision creates the feeling of ruthless constancy and irreversibility of time. The passages of the violin of which Prokofiev said ‘is the wind passing through a graveyard’ conclude the movement, in my arrangement, accompanied by metallic tone of the vibraphone that adds to the gloomy feeling."

"The second movement, a maliciously-ironic scherzo, gains a lot from a possibility to add the percussion into the score. Its ‘military’ sound and character is reinforced by inclusion of a snare drum. The third movement is an example of penetrating lyricism, emotional purity and fairytale-like, magical harmonic language, which is another characteristic side of Prokofiev. The vibraphone sound helps to put a listener into this magical atmosphere." 

“The finale is full of joyous and glorious feeling, while its rhythmic pattern brings analogies with folk poetry and folk dance. However, throughout the movement, light-hearted tune undergoes dramatic changes, becoming smirking and vicious in character as the chromaticism and dissonance sonorities destroy its original image. The movement concludes in “graveyard” passages from the first movement followed by a coda that is a laconic philosophical restatement of what was said earlier, and Prokofiev ends with a rhetorical question rather than an affirmative exclamation.”