Symphony-Concerto (Prokofiev)

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Sergei Prokofiev's Symphony-Concerto in E minor (sometimes also called Sinfonia Concertante), is a large-scale work for cello and orchestra. Prokofiev dedicated it to Mstislav Rostropovich, who premiered it on February 18, 1952 with Sviatoslav Richter conducting (the only instance of Richter conducting). After this first performance (under the title 'Cello Concerto No. 2'), it was revised and given its current title. It is itself a revised version of his earlier Cello Concerto, Op. 58, written in 1933–8.

Since the Central Committee decision on February 10th, 1948, Prokofiev was considered a "suspect" musician. His work was disparaged as bourgeois and formalistic, and his first wife was convicted as a spy and taken to a forced-labor camp. These misfortunes and the possibility of being arrested without reason most likely affected Prokofiev's already deteriorating health.

The work, around 40 minutes long, is in three movements:

Andante (11 minutes)
Allegro (18 minutes)
Andante con moto - Allegretto - Allegro marcato (11 minutes)

It has been said that due to the solo part's immense difficulties, very few cellists dare to perform this work. However, this work inspired Dmitri Shostakovich to write his Cello Concerto No. 1, also dedicated to Rostropovich.

Benjamin Britten and Ellen Zwilich have also written symphonies for solo cello and orchestra.

1 History
2 See also
3 Recordings
4 External links

[edit] History

The premiere of Prokofiev's Cello Concerto (Op. 58) was generally thought to have been very poorly interpreted by the cellist, though the blame fell on Prokofiev for writing a "soul-less" concerto. The concerto was seldom played afterwards, until Prokofiev heard Rostropovich play it at a 1947 concert. The performance reawakened Prokofiev's interest in the cello, and he rewrote his concerto (with advice from Rostropovich) to create the Symphony-Concerto (Op. 125). Also dating from this period are his cello sonata of 1949, and an unfinished concertino for cello and orchestra later completed by Kabalevsky.

[edit] See also

Grammy Awards of 1993, re. a prize-winning performance of this work by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; Yo-Yo Ma, Cellist; Lorin Maazel, Conductor.

[edit] Recordings

Cellist	Orchestra	Conductor	Record Company	Year of Recording	Format
Yo-Yo Ma	Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra	Lorin Maazel		1993	CD
Lynn Harrell	Royal Philharmonic Orchestra	Vladimir Ashkenazy	Decca Records	1994	CD
János Starker	Philharmonia	Walter Süsskind	EMI Classics	1995	CD
Han-Na Chang	London Symphony Orchestra	Antonio Pappano	EMI Classics	2002	CD
Alexander Ivashkin	Russian State Symphony Orchestra	Valeri Polyansky	Chandos Records	2003	CD
Raphael Wallfisch	Scottish National Orchestra	Neeme Järvi	Chandos Records	2005	CD
Mischa Maisky	Russian National Orchestra	Mikhail Pletnev	Deutsche Grammophon		CD
Mstislav Rostropovich	USSR State Symphony Orchestra	Gennady Rozhdestvensky	Russian Revelation		CD
Mstislav Rostropovich	London Symphony Orchestra	Seiji Ozawa	Teldec Classics		CD
Alexander Rudin	Ukrainian National Symphony Orchestra	Theodore Kuchar	Naxos		CD