Prokofiev - Stravinsky - Strauss

The last period of the music of SERGEI PROKOFIEV (1891-1953) was marked not just by experiences of the war, but also by the increasing pressure of the Stalinist regime, as well as illness and a serious head injury. 

One of the most momentous works of Prokofiev's last years was the Symphony-Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, op. 125. The author drew on thematic material from his First Cello Concerto, op. 58 of 1933-1938. Opus 125 was written in the years 1950-1951 in close collaboration with the then twenty-three year old Mstislav Rostropovich. The young virtuoso, unconstrained by what for others would have been limitations of technique, gave the solo part parameters that are testing in the extreme.  The deep mutual integration of the solo and orchestral parts, the symphonic  passages, the polyphonic treatment, the sonata development with the solo cello cadenza, the variation technique and various other compositional elements make it a very challenging work  both musically and intellectually.  The Symphony-Concerto  was eventually premiered on the 18^th  of February 1952 by Mstislav Rostropovich and the Moscow Youth Orchestra. Sviatoslav Richter conducted it. In the last year of his life Prokofiev made a number of further alterations to the piece.

The large amount of music written for the stage by IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882-1971) includes more than ten ballets.  In his search for a new kind of musical expression Stravinsky encountered resistance and a lack of understanding with his first ballets – The Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring; the premiere of the latter in 1913 scandalised most of the professional and lay public. In the next phase of his development Stravinsky fundamentally changed his compositional direction, taking a new starting-point in Classicist music complemented by elements from other musical epochs.  He also experimented with the newly emerging jazz.   His ballet Pulcinella of  1920 is the first composition in which Stravinsky found his own new musical style.

The initiative for the composition of the ballet Pulcinella came from Diaghilev who was enthused by the early-18th-century play Le quattro Polcinelle which he discovered in a manuscript in Naples. He wanted Stravinsky to compose a ballet on this theme that would adapt the music of Concerti Armonici  attributed to G.B.Pergolesi (1710-1736). Only later did it emerge that the real author of the work was not Pergolesi but Unico Wilhelm van Wassenauer (1710-1736) 

The story tells of the Italian youth Pulcinella, who is very attractive to girls.  His contemporaries are jealous of him and try to dress and behave as he does. Pulcinella however ultimately sees through all the intrigues against him and succeeds in winning  Pimpinella as his bride.  The ballet was premiered on the 15^th of May 1920 in Paris. The leading artists of the time including Pablo Picasso contributed to the design.  In 1922 Stravisnky created an eight-part suite from the ballet.

The German composer RICHARD STRAUSS (1864-1949)  composed his ten symphonic poems over the period 1886-1915.  The monumental dimensions of these works were implicit in the very choice of subjects.  Don Juan, op. 20 was preceded by one symphonic poem entitled From Italy (1886). Strauss started to compose his opus 20 in his twenty second year, His textual inspiration was the long dramatic poem of the same title by Nikolaus Lenau.Strauss expressed Don Juan's style of life with intoxicating melodies, striking themes, pulsing rhythmd, audacious modulations and brilliant instrumentation. The heady, stirring themes and motifs are set into a sonata form model that gives the work a compact coherence. The premiere took place in Weimar on the 11^th of November 1889 with the composer conducting.