Summer Intensive 2018 With Vanessa Zahorian & Davit Karapetyan
The Second Piano Concerto created almost as big a scandal at its premiere in the imperial resort of Pavlovsk , outside St . Petersburg , on September 5 , 1913 as Stravinsky ’ s The Rite of Spring had in Paris a few months earlier . One critic wrote that Prokofiev ’ s performance “ left the listeners frozen with fright , hair standing on end .” Another , apparently as bewildered by the work as anyone there , described the event in detail : “ A youth with the face of a high school student appears on stage …. He sits down at the piano and starts either wiping off the keys or trying them out to see which produce a high or low sound …. The audience is uncertain …. A few … leave their seats . The young artist concludes his concerto with a mercilessly dissonant combination of sounds from the brass . The scandal in the audience is now full-blown . The majority of them are hissing . Prokofiev bows impudently and plays an encore .”
Today the Second Piano Concerto remains a provocative work , primarily because of its staggeringly difficult solo part . Written to show off its composer ’ s brilliant , idiosyncratic skills , it gives the soloist no quarter — from its formidable four-minute-long cadenza in the first movement to its nonstop scherzo and gigantic conclusion . Its tone is mostly aggressive , and its orchestral part , though subservient to the soloist , is bold to stridency .
The first movement , however , begins softly as the pianist introduces a reflective theme , inspired by Russian folk melodies . Eventually , the music accelerates , and the soloist launches an angular theme with short , sharp attacks and the ironic style so characteristic of Prokofiev . Swooning , somewhat impressionistic music for the orchestra leads to the great solo cadenza , which takes over the task of developing the two themes . Toward the conclusion , Prokofiev marks the music “ colossale ” as the pianist erupts with cascades of virtuosic arpeggios and scales . The brass instruments are also thinking “ colossale ” as they lead the orchestra back for an oversized recapitulation of the angular second theme . The amphetamine-driven secondmovement scherzo gives the soloist no
Summer Intensive 2018 With Vanessa Zahorian & Davit Karapetyan
Former Principal Dancers with San Francisco Ballet
July 16 - August 10
paballetacademy . org 717.774.7474 Camp Hill , PA
MAR – APR 2018 / OVERTURE 17