Prokofiev - Violin Sonatas / Shlomo Mintz & Yefin Bonfman

SERGEY PROKOFIEV (1891-1953)

VIOLIN SONATAS

SHLOMO MINTZ (Violin)-YEFIN BRONFMAN (Piano)

1 Sonata for Violin and Piano no 1 in F minor, Op. 80 by Sergei Prokofiev

Written: 1938-1946; USSR

Date of Recording: 06/1987

Length: 31 Minutes 10 Secs.

2.Sonata for Violin and Piano no 2 in D major, Op. 94bis by Sergei Prokofiev

Written: 1944; USSR

Length: 23 Minutes 39 Secs.

Notes: The "Sonata for Violin no 2" is a reworking of the "Flute Sonata, Op 94."

Sergei Prokofiev's Violin Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op 80, written between 1938 and 1946 (completed two years after Violin Sonata No. 2), is one of the darkest and most brooding of the composer's works.
The work is about 30 minutes long and is in four movements:

1. Andante assai
2. Allegro brusco
3. Andante
4. Allegrissimo - Andante assai, come prima

Prokofiev had described the slithering violin scales at the end of the 1st and 4th movements as 'wind passing through a graveyard'.
The work was premiered by David Oistrakh and Lev Oborin, under the personal coaching of the composer. During rehearsals, Oborin played a certain passage, marked forte, too gently for Prokofiev's liking, who insisted it should be more aggressive. Oborin replied that he was afraid of drowning out the violin, but Prokofiev said "It should sound in such a way that people should jump in their seat, and people will say 'Is he out of his mind?'".[1]
The first and third movements of the sonata were played at Prokofiev's funeral by Oistrakh and Samuil Feinberg

Sergei Prokofiev's Violin Sonata No. 2 in D Major, Op. 94 bis, was based on the composer's own Flute Sonata in D, Op. 94, written in 1942 but arranged for violin in 1943 when Prokofiev was living in Perm in the Ural Mountains, a remote shelter for Soviet artists during the Secord World War. Prokofiev transformed the work into a violin sonata at the prompting of his close friend violinist David Oistrakh. It was premiered on 17 June 1944 by David Oistrakh and Lev Oborin.

The work is about 23 minutes long and consists of four movements:

1. Moderato
2. Presto - Poco meno mosso - Tempo I
3. Andante
4. Allegro con brio - Poco meno mosso - Tempo I - Poco meno mosso - Allegro con brio

The work is highly classical in design: it opens with a sonata movement which is followed by a scherzo, a slow movement, and a triumphant finale. The violin part is replete with virtuosic display but is also highly lyrical and elegant, evidence of the work's inception as a sonata for flute.