Prokofiev

“There is something wondrous in the music of Sergei Prokofiev,” says Nemanja Radulović, “as if it constantly moves between light and shadow, searching for truth through contrast, sarcasm, magic, love, irony, and beauty.” Now the violinist – praised by The Times for both his “lyric delicacy” and “super-virtuosity” – has recorded an entire album devoted to Prokofiev. It embraces a variety of musical genres: the Violin Concerto No. 2 (with the Philharmonia Orchestra under its principal conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali); the Sonata for Solo Violin; the Sonata for Two Violins (with Johan Dalene), and (with pianist Laure Favre-Kahn), the Five Melodies Op. 35bis and arrangements of excerpts from the ballets Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella, the opera The Love for Three Oranges, and the ‘Classical’ Symphony. 

Radulović explains that Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No 2, dating from 1935, was composed “at a time of profound inner questioning, when Prokofiev stood between two realities — the Western world, where he had spent several years, and the Soviet Union, to which he was preparing to return.“ When Radulović performed the work with the New York Philharmonic in 2024 – Santtu-Matias Rouvali was again the conductor – the New York Times described him as “charismatic in his adventurous rubato … in the Allegro moderato; in his simply lovely and smartly shaped melodies in the second movement; and in his folk freedom and crunchy chords in the Spanish-inflected finale”. Rouvali proved “a willing accomplice, lending the score the clarity it requires with a whiff of daring”. Speaking of their collaboration on the recording in London, Nemanja Radulović affirms that “Santtu-Matias Rouvali and the Philharmonia Orchestra brought this work to life with fearless artistry, luminous musicality, and a vibrant pulse.”  

He feels that the Sonata for Solo Violin (which dates from 1947 and was originally composed as a pedagogical work) “carries the weight of an inner dialogue — a conversation with the shadow, with oneself, “ while also giving voice to “Prokofiev’s humour, tenderness, and contradiction.” In the Sonata for Two Violins, composed in 1932 in Paris, for him the two instruments “are not just partners — they are witnesses.  Sometimes they follow each other, sometimes they argue, sometimes they simply remain silent together.  With Johan Dalene, that dialogue became honest, without masks.” The Five Melodies were originally conceived as wordless songs for the soprano Nina Koshetz, who sang the role of Fata Morgana in the premiere of The Love for Three Oranges, which took place in Chicago in 1921. Prokofiev reworked them for violin in 1925. 

The great violinist Jascha Heifetz made an arrangement for violin and piano of ‘Le Marchand amoureux’ (The amorous merchant) in 1938, revising it in 1959.