Stoika Milanova, the renowned Bulgarian violinist and teacher, passed away on September 29 in Madrid following a long illness. She was 79. Milanova began playing the violin at age three, under the guidance of her father. She went on to study with David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatory. After placing second in the 1967 Queen Elisabeth Competition, Milanova won first prize at the 1970 Carl Flesch International Violin Competition. Between 2005 and …
Sergei Prokofiev’s 1935 ballet, Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64, is scored for an immense orchestra. As the tragic story unfolds, youthful innocence, foreboding, darkness, and shimmering light all emerge on a vast canvas set with rich tonal colors. In this violin and piano arrangement, made by the Soviet-Russian violist, Vadim Borisovsky (1900-1972), all of this drama is condensed into two voices. The music comes from the ballet’s final scene, Death of Juliet. In …
An enticing coolness and classicism surrounds Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 5 in C Major, Op. 38. Brilliant and austere, it is the music of a composer who, early on, developed a reputation as a brash enfant terrible with piano-playing fingers of steel. Here, as in much of his music, Prokofiev, the cunning and aggressive master chess player, plays the game of quirky extended melodies, which often seem to reach a harmonic dead …
Sergei Prokofiev’s Toccata, Op. 11 for solo piano is music of the Machine Age. Launched into motion with a volley of repeated D’s, the brief and blazing piece hurtles forward as an indomitable, perpetual motor. Edgy and seemingly demonic, it takes us on an exhilarating, increasingly terrifying ride, punctuated with quirky melodic leaps, jarring dissonances, and torrents of chromaticism. Composed in 1912, this is music of the 23-year-old Prokofiev. Shocking, previously unimaginable …
The Sinfonia Concertante, Op. 125 (or Symphony-Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, as it is also known), was among the last orchestral works composed by Sergei Prokofiev. The dramatic, spirited musical hybrid was conceived at a time when Prokofiev faced declining health and professional adversity. In 1948, he was censured, along with other prominent composers, by the Central Committee of the Communist Party for writing music “marked with formalist perversions…alien to the Soviet …
Yuri Temirkanov, the renowned Russian conductor, passed away last Thursday, November 2, in St. Petersburg. He was 84. From the time of his appointment as artistic director in 1988, Temirkanov was credited with restoring the brilliance of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, in the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Between 2000 and 2006, he served as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Additional titles included principal guest conductor of …
Usually, we assume that, when writing a piece of music, the composer is firmly in control of the process as musical ideas are organized, refined, and developed. Yet, on occasion, the music seemingly comes alive, takes on a mind of its own, and dictates to the composer what it wants to be. This was Sergei Prokofiev’s experience when composing the Piano Concerto No. 5 in G Major, Op. 55. “Having accumulated a …