all-Prokofiev programme from Igor Levit, Budapest Pageant Orchestra and Iván Fischer at Royal Pageant Hall

The Overture on Hebrew Themes was written in 1919. Having left Russia in 1918, Prokofiev is in New York and agrees to write down a chunk for the Zimro Ensemble for his or her line-up of clarinet, string quartet and piano, with Prokofiev taking part in the piano half on the premiere. It is not klezmer music, however one of many melodies Prokofiev used is a klezmer dance tune (together with a sentimental Yiddish marriage ceremony tune). But it surely was solely in 1934 that he agreed to create an orchestral model, and now that has somewhat overtaken the unique.

Within the orchestral model there may be nonetheless a distinguished clarinet half, however different wind devices have their flip too. However Fischer and the orchestra selected to make the clarinet a function and the orchestra’s first clarinet got here ahead to play the solo from the entrance of the stage, trying awkward within the moments the highlight turned away from him. However the efficiency actually didn’t disappoint, the orchestra producing vivid accents and rhythms, astonishingly diverse textures together with a way of engagement and self-discipline. All through the night there was a sense of readability to their taking part in of Prokofiev’s music together with immense sympathy, a powerful sound allied to tremendous method.

Prokofiev wrote his Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1913, while nonetheless a scholar in Moscow. He premiered the work himself and it evidently acquired a blended reception, with boos, catcalls, applause and requires ‘encore’. Nevertheless, the rating for this was destroyed in a post-Revolution hearth and in Paris in 1923 (two years after writing his third concerto), Prokofiev reconstructed and rewrote the work, revising it so considerably that he admitted that it was successfully a brand new work. He was once more the soloist in Paris, the place it did not go down very nicely both. It’s a concerto of formidable technical problem, largeness of scale and wildness of temperament.

For such a hanging work, it started deceptively with Levit’s intimate, seductive piano supported by magical sounds from the strings, although because the work’s thematic materials coalesced across the piano the music turned extra strenuous. The music was by turns violent and poetic, with a crisp firmness to Levit’s taking part in. All the time mesmerising, his efficiency of the large central cadenza was compelling, however this was in regards to the music not about Levit exhibiting off, and when the orchestra rejoined the soloist the violence was actually outstanding, although we ended the place we had begun, with the extra intimate, seductive materials. The second motion, scherzo, is brief and dazzling. Right here the orchestra was quick and livid, but mild on its ft, with a relentless stream of piano notes. Fischer and Levit saved the tempo, this was a extremely pushed piece. There isn’t any actual gradual motion, the third motion Intermezzo is darkish in tone. The orchestra started in strenuous, menacing type, and although there have been moments of lyricism from Levit, a tougher edge crept into the music because it turned relentless, the darkish intermezzo turning right into a menacing march. All through, Levit’s taking part in was tireless, but compelling too. He’s a stressed performer, but at all times he was engaged with the music whether or not taking part in or not. The finale came visiting as a vivid toccata, all energy and violence with quick flurries of notes. There was a outstanding driving power to the piece, however in the direction of the top issues evaporated to nothing, which solely served to set off the disturbing violence of the ending.

Levit gave us an encore. What to play after this astonishing violence? Levit selected ‘Der Dichter spricht’ (the poet speaks) from Schumann’s Kinderszenen, intimate, poetic and profoundly shifting.

After Prokofiev moved again to the Soviet Union in 1936, one in every of his greatest successes was his ballet, Romeo and Juliet which premiered in 1940 at Leningrad’s Kirov Theatre. A follow-up was commissioned and Prokofiev began work on Cinderella. Amazingly, regardless of the Nazi invasion the work would finally be premiered in 1945, at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre. The work remains to be best-known within the UK due to Frederick Ashton’s 1948 ballet.

After the premiere, Prokofiev extracted three orchestral suites, revising the music for the live performance hall. We had been handled to a range from the primary and third suites, organized for musical selection. However as if to counter this, earlier than every motion Iván Fischer gave a brief abstract of what was taking place. Prokofiev’s music for Cinderella doesn’t have the symphonic sweep or grandness of his earlier ballet, however his suites use a severely massive orchestra.

We started on the ball, with a Pavane that was mild on its ft but filled with vigour, the class modified by robust articulation and ahead movement. Two actions devoted to the step-sisters moved from delicate character to vivid scurrying with crisp articulation and plenty of instrumental color and element. When the Fairy Godmother appeared we had ravishingly ethereal textures. A return to the ball featured the vivid pleasure and rhythms of the Mazurka full with insouciant violin melody. Orientalia, a cease off on the Prince’s seek for Cinderella, was filled with color and motion, however intent too. Then we skittered alongside to the ball with Cinderella, the orchestra’s self-discipline and power because the music received sooner and sooner resulting in among the best recognized numbers, Cinderella’s waltz with a superb sweep to it because the rhythms dipped and swayed. Come Midnight we had all of the brilliance and vividness of Prokofiev’s imaginative orchestration for the incessant chiming of the clock, all noise and drama resulting in the fragile transparency of the Prince and Cinderella’s remaining scene collectively, ending with the music evaporating into simply the celeste. Pure magic.

We received an encore too! The gavotte from Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony.