After hearing what he considered to be a poorly written piece for two violins, Sergei Prokofiev was inspired to compose his own work for two violins.
Prokofiev’s “Sonata for Two Violins in C Major, Op. 56” was written in 1932 during a vacation near Saint-Tropez, France.
“It’s absolutely fantastic, technically speaking,” says Ruxandra Marquardt, who plays the work with violinist David Felberg during Serenata of Santa Fe’s “The Russians” concert on January 20 at First Presbyterian Church.
“This is a very challenging work, as are the other two violin pieces in our repertoire,” Marquardt continues. “I’m delighted to be playing it with David. He and I are very comfortable working together. We’ve played together quite a bit.”
“The Russians” is a program that features works by Prokofiev, Aram Khachaturian and Dimitri Shostakovich and the talents of Marquardt, Felberg, cellist Dana Winograd, clarinetist Keith Lemmons and pianist Debra Ayers.
Marquardt describes “Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 2 in E Minor,” which she has played many times, as “a very powerful, emotionally-charged piece that uses every note and phrase to say something.”
The piano trio was written in 1944 as a lamentation for one of Shostakovich’s close friends and victims of the Holocaust. It’s the composer’s first work to utilize scales and rhythms found in Jewish folk music.
The concert opens with Khachaturian’s “Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano in G minor,” which was written while the composer was a student at the Moscow Conservatory in the early 1930s. In this work the violin becomes a partner of the clarinet, sharing the melody throughout the piece. Several movements in the work were inspired by folk songs and dances.
Tickets are available online and at the door.
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