Following the success of Prokofiev Milestones Vol.1, SOMM Recordings is pleased to announce the release of the second volume of Prokofiev Milestones featuring the Slovenian violinist Lana Trotovsek and Spanish pianist Maria Canyigueral.

For Russian composers born in the last decades of the nineteenth-century, the October Revolution of 1917 was cataclysmic. Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953) was born in Ukraine, known at that time as ‘Little Russia,’ and he sought exile in the United States in 1918. By 1924, he had appeared as soloist in his first three piano concertos in London. But the pull of his homeland remained strong, and in the mid 1930s he decided to return.

The initial works that Prokofiev produced in the Soviet Union – the film score for Lieutenant Kijé, the children’s tale Peter and the Wolf, and the ballet Romeo and Juliet – enjoyed wide public success. It was against this backdrop that Prokofiev began work on his First Violin Sonata, op.80, one of his most serious works with a singular depth of expression.

The second sonata on this release was commissioned by the Soviet Committee of Arts Affairs. The Sonata for Solo Violin, op.115, is a remarkably approachable work in neo-classical style. It wasn’t publicly performed until six years after Prokofiev’s death due to a decree in 1948 condemning the ‘formalism’ of much contemporary Soviet music.

This recording also includes four transcriptions. During his first visit to America in 1918, Prokofiev composed a short suite for solo piano, Tales of an Old Grandmother. The second tale, an evocative piece with a nostalgic character, was later transcribed by the Russian-born violinist, Nathan Milstein.

While in California, Prokofiev composed a set of songs without words, Five Melodies for soprano vocalise and piano. Five years later, in 1925, he arranged the pieces for violin and piano.

After his return to the Soviet Union, and following the success of Romeo and Juliet, Prokofiev produced another highly successful ballet, Cinderella. Five pieces from the ballet were transcribed by the Soviet violinist Mikhail Fichtenholz for recital repertoire. In 1939, Jascha Heifetz published his transcription of the March from Prokofiev’s 1921 opera, The Love of Three Oranges, which won praise from the composer himself.

Prokofiev’s instrument was the piano. This fact makes his lasting contributions to the violin repertoire, and his deep understanding of the inherent nature of the instrument, all the more remarkable.