Michaerl Anderson & Alice Blankenship - Music of Prokofiev

Michael Anderson and microphilharmonic open the 2024-25 season with the music of Russian-Soviet composer Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953): the Violin Sonata No. 2 in D Major, Op.94a (1943); the Quintet in G minor Op. 39 (1924); and the Overture on Hebrew Themes Op. 34 (1919). Each of these works represents a different aspect of Prokofiev’s musical character: the Violin Sonata is Classical in nature, with the structure and musical language deriving from Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. The Quintet is Modernist…more dissonant, using Prokofiev’s so-called “wrong-note” style. The Overture on Hebrew Themes shows Prokofiev’s interest in folk music using themes based on the character of Russian Jewish styles like klezmer.

Michael writes of the program:

“The program will open with Prokofiev’s Violin Sonata No. 2, a very “classical” work that opens with a movement in sonata form, then a scherzo, a slow movement and a heroic finale, that Prokofiev said he “wanted to write in a gentle, flowing, classical style.”  Alice Blankenship, violin and Hung-yun Chu, piano will perform.

The second work is the Quintet in G Minor for boe, clarinet, violin, viola, and double bass. This is one of Prokofiev’s most radical “modernist” scores, filled with clashing – even polygonal –harmonies, as well as irregular rhythms. The first movement opens with what is sometimes called Prokofiev’s “wrong note” style, with an oboe solo filled with“wrong” sounding notes. Originally conceived as a ballet score about circus life, titled “Trapeze”, it was too difficult for the dancers, so the composer reworked it into the Quintet. Oboist Tom Nugent, clarinetist Michael Anderson,violinist Lisa McWhorter, violist Arnaud Ghillebaert, and bassist Jason Schooler will perform.

We will close the program with the Overture on Hebrew Themes for clarinet, string quartet, and piano, composed in 1919 while Prokofiev was in the United States. It was commissioned by the Zimro Ensemble, who gave Prokofiev a notebook of Jewish folk songs, although the themes have never been traced to any authentic folk music sources. We assume that Prokofiev or possibly the group’s leader, clarinetist Simeon Bellison, composed them in the Jewish style. This work is very evocative of the klezmer style and contrasts high and low registers, dynamic shifts,and jumpy festive rhythms followed by sweet melodies.  Michael Anderson, Alice Blankenship, Lisa McWhorter, Arnaud Ghillebaert, cellist Kathryn Brunhaver, and Hung-yun Chu will perform.