Overture on Hebrew Themes

Sergei Prokofiev wrote the Overture on Hebrew Themes, Op. 34, in 1919, during a trip to the United States. It is written for a relatively uncommon instrumentation of clarinet, string quartet, and piano.

Background

Prokofiev arrived in New York in September, 1918. Overall, his years in America were not as successful as he had hoped:

"The public here is not used to listening to the works of a single composer for a whole evening. People want a varied programme as a showcase for popular pieces. [Sergei] Rachmaninoff has accepted this compromise. I could not even dream of the overwhelming success he has with his concerts."

Nevertheless, he did manage regular appearances in American concert halls. Though Rachmaninoff was the leading Russian pianist in America at the time (having introduced himself in 1909–1910), Prokofiev gave many concerts that season of his own works and emphasized his image as a pianist.

Early in 1919, he was commissioned by a Jewish ensemble, Zimro, which had emigrated from the Soviet Union. (The members played the instruments in this work's instrumentation.) They gave Prokofiev a notebook of Jewish folksongs, and Prokofiev completed the composition very quickly. It received its premiere in New York in 1920, with Prokofiev at the piano. This piece was later orchestrated in 1934 as Op. 34a, although the orchestrated version is performed far less often.

Movement

Its structure follows the form of a fairly conventional overture. It is in the key of C minor. The clarinet and the cello are very prominent, introducing the first and the second themes, respectively. However, all instruments are balanced well, and each instrument plays both themes, often in imitation. The piano part, interestingly, is not very difficult in comparison to Prokofiev's many virtuoso piano works; Zimro's pianist was probably an amateur.

Jewish folk music has a paradoxically happy-yet-tragic and festive quality that many, including Dmitri Shostakovich, found very powerful. The first theme, un poco allegro, has a jumpy and festive rhythm, resembling those of gypsy airs. It also has a very characteristic use of semitone intervals, which recur throughout the whole work. The second theme, piu mosso, is a very songful cantabile theme, well-suited to the cello's upper range, that is then treated imitatively by all the other instruments.

External links

• Overture on Hebrew Themes: Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project.
• Program notes by the Sierra Chamber Society