Hey, Sergei. I listened to your Cello concerto in E minor, Op 58 today at work. It's a single movement piece, or maybe the movements run together. I understand it's an earlier version of the "Symphony Concerto," Op. 125, but I am not familiar with that more famous work.
Tell me, was the cadenza near the end written out or does the performer have free reign over it? The cadenza I heard I thought was sucky if you'll pardon the 21st century American slang. It just seemed like so much virtuoso noodling. Was I missing something?...
I've recently become acquainted with the
Symphony-Concerto Op. 125, the Rostropovich/Sargent recording. I haven't heard the earlier
Concerto proper, but in the liner notes it does say that Prokofiev did rework that to produce the
Symphony-Concerto, as you say. I'm pretty sure that in the latter work, Rostropovich played Prokofiev's cadenzas.
The
Symphony-Concerto is quite a complex work, some say it's overtly long. But I like the experimental nature of it, indeed, it shows what direction he was taking before his death. I recently saw the episode on
Classical Destinations DVD dealing with Shostakovich & Prokofiev's & they played another amazing late work, the
Sonata for two violins. This will be something I hope to get, his chamber music (what I've heard of it) is also superb. I think that he had so much more to give the world, but like many composers (Bartok, Hindemith, Berg) he was taken from us way too early.
& in that DVD, I learned that Prokofiev's wife, who was Jewish, was sent to the gulags by Stalin. Even though Prokofiev tried to intervene & save her, this was to no avail. It just makes me very angry with Stalin - his bust is still alongside the wall of Red Square, as the DVD showed. It should be tossed in the trash can. But maybe the authorities want it to be a reminder of this horrible tyrant? Anyhow, it was noted that Prokofiev's wife survived her incarceration, and actually lived well into her 90's. How's that for a miraculous story?...