Piano Concerto No. 4 (Prokofiev)

Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 4 in B-flat major for the left hand, Op. 53, was commissioned by the one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein and completed in 1931.

Wittgenstein did not understand the work, but it is not the case (as has sometimes been claimed) that he refused to play it. He was simply not prepared to play it until such time as he had appreciated its inner logic. That time never came, but Wittgenstein and Prokofiev always remained on friendly terms.

It was the only one of Prokofiev's complete piano concertos that never saw a performance during his lifetime. It was premiered in Berlin on 5 September 1956 by Siegfried Rapp and the West Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Martin Rich. The United States premiere was in 1958, by Rudolf Serkin and the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy.[1] The British premiere was in 1961, by Malcolm Binns.[2]

Prokofiev expressed some interest in making an arrangement for piano two-hands and orchestra, but never went through with this idea.[3]

Structure

The four movements last around 25 minutes:

  1. Vivace (4–5 mins.)
  2. Andante (8–13 mins.)
  3. Moderato (8–9 mins.)
  4. Vivace (1–2 mins.)

The outer movements serve in a way as prelude and postlude, with the middle two comprising the bulk of the concerto. The Andante is reflective and makes rhetorical use of the strings, expanding with Romantic grandness. The remarkable third movement in modified sonata form, punctured and playful — some have said “sarcastic” — offers arresting, emphatic dialogs between the piano and the percussion section; it is marked Moderato and to be effective must be played strictly as such: not the least bit hurried. The Vivace ends abruptly, with the piano running up pianissimo to a high B-flat7.

Instrumentation

The work is scored for solo piano (left hand), 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 1 trumpet, 1 trombone, bass drum and strings.

Recordings
Pianist Orchestra Conductor Record Company Year of Recording Format
Siegfried Rapp LOH-Orchester Sondershausen (Orchester Der Deutsch-sowietischen Freundschaft) Gerhart Wiesenhutter ETERNA 1962 LP
Vladimir Ashkenazy London Symphony Orchestra André Previn Decca 1975 LP
Kun-Woo Paik Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Antoni Wit Naxos 1991 CD
Boris Berman Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Neeme Järvi Chandos 1989 CD
Michel Beroff Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra Kurt Masur EMI 1974 LP
Abdel Rahman El Bacha Théâtre de la Monnaie Orchestra Kazushi Ono Fuga Libera 2004 CD
Nikolai Demidenko London Philharmonic Orchestra Alexander Lazarev Hyperion 1998 CD
Gabriel Tacchino Orchestra of Radio Luxembourg Louis de Froment Vox Records 1977 LP
Leon Fleisher Boston Symphony Orchestra Seiji Ozawa Sony Classical 1991 CD
Vladimir Krainev Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra Dmitri Kitajenko Atlantic/Teldec CD
Alexander Toradze Kirov Theatre Orchestra Valery Gergiev Philips 1995,1996,1997 CD
Viktoria Postnikova USSR Ministry of Culture State Symphony Orchestra Gennadi Rozhdestvensky CD
Yefim Bronfman Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Zubin Mehta Sony Classical 1993 CD
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet BBC Philharmonic Gianandrea Noseda Chandos 2012 CD
Alexei Volodin St. Petersbury Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra Valery Gergiev Mariinsky 2015 CD

References
  1. Hans Brofeldt: Piano Music for the Left Hand Alone
  2. Arkiv Music
  3. Blake Howe, "Paul Wittgenstein and the Performance of Disability, "The Journal of Musicology 27 (2010): 135–80.. Retrieved 25 February 2014
  • "The Prokofiev Page". Archived from the original on 23 March 2012.
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