Undulating chords set amidst a sea of calm, as the piano gently introduced a heavenly melody, high in the sky. Twisting, turning, grasping at embers in the snow, unsure which direction to turn next. Such was the scene in the generous acoustics of De Duif, Amsterdam on Sunday as Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto, echoed all around. The performance given by the Dutch-Russian pianist Sofia Vasheruk and Het Oost-Nederlands Symfonieorkest, conducted by Jeppe Moulijn was the first of two performances of the work in Amsterdam this week. The other, given by the Argentinian pianist Nelson Goerner with the Concertgebouw Orchestra as part of a Prokofiev Festival with Hungarian conductor, Iván Fischer.
The programme
The history
Prokofiev’s concerto has an interesting history. After a rather disastrous premiere in 1913 when many in the audience struggled to cope with the ‘ugly’ and ‘jarring’ modernist sounds, the work lay unpublished for years before literally going up in flames as an indirect victim of the 1917 Russian Revolution. Prokofiev who by that time had left Russia for London and Paris, was informed of the manuscript’s fate by his friend Boris Asafiev.
Undeterred, Prokofiev set about rewriting the concerto. And, as the soloist in that very first performance, the piano part was ‘in his fingers’. However, the orchestration was not. In the resulting rewrite, changes were so frequent that the composer himself joked that the new version was perhaps his Fourth Concerto!
Unlike his first concerto, the second does indeed have a very dark side. But as one of the most technically demanding works in the repertoire, the challenge is therefore to translate the angst and terror into something which is palatable and attractive to modern audiences, leaving them wanting to hear more.
The performance
Vasheruk immediately accepted this challenge and drew the audience close. After the grasping uncertainty of the opening theme, the second, full of quirky rhythms and interspersed with sudden flurries, possessed a childlike innocence. As we have come to expect, Vasheruk not only found those melodic gems, but illuminated a path through the dense forest, making Prokofiev’s language just that bit more accessible. A full-bodied orchestral response gave a little respite at the end of the first movement’s vast cadenza, before returning to the heavenly undulating stillness of the opening chords; a feat in itself.
Story-telling aplenty
The Scherzo passed in a flash with piano flourishes scurrying every which way. What followed could not have been more different as the orchestra traversed the mire, creating visions of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Hobbit trudging earnestly through Middle-earth towards the Lonely Mountain. Full-throated clarinets and the brass’ earthy weightiness marching left, right, left, right, prepared the way for the piano as it journeyed to face the mighty Smaug atop his mountain of gold. In Prokofiev’s world, however, the fearsome dragon was instead a mouse. Ingenious story-telling from Moulijn and ONSO.
Vasheruk continued the technical display in a dazzling Allegro tempestoso, firmly placing her amongst a small and rarefied group of pianists who not only attempt this fiendishly difficult work but manage to make the piano sing. Again, the tuba was king, filling every crevice of the magnificent De Duif and competing with the might of the entire orchestra. Vasheruk’s repeated top notes searched for the light like stars shining bright in the night sky, giving a glimmer of hope to a composer who had recently struggled to find his own way through the depths of darkness after hearing of the death of his friend, Maximilian Schmidthof who had committed suicide. The slightly out-of-tune overtones of the De Duif piano brought a stark realism to proceedings.
Vasheruk finished with a performance of the Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt Liebeslied – Widmung aus Myrthen Op.25
This performance can be heard again in the Wilminktheater en Muziekcentrum, Enschede on Sunday 23rd February 2025
Further listening
Watch Yuja Wang play Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto no. 2
Further reading
Read this incredibly interesting interview in Gramophone magazine with Zlata Chochieva where she talks about the inherent difficulties faced when performing this work, and how she had to work through the pain in the recording studio…
Read more from Clare
This concert was reviewed on Sunday 9th February 2025 in De Duif, Amsterdam
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