Tuesday, September 15 @ 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm CDT
Guarneri Hall presents the complex world of Sergei Prokofiev through the lens of his nine piano sonatas. From biting modernism to wartime introspection, this three-part series traces a musical and cultural evolution, exploring the rarely discussed Russian Avant-Garde of the early twentieth century.
Love and War begins with Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 1, highlighting an early infatuation with Russian traditions influenced by his training at the St. Petersburg Conservatory under Nikolai Tcherepnin and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 2 was premiered in Moscow in 1914 with the composer at the piano. He dedicated the work to his friend and fellow student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Maximilian Schmidthof, who committed suicide in 1913.
Piano Sonata No. 6, the first of Prokofiev’s “War Sonatas,” closes the evening. Written in 1939, three years after his return to the Soviet Union, Prokofiev’s No. 6 is driven by an undercurrent of unease that reflects on uncertainty and violence at the start of the Second World War.
Love and War is hosted by Tanya Landau, PhD candidate in the department of Musicology at Northwestern University with opening remarks from Nina Gurianova, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Slavic Languages at Northwestern University.
Program
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953): Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 1
Sergei Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 14
Sergei Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 6, Op. 82
Artists: Adam Neiman, piano; Tanya Landau, host; Nina Gurianova, guest speaker
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