Violin instead of voice
Sergei Prokofiev's violin melodies from vocalizations in a new edition.
Prokofiev began writing vocalises for voice and piano for his beloved singer Nina Koshetz in New York in 1920. He finished these five Songs without words during a tour in California. In Paris in 1925, Joseph Szigeti, Paweł Kochański and Cecilia Hansen asked him to arrange the melodies for violin. Kochański helped to rearrange the violin part; the piano part remained unchanged. They were published by Edition russe de Musique in Berlin in 1925. They have been part of the important violin repertoire ever since. A Barcarolle marks the beginning, followed by a Lullaby, a Mysterious Musing, a Scherzando (Seguidilla) and a Nocturne.
The new edition contains many small corrections, which are explained in the notes, and appears with a generous set of notes.
Sergei Prokofiev: Five Melodies for violin and piano op. 35a, edited by Fabian Czolbe, with an additional violin part marked by T. A. Irnberger, HN1539, € 13.00, G. Henle, Munich
