Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63

The concerto unfolds in three movements.

I. Allegro moderato opens with the solo violin alone, singing a bare, unaccompanied melody in G minor before the orchestra joins in; the movement alternates this yearning theme with faster, more angular passages, and the opening tune returns transformed at the close.

II. Andante assai is the emotional heart of the piece, a long-breathed, tender melody floated over a gently rocking accompaniment in the strings, plucked pizzicato, that never lets the tune rest; listen for how the violin ornaments the same melody more elaborately each time it returns.

III. Allegro, ben marcato is a driving finale built on a stamping, dance-like rhythm colored by castanets, evoking the Spanish city of Madrid where Prokofiev led the premiere; the movement pushes to a brilliant, percussive close. Throughout, listen for the contrast between the violin's warm, singing lines and the orchestra's leaner, sometimes biting commentary, a hallmark of Prokofiev's mature style.

Prokofiev wrote his Second Violin Concerto in 1935, during a period of travel between Paris, the Soviet Union, and other European cities, not long before he settled permanently in Moscow. It was commissioned by a group of admirers of the French violinist Robert Soetens, who had also premiered Prokofiev's Sonata for Two Violins. Soetens gave the first performance in Madrid on December 1, 1935, with the Madrid Symphony Orchestra. The concerto quickly entered the international repertoire and has remained one of Prokofiev's most frequently performed orchestral works, valued for combining his gift for long, lyrical melody with the rhythmic bite and orchestral color of his earlier, more modernist scores.