program notes

SERGEI PROKOFIEV
(1891–1953)

Prokofiev was born 1891 in Sontsovka, a small village in what is now Ukraine. He came from a musical family and his mother was an accomplished pianist. Prokofiev displayed his musical talents at a very early age, learning to play the piano and composing his first work by age five. At age thirteen, Prokofiev entered the Saint Petersburg Conservatory where he studied composition and piano and was the youngest student to ever be admitted. Prokofiev's music is often described as a blend of neoclassical and modernist elements. He had a keen interest in eighteenth-century classical music, which inspired his proclivity for clear, transparent textures, balanced phrases, and classical forms. However, he infused these traditional elements with dissonance and harmonic innovations characteristic of twentieth-century modernism.

Prokofiev's Montagues and Capulets is a powerful composition that encapsulates the tragic essence of Shakespeare's timeless love story, Romeo and Juliet. This dramatic, turbulent music, composed for Prokofiev’s ballet of the same name, serves as the iconic musical motif for the feud between the Montague and Capulet families. Prokofiev's evocative orchestration is marked by brooding brass and intense strings, conjuring a sense of impending conflict and fate.