The Creative context of Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2.

The Violin Concerto No.2 is the last work by Sergei Prokofiev, composed before his final

return to the USSR. At this time, 1930 – 1936, the composer traveled around the world with

tours and at the same time composed this concerto. Prokofiev recalled in his

autobiography: “The concerto was written in various countries, reflecting my nomadic

concert life: the main part of the first movement was written in Paris, the first theme of the

second movement was written in Voronezh, the instrumentation was completed in Baku,

the first performance took place in Madrid".

During his travel period, Prokofiev met many people that influenced him to create works

that became his signature compositions. For example, the ballet patron Sergei Diaghilev

influenced Prokofiev’s ballet composition style by including him in the ballet environment

that Diaghilev established in Paris in the beginning of the 20th century. The music of this

concerto is truly theatrical - some of its moments are reminiscent of Prokofiev's late ballets,

especially Cinderella and Romeo and Juliet. In this study, I aim to investigate how exactly

Prokofiev’s creative process and inspiration changed before, during, and after the travel

period while he wrote the violin Concerto No. 2.

The knowledge and literature about that period and the concerto is scattered in a variety of

studies about Prokofiev’s ballets and other compositions he wrote during his travels. As a

native speaker of Russian language, I will study all the materials in Russian. For data

collection, I will be using the composer’s journal entries and correspondences, to get the

perspective from the Prokofiev’s point of view. Meanwhile I will investigate academic

articles and books to triangulate the information that we collected from the composer’s

standpoint.
My main process of discovering the ‘’creative context’’ of this piece will be to read

Prokofiev’s diary and correspondence from that period. I will also compare the concerto

with ballets that were written in about the same time, using the score material to point out

similarities between compositions. As some section of the concerto and the ballets had been

composed simultaneously, so it is not difficult to hear the borrowed materials and motives.

The Violin Concerto No. 2 is an important piece in violin repertoire and a highly

appreciated piece around the globe for philharmonic repertoire. Among other big violin

concertos that are required for violin for orchestra auditions, or violin teaching positions,

this concerto is not only as technically but also musically challenging. This study will

benefit music performers, teachers, conductors or even classical music admirers to better

understand under which circumstances this concerto was written. Additionally, this

research will uncover what inspired Prokofiev to compose different musical genres and how

they relate to each other.