Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26

Composer: PROKOFIEV, Sergei
  • Prokofiev’s best-known piano concerto, Opus 26, premiered in 1921 in Chicago while the composer was living in America. However, he had been slowly piecing the concerto together over the previous few years.1
  • Though Prokofiev’s compositional style was based in Russian Romanticism, he found a way to create a highly distinctive voice apart from his contemporaries. When listening to works like this piano concerto, listeners can instantly recognize Prokofiev’s unique style.2
  • Stylistically, Piano Concerto No. 3 resembles the neoclassical elements of Prokofiev’s “Classical” Symphony No. 1.
  • Surprisingly, given the work’s immense popularity today, Prokofiev’s third piano concerto wasn’t an immediate success when it premiered.3

Sources

  1. Dorothea Redepenning, “Prokofiev, Sergey,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed September 15, 2022,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000022402.
  2. William E. Runyan, “Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, op. 26,” Runyan Program Notes, 2015, accessed September 15, 2022, https://runyanprogramnotes.com/sergei-prokofiev/piano-concerto-no-3-c-major-op-26.
  3. Daniel Jaffé, “Piano Concerto No. 3” in accompanying booklet, Prokofiev – Piano Concertos 1 & 3 performed by Simon Trpceski and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vasily Petrenko, Onyx 4140, 2017, compact disc.

Cut IDs

41377 11735