Piano Concerto No. 3 (Prokofiev)

Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26, is a concerto by Sergei Prokofiev. It was completed in 1921 using sketches first started in 1913.

Sergei Prokofiev began work on the concerto as early as 1913 when he wrote a theme with variations which he then set aside. Although he revisited the sketches in 1916–17, he did not fully devote himself to the project until 1921 when he was spending the summer in Brittany.

Prokofiev himself played the solo part at the premiere on 16 December 1921 in Chicago with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by . The work did not gain immediate popularity and had to wait until 1922 to be confirmed in the 20th century canon, after Serge Koussevitzky conducted a lavishly praised performance in Paris. The first Soviet performance was on 22 March 1925, by Samuil Feinberg, with the Orchestra of the Theatre of the Revolution under Konstantin Saradzhev.

The concerto consists of three movements of roughly equal length which last just under 30 minutes in total.

The concerto is scored for a solo piano accompanied by an orchestra with the following instrumentation.

Of the five piano concertos written by Prokofiev, the third piano concerto has garnered the greatest popularity and critical acclaim. The concerto radiates a crisp vitality that testifies to Prokofiev's inventive prowess in punctuating lyrical passages with witty dissonances, while maintaining a balanced partnership between the soloist and orchestra. Unlike the examples of piano concertos set by many of Prokofiev's Romantic forebears, the orchestra rises above subsidiary accompaniment to play a very active part in this work.

The first movement (C-major) opens with an andante clarinet solo, a long, lyrical melody that the whole orchestra eventually picks up and expands. The strings begin the allegro section with a scalar passage which seems to accelerate towards an upwards glissando climax, at which point the allegro entry of the solo piano unexpectedly breaks the lyrical mood in an exuberant, harmonically fluid burst of brilliance and rhythm, utilizing fragments of the first theme. Piano and orchestra continue in dialogue until the piano introduces the harmonic structure for the second theme with a loud, unexpected march-like climax.

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