Overture on Hebrew Themes, op. 34 ca. 10 mins. Prokofiev left Russia soon after the 1917 revolution. Anatoly Lunacharsky, Commissar of Public Education, arranged Prokofiev’s exit visa, though not without some regret: "You are a revolutionary in music”, he told the composer. “We are revolutionaries in life. We ought to work together”. Prokofiev left in May 1918 and arrived in New York on September 6 after a long journey through Siberia, Tokyo, Honolulu, San Francisco, Vancouver and Chicago. A similar journey was made the same year by the Zimro ensemble, a sextet (clarinet, piano and string quartet) of Jewish-Russian musicians, led by Simeon Bellison, former solo clarinetist at the Bolshoi and Mariinsky orchestras. The ensemble traveled eastward for a series of benefit concerts in far eastern Russia, in eastern Asia and the Orient, and in America, with the mission of establishing and building a conservatory in the Land of Israel, a “Temple of Jewish Art”. The ensemble’s repertoire consisted of works by the most prominent Jewish composers of Eastern Europe, including Joel Engel, Alexander Krein, Mikhail Gnessin and Joseph Achron. They also performed compositions from the core chamber repertoire (Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven), as well as works by non-Jewish Russian composers such as Arensky and Borodin. Their New York debut took place at Carnegie Hall on November 1, 1919, where they met Prokofiev. From this point there are two versions of the story. According to Prokofiev, Zimro’s members asked him to write an overture for them and gave him a notebook of Jewish melodies. At first, he did not want to take it because he was accustomed to using his own themes. Eventually, he kept it and one evening he chose two melodies and began to improvise on them on the piano. From this improvisation the overture was born. However, according to Bellison, it was Prokofiev who approached them and ask to compose a piece for the ensemble. The work was first performed in New York on January 26, 1920, with Prokofiev as guest pianist. It is written in sonata form, with two main themes. The clarinet plays the first theme, in Klezmer style. The Cello plays the second theme, a kind of melancholic, introspective prayer. Prokofiev was not enthusiastic about the piece, yet it became a great success. In 1934, after years of attempts to persuade him, he finally orchestrated the work. In his orchestration, he kept the prominence of the clarinet and the cello, and gave soloistic parts for the bassoon and the horn. Zimro ensemble met great success anywhere they played, yet the group soon split apart. At least three of its members never visited the Land of Israel. Bellison had a great career in the US as principal clarinetist at the New York philharmonic. His dream of establishing a temple for music in Israel was never realized, but thanks to himwe enjoy Prokofiev’s overture to this day. Oded Shnei-Dor SERGEI PROKOFIEV (1891-1953)
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