Overture on Hebrew Themes, Op. 34

This overture was commissioned by the Jewish ensemble Simro, which was made up of six former classmates from the St. Petersburg Conservatory, whom Prokofiev met again in New York in 1919. They wanted an overture for their individual sextet formation and gave Prokofiev a book with Hebrew melodies. The composer was initially reluctant, since he did not normally work with themes that were not his own. But then his interest was sparked, and he completed the task in just two days. In the overture, cheerful, dance-like sections alternate with melancholy passages, whereby the ensemble's special colour comes to the fore with the Klezmer sound so typical of Jewish music. The edition presented by Fabian Czolbe, with a preface by renowned Prokofiev scholar Simon Morrison, is thefirst Urtext edition of this work.