Five Melodies op. 35a

During a concert tour through California in early 1920, Prokofiev composed five songs with piano accompaniment and textless voice parts, which appeared in print as Five Songs without Words op. 35 and with a dedication to the soprano Nina Koshetz. The quasi-instrumental conception of the work as vocalises accompanied by piano suggested an arrangement for violin and piano, which the composer then indeed undertook in 1925. Enriched with octave transpositions, double stops, harmonics and pizzicati, the violin part of the five pieces gained an enormous variety of additional expressive possibilities. No wonder the Five Melodies op. 35a today number among the Russian master’s most popular chamber music works! Henle is publishing them for the first time as an Urtext edition based on all available sources. Simon Morrison, a true Prokofiev specialist, contributed the preface.