Overture on Hebrew Themes

Prokofiev composed the original version of the Overture on Hebrew Themes during his sojourn in New York in 1920. He composed it for a chamber group that specialized in Klezmer and other Jewish music; the original orchestration was for clarinet, string quartet and piano. The piece became so popular that he was later asked to arrange it for full orchestra. It consists of two main melodies ostensibly taken from Jewish folk tunes – the first very much in the Klezmer tradition, prominently featuring the clarinet and hairpin dynamics; the second a melody played at Jewish weddings and featuring the ‘cellos and horn.