Sergei Prokofiev wrote the Overture on Hebrew Themes, Op. 34, in 1919 while he was in the United States. It is scored for the rare combination of clarinet, string quartet and piano. Fifteen years later the composer prepared a version for chamber orchestra, his “Op. 34 bis”

Its structure follows the form of a fairly conventional sonata form. It is in the key of C minor. The clarinet and the cello are prominent, introducing the first and second themes respectively. However, all instruments are balanced well, and each instrument plays both themes, often in imitation. The first theme, Un poco allegro, has a jumpy and festive rhythm, unmistakably evoking klezmer music by alternating low and high registers and using "hairpin" dynamics. The second theme, Più mosso, is a nostalgic cantabile theme introduced in the cello and then passed to the first violin

Prokofiev did not regard the work very highly. When a Scots critic, Andrew Fraser, published an article in 1929 describing the Overture as "a beautiful and pathetic work", the composer wrote in response, "its technique is conventional, its form is bad (4 + 4 + 4 + 4)". When his friend Nikolai Myaskovsky praised the second theme, Prokofiev retorted, with reference to the work's coda, "from the musical point of view, the only worthwhile part, if you please, is the final section, and that, I think, is probably the result of my sweetness and diatonicism."

Performed by:
USSR State Symphony Orchestra
with Yevgeny Svetlanov