Violin Concerto no. 2 in G minor, op. 63

The Second Violin Concerto was commissioned in 1935 by a group of admirers of the French violinist Robert Soetens, who was granted exclusive performing rights for one year. Prokofiev wrote it while travelling: the first theme in Paris, the slow movement in Voronezh, the orchestration in Baku. The premiere took place in Madrid on 1 December 1935, with Soetens and the Madrid Symphony Orchestra. It was the last work he completed before settling permanently in the Soviet Union, and castanets in the finale acknowledge the city of the first performance. Enrique Fernández Arbós conducted the first performance, and the score is dedicated to Soetens, with whom Prokofiev toured in Portugal, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.