Prokofiev - Violin Sonata 2 [Repin/ Berezovsky] 

Here's a nice surprise for my Blog, i played this disc because it's in my collection, i've struggled with these works, but the answer is to keep giving them a spin, and slowly they could warm to you, well today i more than warmed to it, suddenly almost out of nowhere i feel that these works are firm friends, the third movement Andante of Sonata 1 was very meaningful, but it was Sonata 2 that really fell into place, it now all makes sense, the First Sonata actually sounds like something Shostakovich would do, especially the slow movements, but the Second is all Prokofiev, with his wry melodies, now i'm on the lookout to maybe sample some other interpretations.

Vadim Repin is Russian, he is still only 41, and he recorded this disc in 1995, Repin / Berezovsky look so youthful on the front booklet, he now has greying hair, the front cover picture [by Thomas Muller] is a nice warm double portrait, highlighted by the dark background, and the orange colours, nicely laid out.

The first two movements were tremendous, and it was probably the second movement that i found so compelling, it's a short thing of not much more than 4 minutes, and full of invention and ideas, the violin playing a nice little impish melody with a pizzicato plink at the end of it, and the piano is no spectator / accompanist, and the violin glides in figurative whoops, and the piano responds with runs up and down the treble [0:38-0:46], that's a nice effect, the tune gets played twice before there's a more restrained middle section of sadness [1:40-2:55], sounding somewhat like a lazy Shostakovich march, and it's good to have the initial tune return [3:00+], and really it's over almost before it's started, there's some good twangy pizzicato near the end, nicely virtuosic, a great little movement of invention.

Here's Gidon Kremer and Martha Argerich playing the second movement on YouTube.

Prokofiev - Piano Concerto 3 [Toradze/ Gergiev-Kirov Orchestra] 

Ah the first Classical disc in my Blog of this new year, i was feeling that non Classical music might be taking over, and that's not a bad thing, i really do need to make Classical music less than 50% of my musical love, so on to this fabulous two disc set from Toradze and Gergiev, it's good to have the whole of the five on one set, even if 2 and 3 are superior to the rest, i've actually played this set fairly extensively, more than a dozen times, and yet still crazily this is its first appearance in my Blog, and even more crazily pre-Blogging i have some sort of amnesia towards the interpretation of certain performances, i really couldn't tell you what makes this set unique from other sets of the same, but one of the great things about a Blog, is that i'm 'forced' to analyse the music i listen to, now i'm looking at that 'why', not just the why of a certain interpretation, but the why of 'why did a Composer compose it this way?', i'm glad for another chance to analyse this set.

Alexander Toradze is Georgian, he is now 60 years old, he recorded this Concerto in 1996, this is one of those inch thick fatbox double disc sets, very nice, and a great addition to any growing library / collection, the front cover photograph is by Maarten Corbijn, a black & white double portrait of Toradze and Gergiev, in a nice candid moment, the red and black lettering goes very well.

The second movement Theme and Variations are just full of incredible invention by Prokofiev, here it's over 10 minutes of music, with a theme and five variations, the movement is couched in the key of E Minor [and makes its bedfellows with Shostakovich's Tenth, and Vaughan Williams's Sixth],
Theme [0:00-1:00] is very much a lazy woodwind affair in a way, dominated by the flute, nice gentle dissonances,
Variation One [0:58-2:08] the piano comes in as a solo, basically copying the orchestral opening, though towards the end there's some delicious ringing treble notes [1:38-1:50],
Variation Two [2:07-2:53] and then the fireworks break loose, lots of nice dissonance that Prokofiev is so expert at, the trumpet blows out some discordant stuff, and nicely grates against the piano, with a mute i believe,
Variation Three [2:53-4:12] next up is a gallumping piano thing, almost as if Toradze is playing with his clomping feet instead of his fingers, i love the way the bass notes resonate, or is that augmented by the orchestra?,
Variation Four [4:13-7:27] makes gentle mysterious sounds Ravel would have been proud of, the piano plays solo for a good portion of the time, conjuring up a magical kingdom,
Variation Five [7:27-8:48] another Allegro, building up and up, in speed and volume,
Coda & Ending [8:48-10:23] bringing back the main theme, but this time with a more complex piano accompaniment, there's a slow and solemn ending where the piano has the last word in the deep bass. 

Here's Martha Argerich playing the second movement Theme and Variations on YouTube.

Prokofiev - Piano Concerto 2 [Beroff/ Masur-Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig] 

Prokofiev's Piano Concerto's haven't been spread all over my Blog, in fact they're thin on the ground, i still don't know these works very well, the Second and Third appeal to me the most, they are in fact teeming with Prokofiev's quirky rhythms and off hand devices, he certainly has a way with throwing in spanners that at first seem to clog up the natural flow, but in reality they're delicious ideas that are part of the very 'un'natural flow!, his Fourth and Fifth Concertos are harder to follow, everyone seems to like the Third the best, but i've always gravitated towards the Second, it has some scintillating ideas. 

Michel Beroff is French, he's now 62, he recorded this work in 1974, this is a 2 disc 'fatbox' set, very nice, it comes from the EMI 'Rouge Et Noir' series [Red & Black], i have a number of these box sets, notably Poulenc and Faure sets, this one comes with an excellent photo on the front [by Jacques Sarrat], it's the black background which sets the subject out so starkly, there's also a light shining from the upper back, giving a nice highlight on the shoulders, making things stand out all the more against the blackness, the hands are very interesting and well posed, nice wristwatch, the lettering shape / size isn't great, but it's made up for by the colour scheme, the green of course matches the shirt, and the red matches the logo, well placed and well thought out, on the back inlay it's small writing, but it gives all the information, you don't need to flip through the booklet to find the timings, a great disc set.

The whole of this Concerto was fantastic, very very inventive, i just loved the first movement the best, a quirky and awkward start on hesitant low pizzicato strings, and even the piano doesn't at first seem interested, lazy in its tune, but slowly increases in volume, and it's when Prokofiev gets going that his crazy ideas all make sense [1:57+], i like the way Prokofiev goes up and down the keyboard like some Jazz Organist [2:17-2:23], the music comes to some sort of conclusion [2:45+], as if the preceding music was just an introduction, and Prokofiev gets his keyboardist really working hard [3:07-3:25], while in the background the woodwind [piccolos i can hear] are going piping crazy, .

Here's Yuja Wang playing the first movement on YouTube.

Prokofiev - Violin Concerto 1 [Chung/ Previn-London Symphony Orchestra]

This was a good experience listening to this disc today, i am not very familiar with the Prokofiev Concertos, so this listen was enlightening, i feel i crossed some thresholds today, especially with the First Concerto, i feel i'm beginning to love it, and understand it, things are still in their infancy, but it just takes hard footwork [time and listening] to 'assimilate' a piece of Classical music, this is the first time a Prokofiev Violin Concerto has appeared in my Blog.

Kyung Wha Chung is South Korean, now 63 years old, she recorded this work in 1975, Chung's extensive catalogue has been re-issued by Decca, coupling different Violin Concertos, very well done, and on the whole using excellent photos for the front covers, this one is by Christian Steiner, a nice head and shoulders shot, violin and bow at the ready, and well lit from the right.

Prokofiev loves to compose complex things, there's a lot of sonorities, rhythms and percussive elements, actual melodies can take a back seat, but certainly on this listening, i can hear those tunes, once you understand the Prokofiev language, he's a wonderful Composer, it was the third movement that caught my ear the most, marked as Moderato, it starts with a tick tock theme on strings, which the woodwinds take over later, it gets more fiery as the movement progresses, and more tense too, almost halfway through there's a more expansive and airy feel, as the violin has some soaring lines, and the strings follow [3:11-3:57], right after there's a nice strumming on the harp [3:57+] sounding like the coda from Holst's Saturn at times, and later like Neptune [4:47-4:56 & 5:32-5:42], and it's good to notice how Prokofiev uses the harp, it's an excellent instrument, the highlight of the movement is a quieter passage, where the violin trills away high in the treble [5:49-6:43], just so beautiful with a woodwind chorus, now i notice it i will never forget this passage, and i'll look forward to it next time, the closing pages of the Concerto are inspired, more violin trills in the treble, but this time backed up by ghostly flutes [6:43+], which end in tremolo strings softly strummed like flamenco banjos!, a superb effect, and the flute has a last ghostly outro [7:36-7:47], Prokofiev can certainly cook up some nice sounds.

Here's Hilary Hahn playing the third movement on YouTube.

Prokofiev - Symphony 6 [Rostropovich/ Orchestre National De France]

These Elatus series of discs are a budget series from the Warner Classics archive, this disc was originally released on Teldec i believe, this is one of the better issues, cleverly coupling together Prokofiev's last two Symphonies, they're not heard that greatly, and especially the Sixth is well worth getting to know, it's on a par with the Fifth.

Mstislav Rostropovich passed away 4 years ago, quite possibly the greatest ever Cellist, towards the end of his life he conducted more, mainly producing Russian works of his homeland, he was born in 1927, and died not long after his 80th birthday, the front cover is no great shakes, looks like some industrial coupling.

This was a great experience listening to this Symphony again, i felt restless, so i went out for a walk armed with this disc on a portable, it's now deep autumn, and walking through the park with a carpet of leaves, plus it's getting colder, even though it's nothing to do with the music, it's good to breathe fresh air and have some sort of visual to go along with it, i grew to love this Symphony by listening to Andre Previn's interpretation of it, which i listened to six months ago [24th April 2011], i'm still baffled why it isn't more popular, i really enjoyed the first movement, lovely deep brass, Prokofiev seems to use a basic theme, and then make a whole load of loose variations on it, though there's no formal structure of such, it's cast in three movements, which seems a novelty, Rostropovich seems to propel the Symphony along nicely, and yet compared to others he seems quite slow, here's some timings in minutes, 

Ashkenazy = 38

Previn = 42

Rostropovich = 45

Rostropovich is 20% slower than Ashkenazy!, the Symphony is in E Flat Minor, but the last movement turns to the happier E Flat Major, and it's this movement i liked the best, full of quirky and mischievous humour, and of course i notice that the Symphony contains a piano, to great effect, the woodwind / flutes make a wonderful sweet serenade of the main tune [1:43-2:16], nicely in the higher registers, underpinned by chugging strings, and muted brass / high violins follow suite [2:18-2:47], the movement gets quirkier by the minute, Prokofiev bringing in a nice circus of instruments / effects one after another, i like the way that he makes the movement explode in a fortissimo passage of the main tune [7:06+], and then near the end the whole thing comes to an bassoon halt, and a sad and lonesome tune appears on i believe the oboe or cor anglais [9:16-10:40], reminiscing of earlier times in the Symphony, very effective and evocative, then he brings about one of these double crescendos, starting on the lower woodwind and tremulous strings [10:46+], and the ugly brass blaze away twice [11:11 & 11:28], something Shostakovich would have done, they're like something brought in from elsewhere, a strange ending to a Symphony, the very ending a cacophony of a build up, the happiness has gone, and it's a brutal ending [11:46-12:21], that finishes in a very abrupt crescendo, and yet it's a wonderful stroke of genius, i really love it.

Here's the last movement of the Sixth Symphony being conducted by Gustavo Ubeda on YouTube.