"Prokofiev seems to be the introvert and Shostakovich the extrovert." - orquesta tipica
Yes!

Looking for some recommendations on a good recording for Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, Suites 1 & 2.

Merci a tous!

ChamberNut,

I'd recommend that you buy the entire ballet. Why settle for snippets? The whole piece is so extravagantly beautiful. And there are several good recordings. Kitayenko, Gergiev, Ozawa, Previn, Maazel, Mogrelia. I grew up on Leinsdorf's recording of excerpts, and Maazel's was the first recording I had of the complete ballet. It's very fine, but I probably listen to Previn or Gergiev most often nowadays. The Mogrelia is surprisingly good--real scrappy, though--and has the additional advantage of being on Naxos.

Otherwise, I was surprised to see Prokofiev described in this thread as the introvert and Shostakovich as the extrovert as that's the opposite of what most commentators have said. I would say that both views are wrong as too limiting. Both of those composers were great composers, so they both cover a wide range of musical meaning. Prokofiev covered the wider range, I'd say, but almost all my Russian friends prefer Shostakovich. Prokofiev's too "cool" and "acerbic" for their tastes, I suppose, though he's so much more than those two words imply.

As for the piano concertos, they're all great, except for maybe the first one, which is often kind of silly. But it's such an engaging silliness, it's difficult not to love it. The fifth is the least well liked, for some reason. It's practically the most perfect thing Prokofiev wrote, that and the Quintet and the eighth piano sonata. Which is saying a lot, as the quality of Prokofiev's music is pretty uniformly high. It's not immediately engaging, a lot of it, which is why only a few works seem to be well-known. Give it time, and you'll see how rich and various it all is.

And don't forget those operas, either. Eight of them, and at least four of those among the finest operas ever. At least. (Love for Three Oranges, Semyon Kotko, Betrothal in a Monastery, and War and Peace. Which is not to say that Maddelena and The Gambler and The Fiery Angel aren't well worth a listen. I don't know about The Story of a Real Man, yet, as the only recording is of a truncated version of the truncated version. Yes, you read right.)

In fact even better a DVD of the ballet. Several are available but for the real classic it's Margot Fonteyn and Nureyev. Unfortunately the sound is less than perfect so it would attract a ballet rather than music fan. The Bolshoi have done a more recent one with Natalya Bessmertnova and Irek Mukhamedov.

yes, I couldn't understand that statement either. Shostakovich was the introvert of the two.

EF

True. Visit the Broadcast corner thread, you can download a fantastic video for free.

One of the greatest 20th Century composers. Hardly wrote a "dud" melody. Yes he is inconsistent but the "colour" of his music and the driving rhythms are what makes his music special. My recommendations are:

1st and 3rd Piano Concertos (the 3rd was my own intro to 20th century music)
3rd symphony
6th Symphony
2nd String Quartet
both Vioin concertos
3rd and 7th Piano sonatas

I really love his choral music. So much of his instrumental music sounds too similar to stereotypical modernist compositions, but his choral music has a fire about it that works really well with his style.

Say what?

(You'd didn't really think you'd be allowed to get away with saying that unremarked, did you? Besides, it's 2007.

Two thousand seven. So many compositions have been written since then... And even were it still 1952, there had been so many compositions up to then, so many different styles. I mean, be fair, that's what the 20th century was all about, pluralism.)

I agree. I went to bed yesterday having an "electronics+percussion" private feast through Kaija Saariaho's Gardens. Not a single melody in there.

My Prokofiev favourites are
-Ivan the Terrible
-War and Peace
-Alexander Nevsky
-Cantata for the 20trh Anniversary of the October Revolution
-On Guard for Peace

I greatly enjoy Prokofiev though I don't go nuts for all of his music.

Yes, the 5th Symphony is great, as is the 3rd Piano Concerto. My favorite work by this composer is the massive cantata Alexander Nevsky. It's Prokofiev at his most accessible.

Romeo and Juliet is also great. His Scythian Suite is often regarded as a rip-off of the Rite of Spring...and maybe this is tru to an extent...but it's also a very fun work.

Lt. Kije is Prokofiev-light, but completely engaging from beginning to end.

__________________
"Music is not philosophy." --Akira Ifukube

Prokofiev's 3rd (Played by Martha Argerich) is the only REAL concerto on the planet.

Prokofiev can be experienced as both a Late Romanticist and as a 20th century Modernist and Neoclassicist -- take your pick!

Of the many of his works in which I indulge, my single personal favorite is Piano Concerto No. 2.

What would you recommend as a first buy among his operas? Which one is the most accessible?

I've lived with all these operas for so long now, that I have no idea which would be considered most accessible. And accessible to one person might be inaccessible to another, after all!

So how about a brief word about each for you? (I wouldn't do this for just anyone, you know!)

Maddelena: Early work. Sounds a bit like Love for Three Oranges in parts. It's very charming, but it didn't charm me right at first. (Come to think of it, very little Prokofiev ever charmed me at first. Some horrible glitch in my brain, I'm sure.)

The Gambler: Probably the least liked of his well-known operas. It's maybe a bit rough, a bit uneven. He's trying out new things in it, though. And that's always interesting. Maybe save this one for later.

Love for Three Oranges: This one is wild and unrestrained. It's the Le Grand Macabre of the early part of the century. Good, clean fun throughout. Plus there are a couple of excerpts from this that everyone has heard over and over again.

The Fiery Angel: Also maybe one to leave to the side for awhile. It's not ebullient or charming, but serious and obsessive and dark. Fiery dark. If you know the third symphony, you've already heard a lot of the music of this opera. I didn't find that that helped much, though. That might simply be because this was the first Prokofiev opera I bought (in an undistinguished performance and long before I was listening to any operas much).

Semyon Kotko: One of Prokofiev's finest works, I'd say. It's quite a powerful, passionate work. Don't be put off by the "Soviet" story line. The story is really about the people and their human responses to the events. But even if it weren't, the music is so glorious that the plot matters not one whit.

Betrothal in a Monastery: From just a year or two after Semyon Kotko, this one's another comedy. Not as extravagent a set up as for Love for Three Oranges, but scrumptious music throughout. I'd be tempted to call this one the most accessible.

War and Peace: This is a big, sprawling, wildly beautiful work. It's late enough in his career to be rather milder music, but it's still great stuff. If you can like the seventh symphony and Stone Flower, you won't have any trouble liking this one, either. And it's much much better than either of those two.

Story of a Real Man: Still waiting for a complete version of this to be recorded. By Gergiev. Not likely, as it's blatantly Soviet and quite late so quite um well decadent/melodic/lush. Still, it is Prokofiev, and even bad Prokofiev is pretty good.

So there you are. You're on your own now, at least as far as I'm concerned. There may be other views of these from other people. Not likely, as people don't seem to listen to the operas much. A great pity, I think. Prokofiev's operas have some of his finest music.