Prokofiev Symphony No. 2 in d minor, Op. 40
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- Опубликовано: 9 июл 2024
- When Prokofiev was living in France in the 1920s he came under criticism for failing to write truly innovative or daring music; in the thrall of the fashionable Les Six, some charged that he was relying on older works to prop up his reputation. This unforgiving attitude toward the composer emerged when Honneger's Pacific 231, a work depicting the sounds and mechanistic rhythms of a locomotive -- fashioned in the so-called style mécanique -- had just scored a colossal triumph. Therefore, Prokofiev decided he would give Parisian audiences what they wanted -- or what he thought they wanted: a symphony constructed of "iron and steel." In the process he turned out one of his most dissonant and difficult major compositions, but also, despite its general neglect, one of his most rewarding.
Structurally, the Symphony No. 2 is fashioned after Beethoven's last piano sonata: the first movement is an austere Allegro in sonata form, and the second a lengthy theme-and-variations scheme of considerable complexity and subtlety. While both were innovative works for their respective composers, there is no thematic or other musical similarity between them.
Prokofiev's first movement main theme here is angular and long-breathed, racing along and seeming to aspire to grand expression one moment, then appearing to crush everything in its downward path the next. A chorale (3:25) is then introduced, but its underpinnings and orchestration are as mechanistic and brutal as anything else in the symphony. A development section (4:31) ensues, bringing on more sonic mayhem, with blaring brass and surging strings, yet producing music of startling innovation, not least because of Prokofiev's brilliant orchestration. The recapitulation (6:56) and coda (9:44) present the main material with some important changes, but the brazen tenor of the music remains. The whole movement rages on and on, with only one brief moment of rest in the middle.
The second movement opens with a lovely, and by contrast, soothing melody on oboe that, like its counterpart in the first movement, is long-breathed, but with no hint of agitation. Six variations follow, each imaginatively conceived and ingeniously orchestrated, some recalling the dissonant nature of the opening movement. The last of these (Allegro moderato) allows for the return of a sinister motif from the first movement, and then builds to a crushing climax (33:08), where march-like chords slash and stomp angrily to finally bring on the peaceful return of the opening theme.
The Symphony No. 2's premiere in Paris on June 6, 1925, in a performance led by Serge Koussevitsky was a failure, and Prokofiev later remarked, probably with tongue in cheek, that "neither I nor the audience understood anything in it." He planned to revise it, even assigning the opus number 136 to the projected endeavor, but died before he got around to it.
0:00 - Allegro ben articolato
Theme and Variations:
11:04 - Theme: Andante
13:28 - Var. 1: L'istesso tempo
16:26 - Var. 2: Allegro non troppo
18:39 - Var. 3: Allegro
20:36 - Var. 4: Larghetto
26:24 - Var. 5: Allegro con brio
28:56 - Var. 6: Allegro moderato
33:52 - Theme
Performed by the London Philharmonic
Walter Weller, conductor Видеоклипы
It takes pure genius to be able to musically depict someone getting bludgeoned with a sledgehammer for 38 minutes.
LMFAOOOOOOO
This is probably my favorite of Prokofiev symphonies. I love the dissonance, the tension, the "I don't give a damn" attitude.
Same
Totally. It’s fascinating.
This has to be a world record for largest gear change from a previous symphony!
Even though the 1st is a pretty and funny work, I don't really take it seriously. The 2nd, on the other hand, tells me much more about Prokofiev and his time, and ultimately about myself.
Agreed it's a cute little academic work. This was my favorite prokofiev period. Sym 3, chout, steel step. Prokofiev and Honneger symphonies are my faves. All modern music is dogshit in comparison and needs to be destroyed.
@@Xinjiekou_新街口_Station Well......that's a bit extreme....
@@Xinjiekou_新街口_Stationok nazi
I listened to it once, and I hated it.
I listened to it again, and I became intrigued.
I listened to it yet again, and I was captivated.
I then listened to it a fourth time, and I was moved.
Music not first understood on the first hearing is far more enjoyable and satisfying once you finally "Get it".
@TheClassicalSymphony Granted it's not what one thinks of when classical music comes to mind, but Prokofiev's 2nd Symphony is extremely rewarding to listen to.
TheClassicalSymphony I like to listen to classical music that is innovative.
TheClassicalSymphony It is art. It was a vision that the composer envisioned and then created. , Just because you don’t understand the work doesn’t mean it has no artistic merit.
TheClassicalSymphony You’re just not getting my point :(.
TheClassicalSymphony I respect your opinion. I just don’t think you should poopoo it just because it’s loud and dissonant.
Thanks for sharing the Prokoviev Symphonies with Weller. Great work!
After 10th listening, including two live performances, this piece just gets stuck in the head. Everything falls into its own place. Beauty.
2 Live performances? Nice! This is probably his least programmed symphony.
33:08 goes hard
This is among the most hauntingly beautiful works of music I've ever heard. One can hardly appreciate it after listening to it only once. Its beauty and structure only begin to reveal themselves after multiple auditions, and only then can one truly appreciate and fully enjoy this amazing work. I consider it to be not only the most daring, but perhaps even the ''best'' of all of Prokofiev's symphonies. I'm glad it was never revised. Thank you for this, Prok Prok.
Oh, I could appreciate it after the first time because my ears are quite used to "stranger" music ;-)
I love this crazy piece so much, thank you for uploading the score! so much NOISE!!! ♥ (and also other things)
Don't know why people are saying they hated it on the first try. Sounds fairly straightforward.
Truly stunning work. The explosive dissonances followed by the remarkably subdued ending is what really makes it special.
Variation I is so hauntingly beautiful and darkly enchanting.
Here's something I had on a book about him from time life
"...On the other hand, when the discordant cantata "Seven, They Are Seven which Prokofiev had written before leaving Russia in 1918 had its premiere in 1924, conducted by Koussevitzky, the work was quite warmly received. The composer was chided, however, for relying on and old piece to achieve his sensation. Somewhat stung by the scolding, he resolved to write a large-scale symphony made of "iron and steel," as modernistic-ally complex as anything Paris had yet heard.
He overshot his mark. the Second Symphony's unremitting dissonance and dense counterpoint was too extreme even for the sophisticated Parisians. "The majority were horrified," he admitted in a letter to a friend in Moscow. "neither I nor the audience understood anything in it."
33:09- "f^%k off Rite of Spring" lol
bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang No
THANK YOU FOR UPLOADING THIS MASTERPIECE!! One of my favourite symphonies. I'm a sucker for any classical piece with thick/dense scoring like this. Truly brilliant orchestration
You're welcome! This one is among my favorites as well.
Also i think this is probably one of the hardest symphonies to play well
Uma de minhas obras musicais favoritas de todos tempos. Um ponto fora da curva. Super densa, tensa, intensa, extensa! Revolucionária, dá para se fazerem incontáveis análises.
gosh what happened to poor Prokofiev between Symphony 1 and 2??
Malu Meira some serious political and personal turmoil
First was an exercise in Haydn's style.
He went to France lol. It was pretty much the hub of the avant-garde (dada, surrealism, futurism etc.)
He got even better, obviously.
He learned how to compose something worthwhile rather than a poor imitation of another composer!
Reading the comments I really need to return to this work. The 3rd symphony has haunted me daily for the last 30 years, so if this comes anywhere near it I must get to it!
Thanks for this UNIQUE Prokofiev's masterpiece in the great perfomance ; I would take the record to desert island, really.🎶
What an absolutely astonishing score this is!
All the cacophony and tension is wonderfully contrasted with the more tender sections in the second movement. I love this piece now, and trying to follow with the score yields further rewards.
thank you for posting this incredible recoring of my most favorite Prokofiev symphony!!
18:26 how do you even compose something like this and know in your head what it sounds like?
At the piano you can actualize all the individual parts. What it's going to sound like in totality, I believe, is just as a surprise to the composer as it is for us. Obviously they know it will work, but what emotion exactly it's going to produce is a discovery.
@@AlecSievern Yes, that's what I thought about! Well, they didn't have programs it must be indeed a surprise for them ;)
26:08 Basses: B-A-C-H...
Forgive me, but where does the H come from?
What in the English language is B, we in Germany call it H: C D E F G A H. The English Bflat is called B. So these 4 notes in the German language are called BACH.
Solely the difference between German music theory and American/others.
@@holoslaw H
I actually don't like dissonant music but Prokofiev is the exception. He makes it sound ... different.
Thanks for uploading!
Fantastic piece. Second movement is brilliant.
Uma das melhores coisas já escritas, não tem como!
This symphony is wonderful. I like the dissonances, the inner turmoil that nevertheless manages to go into harmony. After the petitesse of the 1st symphony came a mature one that defined the master Prokofiev. Unfortunately, the work is performed far too rarely.
Totally freaking badass!! Prokofiev always produced interesting masterpieces.
I see a story in this work, purely fiction on my part, and no speculation on what Prokofiev intended. As far as I know, it was merely a work about *steel* ...
*Crushing* climax indeed....
> attributing stories to music
@@austinworkman9967 Well, if it isn't Omniurge: a blast from the past
Genius
Жёсткий метал
Sounds very modern.
This makes think about my late neurologist's main criticism of Prokofiev. "He's too squeaky"
I just don't know why he went through such painstaking scoring in the wind section for the first movement when it all gets blasted away by fortissimo brass the whole time. Second movement is really nice though.
You can extend that question further and ask why he even bothered with the castanets in the first place (try and spot them!!)
There is so much dissonance in the tuttis that you can't even hear any of the underlying music.
1ч
ГП - 00:01
Св.П - 1:27
ПП - 2:02
ЗП - 3:25
Разработка - 4:30
Crazy Great -- Michael McDonagh
une oeuvre très intéressante. Il y a beaucoup des endroits où il rivalise encore avec Stravinsky "sauvage".
10:36 whoa
10:45 Dart Weider March beginning /′`′∆'`' \
Your channel makes me very happy; I was wondering whether it’s a key because ‘Prok Prok is the key to life’? A good/extremely bad pun but would be interesting to know.
Also I’m obsessed with this symphony so thanks for putting the score (even though it’s so thickly orchestrated you can’t actually read the notes sometimes 😆)
It's actually funny how he bothered to compose the first movement in strict sonata form. It's so complex and intricated that the listener doesn't stand a chance at understanding it.
Ask Schoenberg. He knew.
Well, Prokofiev didn't understand it himself.
The form of this symphony, if I am not wrong, is based on Beethoven’s last Piano Sonata. That should explain the sonata and variation forms in the 2 movements.
Listened to this right after listening to the first, whoops
33:09
Influence du Sacre ?
I definitely think Kevin Kiner was inspired by 3:42 when he wrote the music for the Darth Vader scene in Rebels....
Film music is often theft.
26:25 sounds like Prokofiev wanting to be Stravinsky so badly imo
This symphony sounds like the squeaking of the iron from rusted soviet swingsets in the middle of Chernobyl and then Prokofiev decided to write it into music while heavily influenced by stalichnaya vodka
it's like the scream when my room mate was having his panic attack.
Should have played him this. Might've calmed him down.
This symphony is astonishingly narrow to the first symphony in many aspects.
I would never rewrite Prokofiev but 31:24 should have gone back to about 1:23 material I’m just saying. It would have been wild.
4:15
18:26
32:32
No era facil de digerir en el Paris de 1920 , 22, 24.....
36:03
10:46 okay
The war
10:46 am I the only one who expected Star Wars? xD
wow the first movement ends abruptly. kinda disappointing because the percussion part sounded cool
S. Prokofiev: "Neither I nor the audience understood anything in it."
Probably because in 1925 the west had yet to fully embraced their future existence of relentless, deadening, untrammeled monotony😅
Almost a template for American symphonists. How funny is that?
dense, too dense and expressive, contrapunctal, still battling with the great Stravinsky and showing to Paris that he can shock and much much more mature than te Scythian Suite.
can't hear piano part most time
It seems awfully difficult to find much "theme-like" in the Theme section of the 2nd movement variations, and it seems therefore very difficult to make much sense of the following "variants". The Theme and Variations of the Solo Violin Sonata in D+, opus 115, is far better in this regard... Anyway, talking about 'difficult', though there seem to be a surprising number of other commentators who like this symphony, to me personally it seems SP goes too far out of his way to bash his audience over the head with raucous dissonance. In it he seems to violate his own dictums, first about composers who add too much pepper to everything, and second that there are so many beautiful things still to be said in C-major... Then after 35 minutes of aural assault, the concluding measures are an unresolved and indistinct mess. Sorry, but IMHO chalk this symphony up as a dismal failure---albeit perhaps a necessary stage in SP's development, since the following 3rd symphony seems much more successful in being aggressive yet coherent. Of course the mighty 5th is awesome, but both versions of the 4th should get more attention (e.g., am very surprised no conductor has hit on the obvious idea of programming both versions of the symphony in two different halves of a concert, with one of SP's concertos as an intermezzo between them)...
Listen to it three or four more times and this symphony will begin to whisper its heart to you amidst its noise and chaos.
Yeah I just love it cause it sounds cool, honestly.
The variations all use fragments of the original theme. They don't vary the entire theme because that wouldn't leave much for the listener to discover and Prokofiev knew that. The most interesting one is the third variation because that one sounds the least connected to the theme but it's also the most complex one
I don't listen to Prokofiev often but as I listened I thought "this can't possibly be written by him"
I'm not saying composers should stick to their styles (his Symphony no.1 is wonderful and unsubtle)… this is also unsubtle but in all the wrong ways, as if he wrote this and went "there, you obviously got what you wanted, now leave me alone"
Not surprised he was unsatisfied with this symphony =/ Perhaps it's an acquired taste!
If you mean this doesn't sound like his first works like his first piano sonata or his neoclassical symphony, then you're right, technically but it isn't exactly a change in style. From what I understand the neoclassical symphony was mostly an exercise in symphonic writing, and Prokofiev was mostly trying to imitate Haydn. His early sonatas were written before he had established a style himself. Real/Mature Prokofiev (with a few exceptions) sounds mostly like this, filled with energy and dissonance. You can't blame the guy, how would one express in the pleasantries of classical and even romantic music the level of change and destruction that was going on in Russia? Something else was needed which is why you see the modernist composers of Prokofiev and Shostakovich break in style so radically.
This symphony is Prokofiev at his peak in orchestration. Symphony 1 is the anomaly. He wrote it to poke fun at critics saying that he was being too dissonant. He never wrote anything like the Classical symphony ever since(well except for that part in Romeo and Juliet which is a direct rip from the Gavotte movement)
This symphony is great.
sltflsh Maybe PETER AND THE WOLF.