How I Discovered...PROKOFIEV
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- Опубликовано: 16 окт 2024
- It had to be Peter and the Wolf, didn't it? Prokofiev was a great composer to discover because he had such an instantly identifiable melodic personality, but then it could have been through any number of works. How did you discover Prokofiev? Let us know!
I knew "Peter and the Wolf" as a kid but my first real awareness of Prokofiev as a composer came later in my junior high band. We were rehearsing "Kiji's Wedding" when the Principal announced over the P.A. system that President Kennedy had been shot. School was dismissed and I was home before I heard the news that on the radio that he was dead. We never played the piece again and I was in college before I heard a recording of it. Needless to say, that piece is cemented in my memory, though it's far from my favorite Prokofiev composition.
Peter and the Wolf was my first encounter with his music, but my first real awakening to Prokofiev was by watching a 1980 movie entitled The Competition. The winner of the competition, actress Amy Irving played Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto. I was hooked. I immediately bought the Argerich/Dutoit LP.
Same here but Graffmam/Szell
6:58 the album with Kissin's Carnegie Hall debut had the 6th Sonata; I had played the 4th movement (which has a wonderfully sarcastic / biting 2nd subject) when I was 11 or 12. I think that was my intro to Prokofiev. Didn't pay much attention to the 5th Symphony until much later
I'm so glad you talked about P's genius as a melodist. I love him most for this aspect of his music. As far as the concertos are concerned all of them have at least one great tune (and many have much more than this!). I particularly love the theme of the slow movement of the 2nd violin concerto, while the big tune from the last movement of the 3rd piano concerto is amazing.
The greatest major classical melodist of the 20th C., IMO. I think that gift would also make him perhaps the most accessible 20th C. composer to 'classical novices' (well, along with certain Copland works). He's a Modernist, but one with a strong romantic element and sense of a narrative element to much of his music, even the non-programmatic works.
To my ear the quirk in Prokofiev's "wrong-note melodies" is how they seem to wander into a different tonality before returning home at the very end of the phrase. After my childhood exposure to Peter and the Wolf I made my first real discovery of Prokofiev during my high school music appreciation class, with the Second Piano Concerto (John Browning with Leinsdorf/Boston.) The leviathan-like reappearance of the orchestra after the first movement cadenza made me bolt upright in my desk, to the teacher's knowing amusement. I read that when the young Bernstein and his friends Betty Comden and Adolph Green were shopping "On the Town" one prospective producer told him to do less of "that Prokofiev stuff."
Nor to forget the superbly entertaining and melodic 7th Symphony, played on children's radio I believe,
Yes, I too had a record of Peter and the Wolf which I loved, but my first full-price personal classical CD acquisition was the Vengerov Prokofiev and Shostakovich 1st violin concertos. The Prokofiev 1st concerto with its sweet and sour sonorities and aching lyricisms never gets old and I’m still not sure why the second was more popular. The middle movement was one of my entry points into 20th century spikiness. A little later I heard the Argerich Abaddo 3rd concerto and the love affair was cemented.
I'm with you on the First Violin Concerto!
Prokofiev is mostly reknowned as a pianist, but I love his violin works maybe even more. Like many people, I first heard Prokofiev through 'Romeo & Juliet.' I have to say that his ballet music does appeal to children and is accessible for everyone. He's a major composer of the 20th Century.
I have to thank Woody Allen of all people for what grew into my love of Prokofiev's "wrong note romanticism." Wonderful phrase, that. I had managed to miss out on his work altogether (though I must have heard Peter and the Wolf somewhere along the way) until '75 when at age 22 I took in Allen's Love And Death. As the opening credits rolled I thought "What is this delightful stuff we're listening to?" Lieutenant Kije, of course. I was off and running.
For me, it was a ITV children's programme called The Flaxton Boys broadcast in the UK between 1969 and 1973. The theme tune was really catchy but in those days the credits gave no clue as to what the music was or who wrote it. I had to go to the local music library and ask if they knew what it was and it turned out to be the First "Classical" Symphony. All the rest you mentioned followed but that work is magic.
I love the way you talk about music. I can relate to it so much. I saw, and heard, Yuja Wang playing one of the Prokofiev sonatas and I was blow....a....way. He must have been insane to write this music. And she could play it!
The first Prokofiev's music I listened to was Romeo and Juliet, conducted by Ozawa. I was collecting classical music in casette, and then I bought this recording and just blew me away. It was a fantastic experience, specially the Knight's dance (which, for any reason, always has remembered me a kind of vampire's dance).
After that, I began to discover the rest of his output. But strangely perhaps, Peter and the Wolf and the symphonies 1 and 5 were some of the last great Prokofiev's works I knew.
I've always been more focused on chamber music, so the string quartets and violin sonatas were my first exposure to Sergei. The first symphony too.
I also encountered Prokofiev as a child via "Peter and the Wolf", but to this day I haven't learned to appreciate him as a serious composer yet... This video adds to my motivation to try again in the future 🎶
Symphony 5 / the war Sonatas. Serious business
He's definitely a serious composer. He's not the most sophisticated one, nor were his works monumental breakthroughs; nor was his subtext as serious as someone like Shostakovich often was- but works like his second piano concerto, his fifth and sixth symphonies, Alexander Nevsky, and so on, have their share of gravitas; and works like Romeo and Juliet, his second violin concerto, his first ('classical') symphony and so on, are not trifles. His second string quartet is IMO a work of serious folk beauty- the list of substantive works by him is reasonably extensive. He's one of the substantive 20th C. composers of the Modernist school.
In my freshman year of high school I watched the film ALEXANDER NEVSKY on PBS, and was smitten by its visuals and music. When I saw the Thomas Schippers, NYP recording of the cantata in our local record store, I cajoled my mother into purchasing it for me. I played it endlessly, the louder the better! She would have preferred that I went back to endlessly playing Carlos' Switched-On Bach.
I still love Prokofiev-his quirky melodies, grindingly dissonant and sweetly lyrical passages. I loved his 5th Symphony from first hearing (the Previn recording), and that tam-tam was intoxicating. I was also really excited by his 3rd-and I still recall the powerful Muti performance in Carnegie Hall of that one many years later-so many of the listeners were perplexed. Not exactly tunes for the staid blue-hairs! I also loved his 7th symphony, also from my first hearing of it, and wondered why people so often dismissed this beguiling work. Prokofiev had me ready for diving in to Mahler and Shostakovich, whom I soon subsequently discovered. I never tire of these works!
Prokofiev was my first classical music love, as I had just left college (35 years ago) and was expanding beyond my interest in rock, pop, r & b, jazz, world music and such (still love these genres, though). I think I was lucky that my entrance to classical music was an artist with such melodic gifts. Though I didn't especially bond with Peter & the Wolf as a child, I love the work now- but my entry for Prokofiev were his five piano concertos (well, maybe not the fourth one!), his classical symphony, violin cto no. 2, his first and sixth symphonies, two string quartets, and so on from there. After all of these years, he's still one of my half dozen favorite composers; and somehow it's taken me all these years to discover Alexander Nevsky (my favorite being Abbado with the LSO, thanks for the rec, David!).
Re. Peter and the Wolf, favorite renditions of mine include Sting's narration with Abbado conducting (one a disc with other great Prok. works); and the non-narrated version conducted by Bernstein on the Sony The Royal Edition, No. 58- from the series with the Prince Charles watercolor pieces as cover art- which also has works by Mussorgsky, Dukas, and Saint-Saens, and is a smashing disc both musically and also sonically, IMO (though not with an 'audiophile' quality, not that there's anything wrong with that), and one to which I regularly return.
His so called warsonatas for piano, nrs. 6, 7 and 8, in Ashkenazy's recording, were my first encounter with Prokofiev and I was, to this day, mesmerized by it
In the early 1970s I saw the Royal Ballet film of Romeo and Juliet with Nureyev and Fonteyn and fell in love with the music. Shoryly after my oldest sister and I saw the Stuttgart Ballet perform the ballet in Philadelphia. Glorious!
You really nail Prokofiev there, Dave. I came to Prokofiev relatively late through, of course, the Classical Symphony and Peter and the Wolf. I recall happy hours in the early 70s with my small kids crawling around the room miming the wolf and the other characters to the sound of the music and narrative. Since then I got into the rest of his music progressively and have recently read biographies of both himself and his wife, Lina, which add depth to my appreciation. I find him a rather elusive composer whose music I admire in its multiple and brilliant genres rather than love it, unlike Shostakovich's. Perhaps his works which seem to me the most moving are some of his piano music as well as the cello music composed right at the end of his life with the help of Rostropovich. I am fascinated by the aspect of how such a talented and cosmopolitan man coped, or failed to cope, with life in Stalin's oppressive Soviet Union. The stresses undoubtedly contributed to his premature death but he still did manage to produce some superb works alongside some politically motivated dross.
My very early first encounter with Prokofiev was his March from The Love of Three Oranges when it was used as the theme for the 1950s radio show The FBI in Peace and War.
The year was 1969, my age was 7, and the television was showing a new series from the BBC called "The Borderers", about the tussles between the Scots and the English in border country - the current South of Scotland. The theme music was the first Prokofiev I ever heard. I had no idea about Prokofiev. I found it extremely gripping, brash and fitting for the programme. My family watched every episode until it suddenly stopped dead, mid-story, really. Never heard the music again, until -
Some 15 years later, I walked into a classical record store where it was actually playing! Couldn't believe my ears, bought the record on the spot - of course. The Scythian Suite with Abbado. That was a great day!
Meanwhile, I had of course had the usual encounter with Peter and the Duck. But I was much more taken by the 7th symphony, which was among my earliest records - a cast-off from my father, the Residentie Orchestra under Willem van Otterloo. Atrocious sound, but a good performance. It was one of those records that did not know what it wanted to be, being in size halfway between a single and an LP.
There is loads of Prokofiev I love deeply, and some I can't connect with at all (like symphony nr. 2). The Fiery Angel symphony reworking is the only music so far that has managed to actually scare me without any film images to accompany it. Good grief - what a work that is. Muti's recording gets every last bit of venom out of it.
My dad had William Steinberg's old Capitol recording of Love For the Three Oranges (Still one of the great performances!). And we had Cliburn doing the 3rd concerto, on RCA. I didn't get to know Peter and the Wolf until I was about 30!
As an autodidact listener, where I have to find the music and its composers myself, Prokofiev came rather lately. It was the remasterede film by Sergej Eisenstein and the music, who turned me on. As always you give an excellent intro to Prokofiev, in this and the many other Prokofiev talks. Thanks a lot.
It was the melodic strands of the 5th symphony first movement that got stuck in my head. Amazing how Prokofiev coughed up so many melodic lines that stuck. He was a genius.
My intro was Romeo & Juliet. I heard parts of it on the radio, when I was off sick from school. Asked for the whole ballet for a birthday present, and it was Andre Previn's version with the London Symphony Orchestra; still the most Italinate version I've heard.
I never paid attention to Prokofiev, then I heard the Lieutenant Kije suite (Leinsdorf on a wonderful Seraphim LP). I was hooked. The 3rd Piano concerto! BOTH Violin Concerti, I couldn't choose between them. Symphonies 1, 5 as you say, and the wonderfully strange Symphony 3....Romeo...and the utterly magnificent Alexander Nevsky!!
My first encounter was also Peter and the Wolf as an 11 year old. Efrem Kurtz and the Philharmonia with Michael Flanders narrating in 1959.
I remember fiddling with the radio as a kid with my dad and stumbling onto prokofiev's cinderella suite - more specifically it was when midnight struck - and I remember being so entranced yet so utterly terrified. That was not the first time I listened to prokofiev, but it was the first time I understood what prokofiev's music is.
I remember "Peter and the Wolf" in Disney's cartoon, that was my first encounter with his music when I was still a child, but I didn't know who the composer was until much later. A few years later (I must have been about twelve years old) I was buying a Sony collection, one of those compilations that are released in the national market, each volume dedicated to a composer. The volume dedicated to Prokofiev had, in addition to "Peter and the Wolf" (Bernstein), the "Lieutenant Kijét Suite", the March of the suite "The Love for Three Oranges" (both with Ormandy) and... the "Classical Symphony" with Bernstein and this piece became my favorite by the author for a long time (this recording!!!!) I got to know new compositions by Prokofiev when Gergiev released his series of operas (and Romeo and Juliet), then came the symphonies (Alsop - OSESP) and that was my base for a long time. Only much later came the sonatas, concertos, songs, etc... But I still love that "Classical Symphony" by Bernstein.
I was in first grade and the teacher Mrs Karg who I thought was a cranky old hag, but I remembered her playing Peter and the wolf and it grabbed my attention along with Saint Saens carnival of the animals. animals..
When I was a teen-ager in the late 80es in Italy, there was a cultural radio programme on Rai Radio 3;with a fantastic march, it was the beginning of Winter Bonfire a children's music piece in the style of Peter and the wolf (written for the Soviet young pioneers). It is still unknown to most people.
It would be splendid to have a video with brief descriptions of Prokofiev's (great) operas!
The first two pieces by Prokofiev that I remember hearing were "Peter and the Wolf" and the march from "Love for Three Oranges". The former in the Disney cartoon version and the latter as the theme for the old radio show "FBI in War and Peace" ( or was it "in Peace and War"?). In the former case, it didn't make much of an impression as the action of the cartoon got my attention, not so much the music; in the latter case, I didn't learn that the piece was by Prokofiev until I heard it much later on an LP where the composer was identified.
My first real, major appreciation of Prokofiev was with my purchase of the Ormandy/Philadelphia LP containing the Classical Symphony, the Lt. Kije Suite, and the suite from Love for Three Oranges. I thoroughly enjoyed that LP and wore it out (I even replaced it with the CD reissue.). From there on I explored the other symphonies, concertos, Nevsky, etc. Still haven't delved into the operas other than a DvD of Three Oranges.
I heard Peter and Wolf as a child but was not entranced by it.
In my teens, I was bowled over by the Second Violin Concerto, which I thought sounded like something from another planet. I also liked the delightful Classical Symphony.
A more recent favorite is the Tocatta for piano.
There was a classical radio station that used part of the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet as the intro music to one of its regular programs. That and the Troika were my introduction to this master of 20th century Melody.
Peter and the Wolf of course, but in Disney's "Make Mine Music" from 1946 (I was five).
Obviously it’s got to be Peter and the Wolf. The one I grew up with was with Leonard Bernstein (whose upcoming biopic I’m really excited to see) and the New York Philharmonic. Its a very unique performance in that instead of telling us who each character is played by Bernstein quizzes the listener and has us guess the characters based on the themes. It also comes with other pieces for children like Saint-Seans Carnival of the Animals and Britten’s Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra. Probably around the same time, I saw the Walt Disney cartoon in elementary school. It’s such a great piece and the wolf theme is also played when Scut Farkus the bully in The Christmas Story was on screen.
It was Dreams Op6.The very early little orchestral piece.Only came to it because of the Scriabin connection.That sparked off my Prokofiev journey.
In Turkey, a theme from his "Classical Symphony" was the opening music for a classical music radio show on TRT. Years later, when I actually heard the actual work in full, I was like "yes, there are those totally quirky wrong notes that have been cooking up in my brain for so long, in context!".
Although I got in contact with classical music in general quite early, _Peter and the Wolf_ wasn't my first encounter with Prokofiev. It was the _Knight's Dance_ from _Romeo & Juliet_ in a TV commercial for some perfume.
My first Prokofiev disc was _Romeo & Juilet_ in the piano version with Gavrilov then. But I didn't get into it. The first thing that worked for me and that I love since then is the 8th piano sonata with Sokolov.
It was the TROIKA from Lieutenant Kije that got me started with Prokofiev. Then the Symphony No. One (Classical) After that came Beatrice Lillie's narration of Peter And The Wolf with Skitch Henderson conducting. Another piece of music for children that Prokofiev composed was " A WINTER BONFIRE", Opus 122. Such good music that isn't really heard all that often. And if you're in for a laugh, check out Allan Sherman and The Boston Pops recording of PETER AND THE COMMISSAR. Prokofiev and a few other great composers really get mangled. THANKS DAVE !!!
I have two earliest memories. One is from an 8-track tape we used to play on very long car trips my family used to take between southern and northern California (I was well under 10 at the time). It was Heifetz playing Prokofiev's violin concerto no. 2, as well as Sibelius's; I liked them both a lot. The other was in my low teens. My father and older brother were into Beethoven and Wagner (which was sort of the background music at home). I was also significantly exposed to hard rock/prog rock from the 70s from my friends (e.g. Led Zeppelin; Emerson, Lake and Palmer). One day I heard a piano concerto on the radio at home that forced me to stay with it till the end to hear who it was. It turned out to be P's 3rd piano concerto, and I thought it was pretty competitive (in the sense of my immediately liking it) with the prog rock I was listening to at the time. Public libraries and my own consumer interest did the rest. In many ways P was my gateway classical-music composer, in both temporal directions from him. I was glad to find out recently, that although he probably considered himself Russian, he was actually born in Ukraine (and they have an airport named for him).
Prokofiev was born in Ukraine, some of his works are connected with Ukraine. he was influenced by Ukrainian culture and in writing he used Ukrainian letters. he was born and grew up in the Ukrainian region where the Scythians once lived. he felt their spirit, their energy. in addition to the Scythian suite, the 3rd piano concerto contains the spirit and energy of his native Ukrainian land.
My first encounter was his second piano concerto. I was (and still am) obsessed with Rachmaninov, so hearing this ‘ugly’ and dissonant music was striking. As a pianist, the first and fourth movement cadenzas were horrifying, but the theme in the middle of the fourth was beautiful. I now appreciate and understand his style and lyricism. The piece has grown on me, but I’m yet to explore outwards.
My first exposure to Prokofiev was in my teen years with Ansermet's vivid Romeo and Juliet. I have been exploring his music ever since.
My first encounter with Prokofiev was a Romeo and Juliet excerpts RCA LP by Charles Munch. A great bargain.
My first encounter with his music was a bit unfortunate: I listened to his 2nd symphony and hated it. I thought “this definitely isn’t for me” for a long time. But I gradually came to appreciate him more and now I’m in the process of discovering each of the symphonies and sonatas more carefully. I actually came to love the 2nd symphony. I still haven’t listened to the sixth, it’s the one I have yet to explore.
It was Peter & The Wolf - Karel Ančerl performance on Supraphon (Eric Porter I think narrating?). I badgered my parents to buy me the cassette on the cross chanel ferry back from France. Ironically, I probably wanted because it because it had Saint Saens Carnaval of the Animals on side 2, which I'd heard at school and here was this marvellously descriptive piece of storytelling. Wonderful, and that's where it started.
Peter and the Wolf as a Christmas gift when I was 6. It was in a 78 rpm album of large format discs.
The narrator was Richard Hale, who definitely had a "stiff upper lip" of a voice.
Not long after it was Classical Symphony. "Love of Three Oranges" (especially the march), then
Lieutenant Kije (is the full movie with soundtrack still on RUclips?) Around college, binged on R&J.
I think for most of us who were once American school kids, Peter and the Wolf was our introduction to Prokofiev. What an introduction it was, and helped me fall in love with classical music. For me, it was at Severance Hall with The Cleveland Orchestra. Could have been Dohnanyi at the podium, although that bit is fuzzy. A great piece for adults and kiddos alike, even if I wouldn’t truly rediscover Prokofiev until law school.
I also first encountered Prokofiev through Peter and the Wolf, and I loved it! The wolf later inspired me to start playing the French horn in fifth grade.
I also made my conducting debut during my junior year of high school by performing Peter and the Wolf at a series of concerts at local elementary schools. I like to think the all-kid audience wasn’t bored out of their minds, especially after we let some of them hit the bass drum as loud as they could.
Of course it was Peter and the Wolf. Back when I was growing up (centuries ago), there was programming for children on the radio in NYC. You couldn't NOT hear this music. Later on, it was the Classical Symphony. Any serious listing of the most important composers of the 20th century would have to include Prokofiev. BTW, luv your new T-shirt.
If I remember right, the first Prokofiev I heard was Battle on the Ice (may be forgetting the title) as a recommended video from RUclips.
In 1959 my dad brought home an RCA LP called "Ding-Dong-Dandy Christmas" by the instrumental group The Three Suns (w/accordion, tuba, zithers, guitar...pretty crazy) which included an arrangement of a catchy tune that I found out (some years later) was the TROIKA from Lt. Kije; it was like meeting an old friend [and how about the WONDERFUL trumpet tune Prokofiev created in "Kije's Wedding"? The man was brilliant].
My piano teacher next gave me a score and recording of the Prokofiev 5th, which I found totally boring. Years later, the SAME Previn LSO (1975) recording which you cite finally revealed to me what I had been missing! Alas, "Peter/Wolf" has never really appealed to me, though I totally recognize its charm and the amazing effect its had on kids far-and-wide for the past 90 years. LR
Like any kid, I knew Peter and the Wolf and even had it on LP. However, Prokoviev didn't really sink for me in until, by chance, someone in my dorm gave me a ticket to the university dance series. And what a show it was. Left me with my jaw on the auditorium floor. Romeo and Juliet in the famous John Cranko Stuttgart production. After that, I rushed out and bought the highlights disk on Odyssey by Mitropoulos and started sampling other Prokofiev.
Peter and the Wolf I think when i was wee. But things got serious with 2nd violin concerto with Heifetz. My Dad had the Milstein LP of the concertos but I didn't pay much attention until later. Symphonies, the 6th with Mravinsky had me hooked for a long time. . Scottish Ballet did a run of R & J with RSNO when i worked at Festival Theatre in Edinburgh. I think we all were under the score's spell. The dancers loved it.
My music school/conservatory did a stage version of Peter and the Wolf and I played the score on the piano during rehearsals. I was nineteen at the time but I remember it like it was yesterday! An enchanting piece that you unfortunately don't hear very often anymore, at least not in my country, Sweden.
The Classical Symphony on radio and the Lt. Kije suite on a library LP. I played the troika over and over. Also around the same time NBC ran a news magazine show called Monitor with Lloyd Dobbins and Linda Ellerbee. I loved the theme music they used and one day, citing the fact that the show got mail equally praising and trashing the music the host revealed it was the opening to Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 1. I ran right out and bought it ( Gavlirov and Rattle on Angel) Alexander Nevsky came next via the library again.
It was "Peter and the Wolf" for me, as well. First heard on the radio when I was about 6 years old (Remember radio?). My favorite version is still Ormandy/Columbia with Cyril Ritchard as the narrator, which I first heard on the radio on WFLN when I was in 5th grade (still available on Sony SBK 62 638). Ritchard was immediately recognizable back then because he had played Captain Hook in Peter Pan. The next truly major encounter was during high school with MS 6545, that glorious Ormandy/Columbia LP with "Classical Symphony", "Lt. Kije Suite", and "Suite from The Love for Three Oranges". From there it was no looking back. The Karajan/Berlin Phil/DGG LP of the 5th Symphony (which I still own) with the mighty tam-tam crash is still a fave.
I knew of Peter and the Wolf and loved it when it came on the radio, but I never got a copy of it. My first disc was his cello works from Rostopovich's Early Years set. Lovely recording, really the whole set. If you can ignore the random coughing 😂
I think it was the Classical Symphony which the local symphony orchestra performed during my early teens. Classical on the surface, but very strange chord progressions to my ears at that age.
“I’m Uba, the Tuba, and when I am played/ I remind you of a circus parade!” Must have been the same album! Yes, Peter and the Wolf, Dance of the Nights, then the 3rd Piano Concerto. Excellent observation, Dave, about how a great composer has a distinct musical signature. For me, I’d use Tybalt’s Death as the perfect way to explain Prokofiev to a friend. BTW, I received my Faust Symphony today.
I first heard of Prokofiev when reading the old Leonard Maltin "Movies on TV" guidebook, which I was weird enough to flip through out of boredom. I think it the listing for Ivan the Terrible Parts 1 and 2 by Eisenstein, which mentioned his soundtrack. Although I'm certain I must have heard Peter and the Wolf as a kid, I didn't know who it was, nor did it stick in mind. So.... when it comes to actually "discovering" Prokofiev, I had heard the name enough to ask my mom where I should start, specifically asking for a symphony recommendation, and she pointed me to his fifth. So I got a CD with that and the 1st with Previn, and there we are.
My first exposure was theoug the richard Dreyfus/ Amy Irving movie the Competition. I had just started piano and parents took me to see it..and I was blown away by the excerpts of the piano concerto..i had to know what it was and who
That was!
I envy you your photographic memory, Dave, because I have no idea how I first encounter Prokofiev. It was probably Peter & Wolf, but just might have been the Sting song "Russians", which lifted its refrain from Lt Kije. I am lucky enough to have on CD the only commercially-available rec of Peter/Wolf without narration (cond. Gorkovenko). If a minute or two of repetition was cut, I'm sure it would be a successful orchestra-only suite - the music itself is just so interesting.
If I want to hear the work with narration, I prefer the version narrated by Richard Baker (cond. Leppard). I find his cool, didactic approach much more agreeable than that of those narrators who seem desperate to ingratiate themselves with the listener, or those narrators who think that they are more important than the music.
Beyond this introductory work, I think my first Prokofiev encounter was the CD of Malko conducting symphonies 1 and 7, along with some numbers from Oranges.
My first encounter was also "Peter and the Wolf" when I was about 6 years old. It was staged - and I wasn't bored.
Have you done a video which compares the different narrators in all those many recordings eg. Sting, Dudley Moore, Sean Connery, the Prokofiev family et al ?
My first and still most cherished was Sir Ralph Richardson (Malcolm Sargent's Decca recording), which had such a fearsome-looking wolf on the LP cover that got my brothers and myself absolutely spooked.
The 3rd piano concerto….kondrashin/Janis on Mercury. Maybe not the first time I had Prokofiev but that was what really did it for me
Peter and the Wolf, of course, but then Nevsky and the "a ha" moment when I discovered it was the same composer.
Sinfonia Concertante Maisky Pletnev my first encounter with Prokofiev
I had heard Peter and the Wolf when I was a kid but found it kind of depressing and drab for some reason - possibly due to a depressing and drab TV adaptation…the next Prokofiev I heard was ‘Suggestion Diabolique’ on a vinyl record (part of a collection my late Aunty had left us) - ‘Music of the Great Keyboard Masters’ played by Sascha Gorodnitski. At first I thought the needle must have broken as the Prokofiev sounded so apocalyptically bonkers compared to the surrounding Rachmaninoff and Schumann. But eventually I found it thrilling and totally worthy of the title. That piece definitely encouraged me to search out more Prokofiev and I love it all now (even Peter and the Wolf!).
Dave, I get your comment about children and parents at children's concerts. You only have to look at the audience shots in Bernstein's Children Concerts to be convinced of the unsuitability. Question: how would you do the programming instead?
I wouldn't. Expose them to music in the home, go to concerts and deliberately tell them that they aren't old enough to attend, and then wait for them to beg you to take them. Then just go to a normal concert and make a fun day out of it. It worked for me.
@@DavesClassicalGuide that was my path as well. It makes sense.
Our school had a yearly school concert, during normal school hours, where one random lesson was replaced by a (small) performance usually by one pianist. It converted nobody, but was a welcome diversion form normal school routine (for the first five minutes; thereafter, restlessness was trump). At least they tried.
One horrible day, they invited the Willem Breuker collective, which led to many teachers walking out. That pleased us bewildered pupils no end.
Peter, of course, probably the same ubiquitous Disney kiddie record. Now I prefer it sans narration--unless its the Beatrice Lillie recording on Decca with Skitch Henderson and the LSO.
The Classical Symphony was my next discovery and then Lt. Kije which was actually on the flip of the Szell lp with Kodaly's Hary Janos. I bought it for the latter but wound up loving the Prokofiev equally.
Theatrically, I first encountered him via Love for Three Oranges which I saw in a terrific Welsh National Opera production imported by Portland Opera. It was the one with the sniff cards. Then War and Peace in Seattle which I still rank in the top ten or so 20th century operas along with Lady Macbeth.
It must have been Peter and the Wolf as it’s the sort of thing that gets used in school music lessons. Then an lp of that - the same Malcolm Sargent/ Richardson one someone else mentioned- coupled with the classical symphony. Then lps of Kije/ three oranges and of the fifth symphony (probably Karajan).
And of course as another commenter said Woody Allen’s Love and Death.
I can take or leave some of his stage works, but more recently I have encountered other things I really like eg Piano sonatas, seventh symphony
When we heard Peter and the Wolf at school our teacher said Prokofiev first wrote straight music then went back over it and Prokofievnized it. 😂
Once upon a time, Leonard Bernstein narrated Peter and the Wolf, and he broke the fourth wall, as though he were telling the story directly to a child. But what I really remember is that someone once clipped occurrences of Bernstein speaking his own name, in place of the characters: "Do you know who that character was? Correct! Leonard Bernstein."
Descubrí Prokofiev por el conocido Pedro y el lobo. Intrepetado por Dorati.
Peter & the Wolf 1st, but years after that I encountered 6th Piano Sonata & Jean Guillou's organ transcription of March from Love of Three Oranges. Then Alexandr Nevsky & years after that 4th Piano Concerto for Left Hand. Most recently Symphony-Concerto for Cello has resonated. So a curious selection: the majority of the symphonies/concertos/quartets/sonatas don't do much for me - I generally prefer Shostakovich - but the above pieces remain meaningful.
Mine is the same with Bowie as narrator
Nothing interesting. Peter and the Wolf for me at a summer library kiddie program. In retrospect, it was both the melodies and the orchestration that captured me.
After that, years later, it was the Reiner recording of Alexander Nevsky, the piece that got me exploring his work.
Prokofiev's Fifth was the piece that lured me in and made me notice him as a composer. I'm sure I heard at least snippets of "Peter", but they didn't make much of an impression on me - at least in terms of associating Prokofiev with the music. I remember a performance of Symphony #5 with Andre Previn on Angel, but the first time I heard it was the Cleveland Orchestra under Dohnanyi on a broadcast. Then the Third Piano Concerto on the radio - Martha Argerich and somebody. That one sealed it for me - both for Prokofiev and for Argerich. After that, I sought out everything else.
Well, it WAS, indeed, Peter & the Wolf. They played it in Kindergarten I imagine, then I found a hardcover book for piano in our school library which I took home -- WHAT FUN! Great color pictures on the pages with easy-to-play piano versions of the little themes between the pages. I absolutely hated having to return the book to the library. THEN, one day I found myself suddenly a violinist in a youth orchestra -- a SIGHTREADING youth orchestra. Every week, we got to play REAL music, borrowed from a major orchestra because our conductor was the timpanist and librarian of that orchestra. One day he passed out Lt. Kije and I was completely enthralled. Say nothing of the fictional character of the so-called Kije -- I remember vividly -- we started out sightreading "The Birth of Kije" with the plaintive trumpet solo, then continued on with his various life events, movement by movement. I remember we were missing some instruments so the pianist -- a very good one -- pounded out the melody of the Romance on the piano and it was very memorable. By the time we got to the final, "The Death..." of Kije, the way Prokofiev began with that plaintive trumpet solo, then cleverly began playing little themes in such an unexpected way as he was musically remembering the life events of the non-existent soldier, I was so taken aback by the genius of the idea -- musically overlapping themes from his happy life during the funeral, having heard "taps," so to speak -- that I was almost moved to tears. That was me just sightreading the piece having never heard it before. My immediate next step was to go from rehearsal to the City Library to find a recording. We were allowed to borrow the music for JUST ONE WEEK, practice it all we wanted, then give it another try before returning the music to the orchestra that owned it. The recording in the library was Fritz Reiner. I was stunned at the way the strings tremoloing at the end of the recording sounded like a "live" chorus of singing human voices. From there, I had a love affair with Prokofiev's music. I believe what came next was Alexander Nevsky, the 3rd Piano Concerto -- wow, what a piece. FUNNY STORY: I used to illegally make reel-to-reel tape recordings of all the music I borrowed from the library. One of these, I failed to LABEL, but I fell in love with a work that I was totally unable to identify. YEARS & YEARS later, Vladimir Ashkenazy came to our small city to perform with the orchestra. Naturally, I was there. He played a Mozart Concerto then -- we were told through the grapevine -- he was performing for HIS very first time, because of an impending recording of all the Prokofiev Concertos with Andre Previn, the Prokofiev 1st Concerto. Try to imagine my shock when very suddenly, the orchestra began playing those three unidentifiable chords, followed by none other than Vladimir Ashkenazy playing that mysterious piano concerto that I could not identify, for YEARS: it was Prokofiev's 1st. What a magical, thrilling piece of music.
Another good introduction to Prokofiev's music is the Woody Allen movie Love and Death