Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KStjdclOpzI

Not complete, but there are a good portion of them spread across two different Richter recitals and the playing is boggling, unbeatable.

I agree that Ashkenazy's sound is frustratingly glassy; it always has been even in the analog era. Other digital recordings which got great reviews are Jenny Lin on haenssler and scherbakov on Naxos. I don't have them but they are probably better engineered than Ashkenazy's.

Lol xp

I read that as Jeremy Lin a few times

JL knows far more about classical recordings than anyone else on ilx so i'd take his recommendations

ashkenazy is the only famous pianist who i just don't like, his bartok piano concerto recordings didn't sound right at all

It has to be Shostakovich for me, as he is unmatched when it comes to emotional power and expressiveness. The adagio from the Leningrad symphony is one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful pieces of music ever composed. But otherwise, Symphonies 5 and 11, the 1st violin concerto (esp, the 3rd mvmt), 1st cello concerto - all not far behind.

Stravinsky I like, but more for the neoclassical stuff - his Cantata is peerless, and his Mass and Symphony of Psalms are also spiff. I like the Firebird best of the early ballets, mainly cause of that monumental finale, up there with Sibelius 2 for exhilaration levels. Rite of Spring and Petrushka I have found impressive, but for some reason immune to love.

Prokofiev - 5th symphony, esp. 3rd mvmt has such delicious liquid caramel textures. Underrated: his Sinfonietta, which is in a similar vein to the Classical Symphony, but richer and better. The two violin sonatas are also tops. The war piano sonatas are still a bit of an enigma. 5th piano concerto agreeably bonkers.

I went to a performance of the Shostakovich Trilogy and I swear that among the pieces that were played, I heard what was undeniably the Doctor Who theme. But listening directly to the pieces listed, I couldn't find it again. Was I just hallucinating?

Prokofiev = technically dazzling, flash, intermittently beautiful, emotionally shallow. Rock/pop equivalent - prog, possibly King Crimson
Stravinsky = (initially) avant guard, cerebral, subsequently classicist - equivalent - any number of modern jazzers (eg Archie Shepp?) Roxy Music, John Zorn.
Shostakovich = accessible, melodic, deeply felt, in the tradition (not avant) but fresh, creative = The Beatles, Sun Ra.

Personally Shostakovich is my man. Stravinksy is probably the correct answer for ILM approval.

― arfarf, Monday, December 3, 2001 8:00 PM (seventeen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

getting really into Prokofiev's piano music after running across it on a box set of Yevgeny Kissin's RCA albums and I think the above read is incorrect -- I do think Shostakovich is sort of more traditionally "emotional" (scare quotes meaning no disrespect there, just to indicate that in Shostakovich there's sort of a readily-available path into its emotional world) but I think the read of Prokofiev as "cold"/"technical" needs a closer look. the piano sonatas are full of rich, contemplative music alongside dazzling pyrotechnics, the balance depends a lot on who's playing them. I'm currently in awe of this set:

https://open.spotify.com/album/2yda98v022EhyTTk7jAAI5?si=crVTUdgtSai4Gtsdd2c3kw

Yeah I had a Prokofiev piano music recording in rotation for a while not too long ago and it impressed me at first and then wore off pretty quickly. Shostakovich is still my fav but I'm less often in the mindset to delve into his dark moods.

i like the first 3 or 4 sonatas and then they start to get a bit too slippery for me

Love Prokofiev’s solo piano works especially ESPECIALLY in Frederic Chiu’s exhaustive cycle on harmonia mundi; I sure wish Chiu would record more but I guess he just tours and teaches now. Yeah there’s a wealth of different vibes to be found in SP’s piano stuff.

JCLC you were doing a series of solo piano masters faceoff polls which left off with the Debussy ravel Satie cohort but if taken to the next generation imo it’d be Prokofiev v Bartok and Prokofiev would take it (just)

I think a certain goon tie would lobby extensively on behalf of Bela B. and he'd have a good case!

The Prokofiev piano sonatas have become an obsession, they're honestly so rich; in some, he sounds like he's been listening to/playing Gershwin & it's kind of thrilling when the connection hits -- and I'm now digging into the concertos, which are also great

I really love his solo piano stuff and it’s oddly neglected. I’m crazy about Frederic Chiu’s cycle which brings a coiled but sensuous approach

An obv Halloween suggestion for any piano student who can tackle it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkXyE9CZ_lk

Ha, my theory as to why Prokofiev's solo piano works is "oddly neglected" comes right back to "Diabolical Suggestion". Every teen pianist rushes to play it because it's such a ridiculous thing but Sergei wrote it when he was 17? It's like a piece of juvenilia upstaging all the later, better work

I adore Visions Fugitifs myself

With Prokofiev’s piano music I think there was always the difficulty aspect of it. Supposedly until the last couple decades there were only a handful of pianists who had the chops to play his Third Concerto.

xp yeah, it sounds like a piece a teen would write, for better and worse

Playing Prokofiev on piano is basically an act of unlearning everything you learned

not sure why i couldn't get into prokofiev on my last pass. the 2nd and 3rd piano concertos sound tremendous now

It's been too long since I enjoyed the quiet sections of that third piano concerto

(Meaning listened to them, of course, not that I haven't enjoyed them every time I do listen to them)

Re:Stravinsky, in the past couple years the Violin Concerto seems to be having a moment. It seems every prominent violin soloist is performing and recording it. It’s become almost as ubiquitous as Brahms’. Recordings in the last year alone include Isabelle Faust, Frank Peter Zimmermann, James Ehnes, and Vilde Frang.

I saw Hillary Hahn do that one back when I was in college. My friend and I tried to get her to hang out with us afterwards, lol.

FTR, I am the same age as her.

not sure why i couldn't get into prokofiev on my last pass. the 2nd and 3rd piano concertos sound tremendous now

yeah -- his stuff seemed kinda clinical to me when I was younger, about two years ago I listened to one of the sonatas that Kissin did on a live set, idk which because I have one of those "here's 40 CDs you'll like" things of him from RCA, and it knocked me over and I got really into his piano sonatas and kinda lost my mind, getting multiple complete sets -- they're really a wonder, you can tell he's listened to Gershwin and Ellington and is interested in the wider world of music, they're just amazing pieces.

but if you get to see Shostakovich quartets live, boy those can be transporting experiences