Prokofiev: Complete Works for Violin

“I have not heard such a beautiful performance of the First Violin Concerto since Itzhak Perlman's 1982 EMI recording, and Ehnes enjoys the advantage of a more natural balance with the orchestra...Ehnes smoothes some of the First Sonata's rough edges...yet its menace and brutality emerge clearly enough...a real winner.” --BBC Music Magazine, December 2013 *****

Gramophone Magazine Editor's Choice - October 2013

“Ehnes's particular combination of matchless virtuosity, sweet tone, flowing tempi and interpretative restraint suits all this music down to the ground. You sense that we are in for a special performance of the D major Concerto (No. 1) even before the soloist enters, Noseda eliciting a special quality of fairy-tale unreality.” --Gramophone Magazine, October 2013

This two-CD set offers all the works that Prokofiev wrote for the violin as solo instrument. One of the most sought after and acclaimed virtuoso violinists today, James Ehnes is accompanied by the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Gianandrea Noseda and by the pianist Andrew Armstrong, with whom he has previously made a number of highly acclaimed Chandos recordings. The distinguished Amy Schwartz Moretti joins him in the Sonata for Two Violins.

The First Violin Concerto, begun in 1913 and completed in the summer of 1917, did not receive its first performance until 1923. There is much charm and gentle tunefulness in this work, written during a comparatively lyrical period in Prokofiev’s compositional life, though it is not without passages of bravura, especially in the brilliant central scherzo. The Second Concerto was premiered in 1935 and in feeling and atmosphere inhabits the world of the ballet Romeo and Juliet. The beautiful opening Russian theme is highly seductive, though in the first movement there is an undeniable hint of anxiety. The central movement contains many varied and contrasting ideas whilst the finale is notable for the flamboyant use of the bass drum, which adds both piquancy and drama.

The contrasting Violin Sonatas are closely associated with the violinist David Oistrakh, with whom the composer formed a close association. The Second Sonata (composed first) is a transcription of the Flute Sonata of 1943. Simple, expressive beauty is the hallmark of this work, Prokofiev’s mixture of high-spirits and sharp edges, notably in the finale, having made it a popular repertoire piece. Of the more serious First Sonata (1946), David Oistrakh wrote: ‘this was truly great music, and indeed for sheer beauty and depth nothing to equal it had been written for the violin for many a decade.’ The Sonata for Solo Violin (1947) was written with students in mind, the deceptively simple theme imbued with the composer’s characteristic twists and quirkiness. Prokofiev composed the Sonata for Two Violins (1932) for the Parisian chamber music society Triton, and the composer felt that, ‘in spite of the seemingly narrow framework, it seemed possible to make it interesting enough for the public to listen for ten or fifteen minutes without a sense of fatigue’. The Five Melodies are charming transcriptions by Prokofiev of his Five Songs, Op. 35.

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Prokofiev: Romeo & Juliet (Complete Ballet)

“Few can rival Valery Gergiev's pedigree in Prokofiev's music, and he is palpably aware of how this score works in the theatre. His pacing of events is masterly, with plenty of verve and passion… what really impresses… is the tenderness and poetry that are so often overlooked in Prokofiev, and not just in the love music. Gergiev frequently lets the strings and solo woodwind linger in a beguiling, natural rubato, whilst maintaining an architectural grasp of the tragic whole.” --BBC Music Magazine, February 2010 *****

BBC Music Magazine Awards 2011 - Disc of the Year & Orchestral Award Winner
Gramophone Magazine Editor's Choice - March 2010

LSO Live celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2010. The label's first release of the year features Prokofiev's spectacular score for the ballet Romeo & Juliet conducted by Valery Gergiev. Gergiev is a tireless champion of Prokofiev's music. In 2004 he conducted the complete cycle of the composer's symphonies with the LSO which then won a Gramophone Award. Shortly afterwards Gergiev became Principal Conductor of the LSO and spent much of 2008 and 2009 touring Prokofiev's symphonies with the orchestra in Europe, Japan and the USA. Gergiev's Mahler cycle continues in February 2010 with the release of the Fourth Symphony. Other upcoming releases on LSO Live include a Rachmaninov symphony cycle as well as music by Ravel, Stravinsky, Debussy and Strauss.

“Gergiev is in his element and not just in moments of gritty angularity or romantic excess. The lighter numbers, sometimes taken more spaciously than usual, are equally memorable.” --Gramophone, March 2010

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Recital 2000 - Respighi, Prokofiev, Crumb, Etc

Right at the outset of this recital, as the violin floats softly into the opening measures of the Prokofiev D Major Sonata and soon thereafter darts away with butterfly-like skittishness, one can sense that this is Anne-Sophie Mutter in top form, playing with her particular combination of expressive intimacy and nervous flight while conveying, obviously in collusion with partner Lambert Orkis, at least the appearance of spontaneity.

The program, recorded at two live concerts in Stuttgart during her 2000 world tour, reaches a peak of intensity in the Four Pieces of Anton Webern, music of exquisite, epigrammatic stillness, performed here with such dynamic extremes that one must surrender one's complete attention to it, and after which the big ultra-romantic Sonata of Ottorino Respighi enters like a drenching spring torrent.

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Prokofiev: Piano Concertos Nos.1 & 3

"One of the most completely satisfying Prokofiev performances I have ever heard" --David Fanning, Gramophone Magazine

"Kissin gives a virtuosic, dashing account of both concertos and is given highly sensitive and responsive support from Berlin Philharmonic under Abbado. It is unfailingly brilliant, aristocratic feeling and wonderfully controlled pianist, and the recording is very good" --The Penguin Guide

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Prokofiev: Cello Concerto & Symphony-Concerto

“Whatever conclusions one draws from a direct comparison between the two works, there is little doubt that Alban Gerhardt is equally committed to both. …he performs with consummate authority, pinpointing the vein of anxiety and uncertainty that lies beneath the surface of the Concerto... Andrew Litton and the Bergen Philharmonic offer incisive support... In the opening Andante of the Symphony-Concerto, Gerhardt and Litton establish an urgent and intense musical dialogue... Likewise, in the ensuring Allegro giusto both artists resists the temptation to slow down unduly from the glorious warm-hearted melody and deliver the macabre scherzo material with razor-sharp precision and biting wit.” --BBC Music Magazine, October 2009 *****

“As with the Fourth Symphony, Prokofiev conceived a major work under one set of cultural assumptions and revised it under another. …experiencing both versions side by side is a revelation - even more disturbing, in many ways, yet also endlessly thought-provoking - as it shows one of the most brilliantly gifted composers in history beset by irreconcilable conflicts between instinct and culture. ...Alban Gerhardt's playing, appropriately spotlit, is top-drawer stuff.” --Gramophone Magazine, September 2009

“Matching menace with intense lyricism, these performances of two closely related works are compelling. Alban Gerhardt...can convey the lyrical lines mellifluously and also whet his cutting edge when the composer is at his most acerbic.” --The Telegraph, 2nd December 2009 ****

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Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet - The Three Suites

“Andrew Litton is obviously in sympathy with this miraculous score, and he has coaxed playing of considerable warmth and character from his Bergen players.” --Gramophone Magazine, July 2007

While containing some of the most popular and attractive music that Prokofiev ever wrote, his suites from the ballet Romeo and Juliet have often been perceived as less than satisfying. Depending on the listener, there is a feeling that the composer chose either too much or too little, or that neither of the suites fully reflects the wealth and variety to be found in the complete score. Many conductors have accordingly compiled their own sequences of movements, picking from all three of the suites. 

his recording presents another solution: all three suites are played, but the twenty movements (which after all are Prokofiev’s choice of his favourite bits) are performed in the order in which they appear in the ballet. Lasting a little over half the duration of the complete Romeo and Juliet, they preserve the outline of the narrative and together give a full picture of Prokofiev’s gift for bringing characters, scenes and situations to life in music of vivid, striking power: the sunny atmosphere of Shakespeare’s Verona, aggressive energy in the fight music, neo-classical elegance in the courtly dances, quirky humour in the minor roles, and above all great lyrical beauty in the music for the two young lovers and the cruel series of events that leads to their tragic deaths. 

All this is brought to us by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra – whose recent Grieg cycle on BIS has been a notable critical success – conducted by its music director Andrew Litton, making his first recording for BIS. The Litton/Bergen collaboration was initiated in 2003 and has been highly successful, something which not only Norwegian, but also European audiences have been able to benefit from through the orchestra’s recent tours. The 2007/2008 season will offer further such possibilities as the team visits Concertgebouw, Royal Albert Hall, Musikverein and Carnegie Hall – four of the world’s most prestigious concert venues.

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Prokofiev & Ravel: Piano Concertos

“And this is Ravel a performance that bristles both on the keyboard and in a series of fabulous orchestral solos… a lurid delight.” --BBC Music Magazine, July 2008 *****

“Yundi Li's performance of the Prokofiev, in its prodigious, unflagging power and brilliance, far surpasses any other in the catalogue. He is no less attuned to Ravel's charm and vivacity, to music seen through a glass brightly rather than darkly.” --Gramophone Magazine, May 2008

Gramophone Magazine Editor's Choice - May 2008

“This unusual coupling contrasts two wildly different works. For some, Prokofiev's Second Piano Concerto is a work of genius, while for others it remains a monstrosity. Holding up a malevolent distorting mirror to Russian Romanticism, it carries the uneasy modernism of Rachmaninov's Fourth Concerto to its logical and devastating conclusion. Ravel's G major Concerto, on the other hand, recalls the spirits of Mozart and Saint-Saëns and contains a slow movement that is among the composer's most touching creations.

Prokofiev's Concerto is daunting and massive, Ravel's an enchanting jeu d'esprit.
Certainly Yundi Li (superbly partnered by Seji Ozawa and the Berlin Philharmonic) has few doubts about either concerto. Indeed, his performance of the Prokofiev, in its prodigious, unflagging power and brilliance, far surpasses any other in the catalogue. His moto perpetuo scherzo is vivace with a vengeance and the colossal first movement's combined development and cadenza is played with an authority that will make lesser mortals pale with envy and admiration.

He is no less attuned to Ravel's charm and vivacity, to music seen through a glass brightly rather than darkly, touching off the central Adagio with a moving simplicity and whirling us through the finale with a dazzling and engaging joie de vivre. It only remains to add that this superlative young Chinese pianist is heard in the full glory of DG's sound at its most opulent and crystalline.” --Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

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Rachmaninov & Prokofiev Piano Concertos

“Making her virtuoso credentials clear throughout, Wang dismisses every difficulty with nonchalant ease...this is a talent with a vengeance, the youthful partnership with Dudamel is ideal and both performances, recorded in Caracas, are understandably greeted with storms of applause.” --Gramophone Magazine, February 2014

“It’s a virtue rather than a shortcoming that Wang and Dudamel never push the music too hard or too fast...Where oomph is required, all concerned on DG can and do apply it.” --MusicWeb International, 5th March 2014

Yuja Wang (piano)

Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, Gustavo Dudamel

Twenty-four year old Chinese pianist Yuja Wang is widely recognized for playing that combines the spontaneity and fearless imagination of youth with the discipline and precision of a mature artist. Regularly lauded for her controlled, prodigious technique, Yuja’s command of the piano has been described as “astounding” and “superhuman,” and she has been praised for her authority over the most complex technical demands of the repertoire, the depth of her musical insight, as well as her fresh interpretations and graceful, charismatic stage presence. Following her San Francisco recital debut The San Francisco Chronicle wrote “The arrival of Chinese-born pianist Yuja Wang on the musical scene is an exhilarating and unnerving development. To listen to her in action is to re-examine whatever assumptions you may have had about how well the piano can actually be played,” and The Washington Post called Yuja’s Kennedy Center recital debut “jaw-dropping.”

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Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 & Piano Concerto No. 3

This release from the Mariinsky label features two of Prokofiev’s most popular works, the Piano Concerto No.3 and the Symphony No.5.

“The two performances, concerto and symphony, are emphatically worth hearing, both being thrilling accounts of magnificent works.” --MusicWeb International, 9th April 2014

“The Third Piano Concerto certainly packs a mighty punch through Denis Matsuev's brilliantly athletic playing...Yet the work's lyrical elements seem less involving.” --BBC Music Magazine, June 2014 ****

The Mariinsky label presents the recording of two of Prokofiev’s most popular works, Piano Concerto No 3 and Symphony No 5. Denis Matsuev features as soloist, in this his fourth recording on the Mariinsky label. Since winning the 11th International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1998 Matsuev has established a reputation as one of Russia’s leading pianists and is renowned for his interpretations of Russian music. His recordings of Rachmaninov’s Concerto No. 3 Shostakovich Piano Concertos 1 & 2 and Tchaikovsky’s first two piano concertos, have all received considerable acclaim.

Written at the height of World War II in 1944, Prokofiev’s 5th Symphony was intended as “a hymn to free and happy Man, to his mighty powers, his pure and noble spirit.” The symphony’s character was inevitably determined by the time and circumstances of its composition. It would be a patriotic work, big, heroic and ultimately optimistic; it would be a symphony of mass appeal. "I thought of it as a work glorifying the human spirit", wrote Prokofiev.

Prokofiev wrote five piano concertos but it is his third that has gained the most popularity. It remains one of his most popular pieces and the qualities of clarity and vitality that appealed to the work’s original audiences are apparent almost immediately the work begins. It is no surprise this remains his most frequently performed piano concerto.

Denis Matsuev will be touring throughout the world in 2014. In February he will appear at the closing ceremony of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games, alongside Valery Gergiev, followed by a series of concerts in Spain, presenting Rachmaninov's Piano Concertos and Prokofiev Sonatas. In March and April Matsuev joins the London Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev for a European tour, with concerts in London, Paris and Turin.

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The Unknown Prokofiev

No comparisons listed because this 'Unknown Prokofiev' collection is more innovative than it looks: neither work is currently available in quite this form. The Op 58 Cello Concerto was meant for the West and has had a checkered history following its unsuccessful Soviet premiere in 1938. Prokofiev later returned to the material at the behest of Mstislav Rostropovich, remoulding it into what we now know as the Symphony-Concerto Op 125. The original score has been little heard since. Janos Starker's oft-reissued LP (Columbia, 7/57 -, nla) is sometimes accorded 'classic' status, but, with three major cuts in the finale and dated sound, it can scarcely be regarded as definitive. Christine Walenska (Philips, 1/93 - nia) offered better (still analogue) sound but another radically abbreviated text.

Listening to Ivashkin's big, bold account of the unadulterated score, it is not difficult to see why earlier exponents felt compelled to tamper.

But then the concerto as a whole is oddly plotted. Its thematic substance, mostly familiar from the Symphony-Concerto revamp, is strong, yet not obviously 'defined', too often thrown away - and indeed brought back - in Prokofiev's most disconcerting manner. That said, the concerto's opening paragraph is a magnificent piece of writing (revisited unexpectedly, in this complete original version, during the theme and variation finale). And despite the antic disposition (and inordinate length) of that final movement, not to mention the immense difficulty of the solo writing, this is music no Prokoflev admirer can afford to miss. What we need now is a modern recording of the similarly 'transitional' ballet, On the Dneiper (Sur le Borysthene). The Concertino Op 132, one of the pieces on which Prokofiev was working at the time of his death, is far blander, even in Vladimir Blok's posthumous edition - leaner and more transparent than the version we usually hear as prepared by Rostropovich and Kabalevsky. The present rendition incorporates a cadenza based on suggestions from the terminally ill Alfred Schnittke. I leave you to decide what to make of it!

The performances, like the recordings, are vivid, not overly refined. Cellist, academician and Schnittke intimate, Alexander Ivashkin has already proved himself a powerfully idiomatic exponent of Prokofiev's instrumental music with cello (Ode Mann Classics, CDMANU 1517). He is on impassioned form here too. The balance has him placed well to the fore, but Polyanskv gets more positive results from the orchestra than is sometimes the case with recordings from this source. Ivashkin also contributes helpful notes, although he exaggerates the extent of Op 58's neglect by the record companies. Warmly recommended.

-- David Gutman, Gramophone

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Grieg & Prokofiev: Piano Concertos

“[Lugansky delivers] the percussive clangour of the [Grieg] Finale's concluding bars with incredible bravado...This takes its place alongside the finest performances...The Grieg is also impressive. Lugansky gives a consummate account, one particular highlight being his dazzling finger dexterity near the opening of the first movement cadenza.” --BBC Music Magazine, February 2014 *****

Gramophone Magazine Editor's Choice - January 2014

“in the Grieg Concerto he is as rhapsodic and affectionate as he is masterly...In the Prokofiev...his performance blazes with conviction, a propulsion and energy finely complemented wth an innate sense of poetry...In a market place where great recordings jostle for attention...Lugansky takes his own special place.” --Gramophone Magazine, January 2014

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Prokofiev 3 & Bartók 2

 “Immediately [the Prokofiev] explodes into life with Lang Lang’s sparkling playing with seemingly boundless reserves of energy...Outstanding in the opening [of the Bartók] is Lang Lang’s rhythmic potency borders on the demonic...Under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle the Berliner Philharmoniker is highly persuasive and sympathetic. Not for the first time the woodwind excel - marvellous.” --MusicWeb International, November 2013

“How smart of Sony to have recorded [Lang Lang] in repertoire which plays to his strengths. This Prokofiev 3 is exceptionally good – thunderous when it needs to be, and always rhythmically alert. And Simon Rattle is a supremely effective partner...[the Bartók] makes for an unexpected, rewarding coupling.” --The Arts Desk, 12th October 2013

“Lang Lang has the necessary power and athleticism to bring tremendous energy and drive to [Prokofiev's] more motoric writing...[he] sails through the passagework [of the Bartok] with exemplary clarity...The problem in the outer movements rests with the pianist's tendency to make everything sound harsh and percussive” --BBC Music Magazine, December 2013 ****

“Lang Lang gives a persuasive account of the Prokofiev. His finely observed detail..., the full use of the piano's sumptuous sonority and dynamic range and his effortless technical mastery would excite anyone's admiration...[in the Bartok] Lang Lang and Rattle are hugely impressive but, for my taste, a shade too polite.” --Gramophone Magazine, November 2013

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Great Piano Concertos (10-CD Box Set)

"The box set Great Piano Concertos has been produced to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Naxos and draws on their extensive catalogue of concerto recordings. The recording quality varies from the older 1980’s recordings but there are some good things to enjoy in the 10 CD set particularly Idil Biret playing the two Chopin piano concerts with the Slovak State Philharmonic under Rubert Stankovsky. The two Liszt concertos with Eldar Nebolsin and the RLPO under Petrenko are also very enjoyable as is Jenő Jando playing the Grieg and Schumann concertos with the Budapest Symphony under András Ligeti. There are finer performances available in the catalogue of these works but this box set give an excellent introduction at a bargain price." --Audiophilia, May 2012

At the very heart of a concerto is the interplay and contrast of a solo instrument within a larger instrumental ensemble. The natural progression from the Baroque concerto grosso, the concerto as we know it was fully established as a concert staple in the eighteenth century, and many works dating from this period are still a key part of the repertoire today. The opportunity for dazzling virtuosic display from the soloist has resulted in the concerto becoming a vital musical force both on the concert platform and in the audience arena.

The most important composer in the development of the early piano concerto was Mozart, whose masterly compositions for the instrument paved the way for expansion of the form by composers such as Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms and Grieg. In the Romantic era, composers such as Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky lent a distinctly Russian fluency and passion to the idiom, whilst no pianistic survey would be complete without the transcendent concertos of those great piano masters, Chopin and Liszt. The twentieth century transformed the piano concerto yet further with splendid offerings from a delicate Ravel, fiery Prokofiev and jazzy Gershwin to name but a few.

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