Shostakovich 9th vs. Prokofiev 7th.

Started by Brian, May 28, 2014, 04:35:58 AM

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Shostakovich - Symphony No. 9
6 (25%)
Prokofiev - Symphony No. 7
11 (45.8%)
This is cruel and unusual!
5 (20.8%)
I am a strange person and do not like either.
2 (8.3%)

Total Members Voted: 22

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Todd

#20
May 28, 2014, 07:58:59 AM
Shostakovich, easily.  But then, if I never hear Prokofiev's Seventh again in my life, I think I'll be fine with that.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Cato

#21
May 28, 2014, 08:24:22 AM
Quote from: Todd on May 28, 2014, 07:58:59 AM
Shostakovich, easily.  But then, if I never hear Prokofiev's Seventh again in my life, I think I'll be fine with that.

You're in the club!   ;) 0:)

I promise to give it another chance this afternoon: maybe things have changed in the brain!
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

Brian

#22
May 28, 2014, 08:28:50 AM
Quote from: Cato on May 28, 2014, 08:24:22 AM
I promise to give it another chance this afternoon: maybe things have changed in the brain!

Do the loud/happy and quiet/pensive endings make you equally brick-throwingly angry?

Cato

#23
May 28, 2014, 08:46:46 AM
Quote from: Brian on May 28, 2014, 08:28:50 AM
Do the loud/happy and quiet/pensive endings make you equally brick-throwingly angry?

No, not specifically!  :D
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

Karl Henning

#24
May 28, 2014, 12:53:08 PM
Quote from: Cato on May 28, 2014, 08:24:22 AM
You're in the club!   ;) 0:)

I promise to give it another chance this afternoon: maybe things have changed in the brain!

When true friends disagree, brotherly love is undimmed 8)
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Lisztianwagner

#25
May 28, 2014, 01:07:04 PM
After listening carefully to the symphonies, I can't still decide which one I prefer, they're both wonderful. 'Cruel and unusual' option.
"You cannot expect the Form before the Idea, for they will come into being together." - Arnold Schönberg

TheGSMoeller

#26
May 28, 2014, 01:14:31 PM
Prokofiev 7, now and forever!  8)

But DSCH 9th is great, have always loved it.

Cato

#27
May 28, 2014, 02:03:13 PM Last Edit: May 28, 2014, 02:05:21 PM by Cato
Quote from: karlhenning on May 28, 2014, 12:53:08 PM
When true friends disagree, brotherly love is undimmed 8)

0:)    Amen!   ;)

As promised: here is my latest impression of the Prokofiev Symphony #7.

Nobody was harmed while I listened, no animals were injured, no calls for an ambulance supplied with strait-jackets were made!   ???

5 decades ago, when I first heard it, I wondered if the brain injury, which Prokofiev had suffered a few years earlier, might explain the clumsy and even abrupt transitions and other curiosities.  I recall giving it another chance over 30 years ago.

So did my impression change today?   8)

The performance is by the great (John of Scotland, please note!) Royal Scottish National Orchestra with Neeme Järvi conducting.  I listened to it twice!   ;)

I found the first movement better than my memory said, but again, the flow of the music still seemed at times perfunctory, as a theme entered and a previous one left.  And the "broad lyrical theme" which comes back in the Finale does not enthuse me much, although I know many like it.

The Allegretto Scherzo I found to be the best of the 4 movements, followed by the Andante.  The latter, however, still presents problems for me in the last minutes. 

The Finale almost convinces me: the whooping cuckoo-clock bridge just sounds silly, although I understand the genesis of the symphony goes back to a work for children's radio show.  The fast theme is classic Prokofiev and things are perfect...until that abrupt whooping occurs to bring in next theme!  And the transition to the "broad lyrical theme" from the opening just leaves me cold: I do like the rather enigmatic tick-tock, ding-dong ending more than I remembered!

But, in general, yes, my ears are much more accepting of it now: Shostakovich's Ninth, however, in comparison, still wins by 10 lengths.   $:)
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

jochanaan

#29
May 28, 2014, 03:40:55 PM
Definitely "cruel and unusual"!  While I love the Ninth, I've actually played the Seventh (although it has been too many years to count!) and therefore it does have a special place in my inner.
Imagination + discipline = creativity

Dancing Divertimentian

#30
May 28, 2014, 08:56:44 PM
Veit Bach-a baker who found his greatest pleasure in a little cittern which he took with him even into the mill and played while the grinding was going on. In this way he had a chance to have the rhythm drilled into him. And this was the beginning of a musical inclination in his descendants. JS Bach

Karl Henning

#31
May 29, 2014, 03:44:03 AM
Oh, my, but the Op.131 seems almost to be giving the poll the finger . . . .
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Cato

#32
May 29, 2014, 04:02:11 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 29, 2014, 03:44:03 AM
Oh, my, but the Op.131 seems almost to be giving the poll the finger . . . .

And to think it was originally meant for a children's radio show!   ???

I wonder how the Seventh would do versus other "Sevenths." 
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

jochanaan

#33
May 29, 2014, 07:41:41 AM
Quote from: Cato on May 29, 2014, 04:02:11 AM
...I wonder how the Seventh would do versus other "Sevenths."
Hmmm...some stiff competition there.  Beethoven, Bruckner, Mahler, Sibelius, Shostakovich--still, I think Sergei's offering stands well in such company. 8)
Imagination + discipline = creativity

Ken B

#34
May 29, 2014, 07:54:35 AM
Quote from: jochanaan on May 29, 2014, 07:41:41 AM
Hmmm...some stiff competition there.  Beethoven, Bruckner, Mahler, Sibelius, Shostakovich--still, I think Sergei's offering stands well in such company. 8)
There goes my morning coffee, all over the screen.
:D

EigenUser

#35
May 29, 2014, 10:44:50 AM
Brian, you did the poll all wrong... You were supposed to split the Prok 7 into movements! ::)
Beethoven's Op. 133 -- A fugue so bad that even Beethoven himself called it "Grosse".

Ken B

#36
May 29, 2014, 11:02:45 AM Last Edit: May 29, 2014, 11:12:23 AM by Ken B
Quote from: EigenUser on May 29, 2014, 10:44:50 AM
Brian, you did the poll all wrong... You were supposed to split the Prok 7 into movements! ::)
:D Even splitting La Mer into sections Jeux still lost!  :laugh:

Well I listened to DS 9 today, for the first time in a few years. I liked it less than I recall. Did it fall so much in my estimation that it is in the same neighbourhood as the Prok 7? Probably, but maybe not. Both are OK once in a while listenings. So I decided on a banana, and since the Sibelius 6 is so much better than either I could only pick the bad banana, even though the wording is too negative, and keep the other oddball company.

TheGSMoeller

#37
May 29, 2014, 04:24:25 PM
This.

[asin]B0007LZKAW[/asin]

The poll can close now.
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