Prokofiev's Paddy Wagon

[pjme]

Out of curiosity, is there any consensus here regarding the best performance of the 4th piano concerto.

I'm very satisfied with my favoured recordings (Richter or Moravec in the first, Baloghova in the second, the composer in the third, Richter in the fifth) of the other ones, but not the left-hand one.

I have an interesting recording by Leon Fleisher and the BSO under Ozawa. I find the performance excellent. The coupling : Ravel's concerto for the left hand and Britten's Diversions. A great disc!



Peter

[bhodges]

I have an interesting recording by Leon Fleisher and the BSO under Ozawa. I find the performance excellent. The coupling : Ravel's concerto for the left hand and Britten's Diversions. A great disc!



Peter

Seconded.  A really marvelous CD (you don't see the Britten that often), and I'm not always the biggest fan of Ozawa, either, but everyone seems in synch here.

--Bruce

[jurajjak]

Can anyone recommend a kickass Schythian (sp) Suite?

Abbado is indeed excellent all-around.  The Gergiev has a truly outstanding 4th movement, with overwhelming brass, and extremely hard-edged 2nd and 3rd movements; his recording might've been the best ever were it not for an inexplicably slow 1st movement.

Dorati's old recording on Mercury is worth hearing for well-phrased accounts of the 1st and 2nd movements, but his sunrise finale is too tame.

I recall Jarvi being somewhat academic in this piece.

Kuchar's recording on Naxos suffers from terribly, tinny sound--like all of his Prokofiev recordings--but has some nice moments, including clearer-than-usual tam-tam crashes.


andrew

[karlhenning]

Agree with Andrew viz. the Abbado/CSO;  I should revisit the Dorati.

[jurajjak]

Agree with Andrew viz. the Abbado/CSO;  I should revisit the Dorati.

The Dorati has a nearly perfect rendering of the Dance of the Evil God and Pagan Monsters; unfortunately, he rushes through the work's finale, and doesn't hold the suspense of the brass long enough during the sunrise.

Much as I love Prokofiev--he's probably my favorite composer--I've always had mixed feelings about this piece.  The "big" parts are amazing, but there's rather too much mood music in the 1st and 3rd movements.  I wish the first movement had ended with a bang rather than slowly petering out.  Still, this type of mysticism was short-lived for Prokofiev; I usually consider the idiomatically similar (and utterly brilliant) "Seven, They are Seven" to be more successful than the Scythian Suite.


andrew   

[bhodges]

I am very fond of Scherchen's Scythian Suite, even though the orchestral playing (Vienna Symphony Orchestra) is not as good as Abbado's or Gergiev's recordings, and it's in mono rather than stereo.  But the "primitive" sound sort of suits the "primitive" feel of the music, and Scherchen sort of dashes into the piece with a fury that is really satisfying. 

--Bruce

[BachQ]

I am very fond of Scherchen's Scythian Suite, even though the orchestral playing (Vienna Symphony Orchestra) is not as good as Abbado's or Gergiev's recordings, and it's in mono rather than stereo. 

Any other problems with this recording that you'd care to share, Bruce? ........   

[bhodges]

Any other problems with this recording that you'd care to share, Bruce? ........   

Well, there's that laugh track...

--Bruce

[Danny]

Just discovered this recording and have thought the playing quite good and up to task for Sergei's sonatas.  Great sound, as well, and the disc was quite inexpensive, too, so am looking to get volume 1 soon.



Anyone else heard this?

[karlhenning]

Not I, Danny, though at that price, I've considered giving one or two of the Arte Nova discs a try at some point.

[Bonehelm]

Guys, I'm seeing Prokofiev's 2nd PC live in January 2008. I heard it's a tempestuous, fiery and strikingly-dissonant piece. What should I listen for in the music? The chaotic piano chords? The messy orchestra? The performers will be Yundi Li, and HKPO conducted by Edo de Waart. Thanks!

[greg]

just enjoy it, man, one of the greatest piano concertos ever 

[Danny]

Not I, Danny, though at that price, I've considered giving one or two of the Arte Nova discs a try at some point.

Worth the buy, Dr. Karl, worth the buy!

[Danny]

just enjoy it, man, one of the greatest piano concertos ever 

Will give that piece a spin right now.

[jurajjak]

Guys, I'm seeing Prokofiev's 2nd PC live in January 2008. I heard it's a tempestuous, fiery and strikingly-dissonant piece. What should I listen for in the music? The chaotic piano chords? The messy orchestra? The performers will be Yundi Li, and HKPO conducted by Edo de Waart. Thanks!

Prokofiev's 2nd is most famous for the cadenza in the first movement--at about 5-6 minutes, possibly the longest cadenza in any piano concerto (usually the pianist has to take a little break before the second movement).  What makes the cadenza so satisfying is that it's (mostly) developmental material, not superficial gloss.  The piece is also unusual in that it really doesn't have a slow movement.  Though the first mvmt. begins slowly, the tempestuousness of the cadenza disqualifies it from being considered a conventional slow movement; after that, it's fast-moderate-fast, with the 3rd, moderate intermezzo actually the most dissonant part.

I've only seen it live once, with Toradze-Gergiev.  It seems as if this piece has finally come into its own in the past 5 years or so, and is now performed as frequently as the 3rd concerto.


andrew   

[pjme]

At the Queen Elisabeth competition it has become quite popular.


Anna Vinnitskaya has won this year with a towering performance of Prokofiev's second concerto.
There's a 3CD box with recordings by all the laureates:
Orchestre royal de chambre de Wallonie - dir. Paul Goodwin
ONB / NOB - dir. Gilbert Varga

CD / Piano /2007
Publisher: Queen Elisabeth Competition
Reference: QEC2007-1

http://www.qeimc.be/en/actu.php


The performance is -unfortunately- no longer available at the competitions website.
But I'm sure her name will be soon better known. (idem for Plamena Mangova from Bulgaria - her Chostakovitch Preludes & 2nd sonata on Fuga libera met with critical acclaim).

[karlhenning]

Prokofiev's 2nd is most famous for the cadenza in the first movement--at about 5-6 minutes, possibly the longest cadenza in any piano concerto (usually the pianist has to take a little break before the second movement).  What makes the cadenza so satisfying is that it's (mostly) developmental material, not superficial gloss.  The piece is also unusual in that it really doesn't have a slow movement.  Though the first mvmt. begins slowly, the tempestuousness of the cadenza disqualifies it from being considered a conventional slow movement; after that, it's fast-moderate-fast, with the 3rd, moderate intermezzo actually the most dissonant part.

I've only seen it live once, with Toradze-Gergiev.  It seems as if this piece has finally come into its own in the past 5 years or so, and is now performed as frequently as the 3rd concerto.

Probably part of the reason it was slow to gain mindshare in programming, is related to the fact that Prokofiev's inspiration for the second (in both a general sense of stamina/technical demand, and in specific finding a formal 'groove' for a monster cadenza) was the Rakhmaninov Third Concerto.  When Rakhmaninov had finished writing that piece, he wondered himself what he had wrought;  and similarly, taking on the Prokofiev Second isn't for anyone who just wants to phone in with the Schumann 

[not edward]

I'd love to hear Severin von Eckardstein record the Second Concerto. I heard his performance from the Leeds competition a few years back while driving through the Scottish countryside (admittedly, hardly ideal listening conditions) and found it sensational: slow, rhythmically very precise and very much focussed on long-term tension-building rather than quick emotional fixes. The closest I've come to this performance--which iirc Angela Hewitt said was the best Prokofiev concerto performance she'd ever heard--is the remarkable Baloghova/Ancerl on Supraphon, an essential Prokofiev disc if there ever were one, given that it also includes a superb Classical Symphony and Richter in the 1st Piano Concerto.

[pjme]

Cyprès recorded (as always) the performances at the Queen Elisabeth competition 2003. Live recordings . But , of course ,he should re-record it in better circumstances.

Piano session - 2003 (3CD)

Severin von Eckardstein, Wen-Yu Shen, Roberto Giordano, Kazumasa Matsumoto, Jin Ju, Jong-Gyung Park, MinSoo Sohn & Amir Tebenikhin

S. Prokofiev: Concerto n.2 in G minor op.16
S. Rachmaninov: Concerto n.3 in D minor op.30
I. Munro: Dreams
L. van Beethoven: Sonata n.27 in E minor op.90
I. Stravinsky: Petrouchka
L. van Beethoven: Sonata n.31 in A flat major op.110
M. Balakirev: Islamey
W.A. Mozart: Concerto n.20 in D minor KV466
F. Schubert: Sonata in A major D664
L. van Beethoven: Sonata n.22 in F major op.54
J. Haydn: Sonata in C major Hob.XVI:50



CD / Piano /2003
Publisher: Cyprès
Reference: CYP9616
http://www.cypres-records.com

[greg]

...uggghhhh now i feel like listening to the 2nd piano concerto again; it's just so good, impossible to resist!

but, it isn't really the longest cadenza, right? Can't be. One of the longest, but does anyone know the longest? Probably some modern work, i bet.