Customer Reviews

Prokofiev: 7 Symphonies; Lieutenant Kijé

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Much to my amazement, Seiji Ozawa's Prokofiev symphony cycle with the Berlin Philharmonic hasn't earned the critical praise it deserves. These are insightful, vibrant interpretations replete with the Berlin Philharmonic's charismatic warm and brilliant playing. I am very impressed with Ozawa's ability to lead the Berliners in a series of commanding performances of Prokofiev's scores. All of these are memorable, yet the strongest are undoubtedly the 1st, 5th and 7th symphonies. The tempi don't sound sluggish, but instead, tend to be slightly brisk. The warm, rich sound is aided by the fact that most of these recordings were made in the Jesus Christ Kirche studio used by Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic in many of their classic 1960's and 1970's Deutsche Grammophon recordings. Although this may not be the definitive set of Prokofiev's symphonies, it is nonetheless a collection of admirable performances and one worth acquiring at this price.

Prokofiev was not known mainly as a symphonist, but listening to the Berlin Philharmonic play the entire cycle convinces me that he has not been properly appreciated. The First is of course the most often played, and while a charming pastiche, was merely a youthful warm-up for the works that were to follow. I find the Second to be incredible, a modernist masterpiece. Prokofiev moved toward a more lyrical, romantic style as he matured, but the Second Symphony is one of the great achievements of his earlier period. The Third and Fourth both developed from operas, "The Fiery Angel" and "The Prodigal Son." They are the least successful as symphonies, it seems to me, but are still tremendously enjoyable, especially as played by the BPO. The Fifth and Sixth are generally seen to be Prokofiev's best symphonies, especially the Sixth. I can see why, though if I had to choose two, I would say the Second and Sixth. The Sixth got Prokofiev in trouble, denounced for "formalism," and the Seventh was part of his rehabilitation. It is a lovely piece, but lacking the depth and innovation of earlier works.

This set is magnificent on every level, from performance, to Ozawa's conducting, to DG's beautiful package. The cover photo of steel girders captures the hackneyed notion of "the Soviet composer," and is really only appropriate for the steely constructivism of the Second Symphony, but excellent design nonetheless. There are no plastic jewelcases -- each disc comes in its own sleeve, like a vinyl LP, resting in a box along with the informative booklet. This is a package that this splendid music deserves.

I concur with the reviewers who saw exceptional merit in the (undeservedly) obscure symphonies (namely, those other than 1 & 5). Each sound-world has its own charms. One can hear antecedent rumblings of the 5th lurking in the 4th -- as if in nascent form, waiting to open the matrix of the womb. The melodic invention seems bottomless, and the penchant for boldly painted colors never flags. The low brass surprised me at many points -- it seems Ozawa (or his engineers) had coaxed something out of them that was hard to come by under Karajan's baton. While one can argue over Ozawa's take on individual symphonies (e.g., I'd take de Burgos over Ozawa on the 1st), a Complete Set has to be evaluated on its own terms. This one is a true five-star find.

The Lieutenant Kije suite will shock anyone expecting to hear excerpts from Woody Allen's "Love and Death." In two movements (the Romance and the popular Troika), a baritone vocalist covers the main themes (following the 1933 original version). When a previous reviewer lamented the coupling of the symphonies with yet another Lt. Kije, I found it to be a premature judgment. I've heard a half dozen other versions, but this is the first I've heard the original version with the baritone singing the Russian text. Frankly, I don't even think I like the original 1933 version -- but I certainly can't complain that this seventh Lt. Kije Suite was a redundant addition to my music library!

THREE YEARS LATER... I reviewed this in 2004, but this month (October 2007) a new set of Prokofiev symphonies won a 2007 Grammy award. I've since ordered that version (Gergiev with the London Symphony Orchestra) and will cross-compare the two box sets to decide whether I need to revise the star rating on this review or not. One professional critic asserted that Gergiev easily put Ozawa in second place. We shall see. Be alert to the new competition from Gergiev when selecting your box set!

I have no idea why Ozawa had been criticised as one of those "faceless conductors" with no real viewpoint of their own. Nothing could be further than the truth! His understanding of these symphonies is beyond reproach. The performances are breathtaking, especially 2,4,6 and 7. The only weak spot I can think of is that the first two movements of the classical symphony are taken a little too slowly for most people's tastes (although this doesn't bother me at all). In my opinion this takes away from the pastiche element of the work, rendering it just another piece of "old sounding" classical music. But overall this is an amazing set of CDs. The Lt. Kije merits no interest, as Abbado did the best version with the LSO (sans lyrics though). The bottom line: great sound, stunning performance from an ensemble that many claim to be the world's greatest orchestra (Berlin Philharmonic) and excellent digital sound that will blow you away, especially on symphony 2 (in my opinion Prokofiev's very best). Just wish the set also included the original version of number 4. However, the revised version is better anyway, so why am I complaining?
Buy this set and enjoy! Prokofiev truly is the master!!

Where's the intensity? Where are the ironic twists, the contrasts, the sharpness and acerbicness that are hallmarks of Prokofiev's compositional style? Where is the epic buildup that is the 5th, the War and Peace of Russian symphonies? Seiji Ozawa leads--slogs--the Berlin Philharmonic through some of the smoothest, velvetiest Prokofiev ever recorded. There isn't a hair-raising moment on this disc. But it's not-a-hair-out-of-place perfect. I'd rather have some ratty excitement myself.

Whether it's a charmless "Classical"--lifeless and slow--or an un-otherworldly 3rd or weak and unmuscular 5th or a 7th that lacks all irony and cheerful cynicism, Seiji just misses the boat here. You have to give him credit: at least he misses it consistently. Al the symphonies sound alike, and they all sound like Ozawa when he conducts. He prefers balance and harmony, and that can be good. But Prokofiev deliberately wrote dissonant, even grating sections for expressive purposes, and they are just missing here as even mysterious moments like the slow movement of the 5th are whittled down to plush, lifeless run-throughs. None of the solo passages for winds--and Prokofiev was brilliant at writing very spirited solo passages for winds--have any character here. This is Prokofiev that's nearly Muzak--an amazing feat, really.

While he didn't have the magnificent orchestra that is the Berlin Philharmonic to work with, Gennady Rozhdestvensky and the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra runs rings around Seiji in terms of expression and passion. Other fine recordings are Ormandy in a fine "Classical" (Sony) and 5th (RCA, but good luck finding it except in Japan). Tennstedt for a fine 5th and 7th, Ormandy for a fine 6th (hard to find that too), and Leinsdorf in 2, 3, 5, and 6. As for this set, take a pass, no matter how cheap.

This set is spectacular. These may not be the perfect performances of these symphonies, but they're all close enough to be enjoyed over and over again. You may even find that these are the only performances you listen to. I was most impressed by the performance of symphony 7. I love this piece, but I don't think it's very good. Ozawa and the Berliners, however, play it as if it WERE a great piece. Wow!

Only one regret, instead of giving us both versions of 4, they decided we only needed the overblown and clumsy revised version plus yet another Lt. Kije (yawn). At least Ozawa conducts every piece as if it were the best piece ever.

In any event, the set's worth the money for 5 and 2 alone, so what am I complaining about?

I love this entire set of the Prokofiev symphonies; here, Ozawa is at his strongest.

If "Ala & Lolly" (the Scythian Suite) is a little too baldly imitative of "Le sacre," Prokofiev's second symphony is a marked and mature contrast, displaying a rarefied assimilation of the daring sonic achievements of Prokofiev's fellow expatriate.

The performance here has more weight, and is less blaring, than others I have heard. And even with less blare, the twelve-minute first movement is unrelenting. There is surprising (and always welcome) textural variety. The mechanistic rhythm keeps chugging in such a way that one loses one's breath, just listening; this piece has what deserves to be the most popular ritardando in the literature ... and that is just at the end of the exposition. The development does not present any such temperamental contrast as we noted in the later fifth symphony; yet, the recapitulation is a clear event. If we are prepared to take the sound-world on its own terms, we may just perceive how closely Prokofiev takes a certain Beethoven piano sonata as his two-movement model here.

The bass clarinet and English horn which begin the theme-&-variations movement II are magical; this passage is every bit as mysterious and delicate, as movement I had been "iron and steel," and the contrast is miraculous. I suppose we must weigh movement I on its own merits (and the fine presentation Ozawa gives here must be the result of great affection for, and understanding of, the score) ... but the effect made by the opening of movement II, more than makes up for any shortcomings in the "Allegro ben articolato."

Indeed, the bulk of the second movement seems to be from some other planet than the first; diaphanous textures predominate, and the succession of variations creates a most welcome variety of tempo and dynamics. But this scheme allows for "iron and steel" intrusions. The heart of the variations, its "calm center," is the Larghetto, variation IV.

In many respects, this was Prokofiev at his most experimental (within his symphonies as a group); his use of the orchestra, and the music he makes with it, is in this piece not merely experimental; it is unfolding, exquisite discovery.

The fifth symphony is in a sense, a step backward from Beethoven. In the classical sonata-design, the themes are neatly exposed one after the other, and the development is where there is dramatic thematic interplay, dramatic harmonic exploration. Order is then restored in the recapitulation. In the Eroica, Beethoven famously refused to wait until the development for the drama, and the thematic/motivic churning and struggling begins in the olympian exposition.

Prokofiev's Opus 100 "steps backward" from Beethoven, in that the exposition is relatively calm and orderly affair, a melodic unfolding of relative calm and optimism. Gentle, and exquisitely lyrical winds, answered by pastoral strings. Occasional stirrings, often accented with the percussive piano, intrude.

Where other performances I have heard 'go wrong' with the first movement of the Prokofiev is, they let the calm and order leash in the development. But Ozawa here turns the development loose, as well as the dramatic resistance-against-literal-recap, and the result is breathtaking.

About two minutes from the end of the first movement we have those low brass octaves, answered by percussion plus a rattle in the piano, the whole thing related to a bit from the first theme group. Then this block is repeated, with the answer in high strings, again plus rattling in the piano. The end of the first movement is stunning here, the kind of massive chordal chill that opens Tybalt's funeral cortege in Romeo & Juliet. Only bigger, more menace. Ozawa understands this piece to a degree that puts most everybody else to shame.

The strings have a degree of mastery and control in the second movement that I have never heard before. The clarinet and oboe aren't shabby, neither. With each symphony I turn to on this set, I am impressed with how perfect the piano is.

The tempo for the outer sections of the trio of movement two is more pulled-back than I have heard anywhere else, and it works beautifully. The center of the trio also benefits from the surety in the strings; timpani is good and present, without being overbearing. Then the sluggish repeat of the scherzo ... the sound of the interlocking trumpets seems "off-stage" so that the gently pulsating accompaniment is more to the fore ... the whole effect is like an achingly deliberate folk-dance. The movement ends with a kind of barely-controlled shriek.

I haven't done any comparative listening for "Roméo et Juliette" ... I was introduced to the complete ballet by a DG Ozawa/BSO recording ten years ago, and I have never felt the need to go elsewhere.

The Adagio sounds every bit as deliciously sumptuous as Ozawa's "Roméo et Juliette" leads us to expect.

A good friend of ours, a long-time subscriber to the BSO's open rehearsals, often expresses astonishment and admiration for Ozawa's memory skills. While memory itself is something, in its way, but not an intrinsic musical asset ....

This is a symphony I first heard some seventeen years ago, and have enjoyed living with all these years, without seriously cracking the score open. I hear a wealth of detail and subtlety that is new to me, on this recording, that has almost always been buried in the texture before. From the mastery that Ozawa has achieved of the score, as evident on this recording, I should be astonished if he COULD NOT conduct it from memory.

There is no auto-pilot to the concluding Allegro giocoso here. The decrescendo might have been invented for this piece. The "galop" of the wood-block (when all the orchestra is a blur, over which the trumpets ring their dotted figure, towards the end) is just restrained enough that it does not "bang" the texture out. The full orchestra giving way to the soli-string "sewing-machine" ostinato, and then the final crescendo, are exquisitely clear, and splendidly effective.

This really is an untterly fantastic box set. I am just learning Prokofiev's symphonic cycle with these, and I would certainly enjoy hearing something better than this!

The sound is exquisite, the orchestra is utterly tops, the music (other than the 1st and 5th of course) is a bit inaccessible for the neophyte (although I did love my mother's old LP of the 4th as a kid) but is glistening here so brightly it's undeniable.

Recommended.

Seiji Ozawa is a great Prokofiev conductor, because in my opinion, he understands the dark side of Prokofiev's composing. He brings that side out in this cycle and it's certainly a welcome addition to anyone interested in hearing these symphonies. The Berlin Philharmonic also turn in great performances on these discs.

People talk about how if you're a fan you should buy the individual releases, etc. I don't look at it that way. I look for consistency and of course there have been cases where certain symphony cycles are inconsistent, but I also look for the quality of the music. To be able to determine this is knowing who the best conductors and orchestras and whether or not you know that they will always deliver a good performance.

You can't go wrong with this box set if you're a new or old Prokofiev fan. These are excellent readings of these symphonies. Highly recommended.

Karajan's recording of Prokofiev's 1st and 5th symphonies has long been one of my favorite discs so I decided to take the plunge and get the complete set. Unfortunately Karajan never recorded them all so I got the Ozawa who does a pretty good job although his 5th is nowhere near as good as Karajan's but then again whose is?
As for the other symphonies I enjoyed them all except the 2nd. The 3rd symphony which is based on music derived from Prokofiev's opera The Fiery Angel (which was never staged during his lifetime) is much better than the opera itself which I thought to be a little static. The 4th symphony was derived from Prokofiev's ballet The Prodigal Son. It's nice but I thought it inferior to the ballet which is one of my all-time favorites. The 6th symphony seems to have a lot of admirers and it's good but I don't see what all the hoopla is about. The real undiscovered gem on these discs is Prokofiev's 7th. I was expecting it to be dull since it was composed towards the end of Prokofiev's life when the Soviet government was forcing it's composers to work in a more conservative style but Prokofiev rose above all that and created a real work of art. It's a shame it's not better known.