Sergey Prokofiev: Symphony No. 2 in D minor, Op. 40 / Romeo and Juliet, Suite No. 1, Op. 64 bis [Import]

Sergey Prokofiev (Composer), Neeme Jarvi (Conductor), Scottish National Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Scottish National Orchestra
• Conductor: Neeme Jarvi
• Composer: Sergey Prokofiev
• Audio CD (October 9, 1992)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Chandos
• ASIN: B000000ACZ
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #306,873 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great recording of a unique masterpiece, January 13, 2006

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Wayne A. (Belfast, Northern Ireland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sergey Prokofiev: Symphony No. 2 in D minor, Op. 40 / Romeo and Juliet, Suite No. 1, Op. 64 bis (Audio CD)

It's nice to read that a lot of reviewers think this symphony is underrated. It is. rather than wishing we could hear what his reqrite would have been, one wishes we could hearwhat his other music would have sounded like had he maintained this somewhat looser, otherworldly, and impressionistic approach to composition. Sometimes (heck, often) a great creative artist reaches for a sound that echoes off distantly in their minds--Beethoven did that with his Third and it worked for him and his audiences. The rest is history.

Prokofiev generally has been underrated, a victim of 20th Century mandatory modernism of certain restricted kinds (meaning modern music had to have a surface sheen of a particular type to suit certain folks) and the patronizing any Soviet composer had to endure, including Shostakovich and Khachaturian. Prokofiev proved that a genius could, in the middle of the last century while other composers were log-jammed and caught up in theory, write mountains of memorable, wholly unique sounding music that could appeal to anyone. His melodic sense was astounding and his ability to shape-shift harmonies and tonalities mind-numbing. I've heard plenty of neo-romantic tripe that strives for, but never attains, what this great composer achieved.

This symphony, BOTH movements, is rapturous. This is a fine performance although I want to hear the Leinsdorf recently reissued on Testament. Leinsdorf was a great Prokofiev conductor.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SYMPHONY OF IRON AND STEEL, June 28, 2004

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DAVID BRYSON (Glossop Derbyshire England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sergey Prokofiev: Symphony No. 2 in D minor, Op. 40 / Romeo and Juliet, Suite No. 1, Op. 64 bis (Audio CD)

It would not do for me to claim to understand Profofiev's second symphony when the composer famously said that he didn't understand it himself. However it must be, surely, that we're talking on different planes of understanding. What I mean for my part is that Prokofiev is a composer I take to naturally and easily as I do to Stravinsky, whereas I usually have a bit of a struggle with the more eclectic and unpredictable Shostakovich. For some reason, Prokofiev's symphonies have not established themselves to anything like the extent that Shostakovich's have, and the second in particular has a reputation for being `difficult'. It was first performed in Paris in 1925, and its first British performance was not until 40 years later. In the 1920's Parisian taste favoured Les Six (Honegger, Frank Martin etc) in what seems to me a rather superficial and ooh-la-la kind of way. When Prokofiev decided to give them something of his own on similar lines, they reacted with bafflement on being confronted with music of genuine substance, just as they had done when they misbehaved childishly at the premiere of the Rite of Spring not 15 years earlier.

These days I can't really see why anyone who can cope with the Rite of Spring, surely not much of a hurdle, should have any great difficulty with Prokofiev's second. It's noisy and vehement to be sure, but so is much of Beethoven's 7th and even the first movement of Brahms's first. One thing is for certain - you don't have to go to it, it comes to you. I personally like the way Jarvi goes about it. He doesn't pull any punches and I would not have wanted him to. It's a controlled assault on the ears and on the understanding, but it doesn't take the same kind of toll of my emotions that much of Shostakovich does, or even that much of Schubert does, or Brahms. By way of balance, the other item on the disc is the first Romeo and Juliet suite, a welcome change from the more familiar second. This is actually a later work than the symphony, but the idiom, I hardly need remind anyone, is fairly traditional, the composer showing his lovely, genuine and underivative lyric gift.

The Scottish National Orchestra, not apparently yet `royal' in 1985, acquit themselves very well indeed. The recording is pretty good too. It takes no chances with the violent orchestration in the symphony, and if I felt a slight wish that it had now and again, I suppose that playing safe was really the wisest course. The liner note, by Noel Goodwin, is one that I would call a model of its type. It is fairly brief and addressed to the general reader not to the scholar or specialist, but it has something useful and constructive to say without being platitudinous, patronising or pretentious. I would genuinely like to plug this record if I can, as this symphony still has some kind of barrier against its general acceptance. To any hesitant music-lover I would say just this - the ballet suite is music of immediate appeal and probably not over-familiar. As for the symphony, just relax and let it hit you.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You Are Not Alone, January 24, 2002

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R. Williams "code slubber" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sergey Prokofiev: Symphony No. 2 in D minor, Op. 40 / Romeo and Juliet, Suite No. 1, Op. 64 bis (Audio CD)

To the prior reviewer: No, you are not hearing things, this work is an insane masterpiece that not only stands up to intense multiple (and repeat) listenings, but glows brighter.

Just to set the record straight: the story is that after the premiere, where the audience gave the piece a very chilly reception, Prokofiev was quoted outside the hall as saying 'neither I nor anyone in there understood a single note of what was played'. Obviously a psychotic remark induced by trauma. In fact, late in life, Prokofiev said he thought this was one of his great works. (Tchaikovsky went back and forth about his Manfred Symphony, calling it one of the best things he ever wrote, then referring to it as execrable after it had premiered, and then later recognizing again its beauty. Like that piece, nevermind the author's opinion, believe me you will be convinced of the genius of this music each time you listen to it.)