Release Date: 12 January 1999
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 730099421829
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: PROKOFIEV
Description
Sergey Sergeyevich Prokofiev (1891 - 1953)Symphony No.1 in D major, Op. 25 "Classical"Symphony No.5 in B flat major, Op.100Lieutenant Kije, Suite, Op. 60March from The Love for Three Oranges, Suite, Op. 33bisSergey Prokofiev belongs to the generation of Russian musicians who completedtheir studies before the Communist Revolution of 1917. His early education hadbeen at home, where he had tuition from Gli?¿re, before entering the St.Petersburg Conservatory on the advice of Glazunov at the age of thirteen. Forwhatever reason, whether of character, age or as the only child of his parents,he was to prove a recalcitrant student, finding little to his taste either inthe composition class of Lyadov or in the orchestration class ofRimsky-Korsakov, but meeting encouragement, at least, from Nikolay Myaskovskyand Boris Asaf'yev, fellow students nearer his own age.In 1909 Prokofiev graduated in the composition class but decided to continueat the Conservatory as a student of the piano, acquiring a new sense oftechnical discipline under some duress and completing these studies in 1914.Military service was to be avoided by enrollment as an organ student. Throughouthis time at the Conservatory he had written music that often impressed hiscontemporaries and shocked his elders, an effect that was doubtless achieved bydesign.For some years after 1917 Prokofiev was to live abroad, winning increasingsuccess as a composer and as a pianist. The Soviet authorities, who had givenhim leave to travel, encouraged him to maintain connection with Russia throughreturn visits, rewarded in foreign currency, and finally welcomed his return tolive permanently in his native country in 1936, in the words of Shostakovich"to fall like a chicken into the soup".The year 1936 brought the first official attack in Russia on formalism andmodernism in music, attacks to be renewed in 1948, when Prokofiev was condemnedby name. The effect was socially and artistically traumatic, and unfortunately,since he died on the same day as Stalin in 1953, he was never to experience thepartial relaxation that then took place.In his Classical Symphony Prokofiev deliberately attempted a modernapproximation of the style of Haydn, at the same time experimenting withcomposition away from the piano. The result was a work of idiosyncratic charm,clear in its formal neoclassical outline and demanding all the meticulousattention to detail that the eighteenth century was able to give. The firstperformance took place in St. Petersburg in the early months of 1918, when hewas heard by the new People's Commissar for Education, a representative of theBolsheviks, who had seized power the preceding November. It was in part thesuccess of this work that enabled Prokofiev to carry out his intention ofleaving Russia with official permission. The Classical Symphony re-interpretsthe eighteenth century with wit and elegance. The lyrical slow movement isfollowed by a wayward Gavotte, its principal melody with a strange twist in thet
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Zenz:Cathariou:Iacovidou
Zahir Ensemble
Yun-Yi Qin
