In Reply to: That Prok Catata posted by Newey on April 10, 2017 at 18:59:38:
If one can divorce the text from the music, "October" is worth a listen.
The composer put a lot of time and effort into the immense piece only to withdraw it out of fear that it would offend. Scary times for Soviet composers, even the Idealist Prokofiev.
October was performed for the first time after Prokofiev's (and Stalin's) death and it still gets resurrected from time to time.
"Revolution" (with it's multitude of notes) is particularly vivid, and who couldn't love a piece that includes four accordions? "Spring" and "Philosophers" are worth a listen as well.
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Follow Ups
- Cheesier than a mega-church Christmas pageant, but still: it's Prokofiev - jdaniel@jps.net 21:01:25 04/10/17 (10)
- This piece is cheesy and Shostakovitch isn't? Words fail me! [nt] ;-) - Chris from Lafayette 01:19:24 04/11/17 (9)
- Do You Dislike Shost? - Newey 20:06:19 04/11/17 (1)
- Correct - I don't care for Shostakovitch [nt] - Chris from Lafayette 00:19:38 04/12/17 (0)
- I think familiarity fails you more than words. : ) nt - jdaniel@jps.net 07:49:58 04/11/17 (6)
- Burn!!! nt - rbolaw 11:32:44 04/11/17 (0)
- Possibly, but I'm at least somewhat familiar with most works by Shostakovitch. . . - Chris from Lafayette 09:39:35 04/11/17 (4)
- With any composer, I think a little bit of trust and confidence is involved - jdaniel@jps.net 10:09:33 04/11/17 (3)
- He's had over 50 years of trust and confidence from me - he's running really low right now! [nt] ;-) - Chris from Lafayette 17:42:07 04/11/17 (2)
- Sorry, but Solti didn't dare record Shosty until he'd digested Mahler, Beethoven, Brahms and Bruckner - jdaniel@jps.net 19:22:09 04/11/17 (1)
- LOL! - Well, OK - Chris from Lafayette 00:12:41 04/12/17 (0)