# The music of Sergei Prokofiev



## dcoscina (Sep 8, 2010)

I don't know about you guys but Prokofiev is easily my favourite composer of all time. I just stumbled across a student piece he composed called Seven, They Are Seven which is an ambitious cantata and while it's a little harsh and atonal, you can already hear what would develop into Prokofiev's signature style. I love his use of odd harmonic resolutions, rhythmic ostinatos, virtuosic instrument solos and his ability to evoke such powerful imagery with his music. While everyone lauds Alexander Nevsky, I much prefer his Ivan the Terrible scores (in the form of an Oratorio). Not that I dislike Nevsky by any stretch.

I'm also one of the few people who finds a tremendous value in his symphonies. His 4th in particular is brimming with emotion (based on his other work The Prodigal Son) and the 2nd mvmt is especially moving (so much that Horner ripped it off for one of his scores- I cannot recall which one because he's pillaged Sergei for a number of film scores).

THis is a very very rare recording of Seven They Are Seven

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3imEtW-4v80


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## Ashermusic (Sep 8, 2010)

My favorite Prokofiev works perhaps are his piano collection of "Visions Fugitives." Absolutely brilliant.


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## Alex Temple (Sep 8, 2010)

Definitely one of my favorite composers. I love how effortless his melodies sound, and also the way he manages to incorporate them into a style full of 20th-century bite but remaining accessible. Symphonies 1,3,5, and 6 are my favorites... still figuring out the other three. Good that you posted this, as I hadn't listened to his stuff in a while - I'm listening to Gergiev's reading of the 6th (a great bargain box set btw!) as I type this. Amazing.


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## David Story (Sep 8, 2010)

I love his 5th Symphony, and Cinderella :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y29V7c1k ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJisNyWDC0I

Lt. Kije, many other works. He can get quite dark and ominous too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AdBi5IB ... re=related


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## poseur (Sep 8, 2010)

thanks for the reminder!
i'm going back in there..... to his 4th Sym., today.

best,
d


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## Zei (Sep 8, 2010)

I've got a fondness for his Piano Sonata's. Particularly his Piano Sonata No. 6 Op. 82 Mov. 1 and I absolutely ADORE his Etude No. 1 Op. 2 (yea, I realize it's not a Sonata).

He's most definitely my second favorite composer, only next to Chopin.


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## nikolas (Sep 8, 2010)

I adore Prokofiev and especially his 8th sonata (the 3rd from the 'war set'). I've played it... A nightmare to learn I have to admit... :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tb5c77XDlA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVOW0YNDS0c (recup of the theme, not the same thing... )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncOJTGjrgMs

(ugly face though... )


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## Stephen Hill (Sep 8, 2010)

Scythian Suite
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfQb6BKq ... re=related


1977 version by Emerson, Lake and Palmer (starts about 1:30)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q698uWIrWmU


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## kdm (Sep 8, 2010)

4th (1947 version) and 6th symphonies were on my playlist today at the studio while doing admin work. Kitajenko/Gürzenich-Orchester Köln boxed set - excellent performances. 

A favorite here as well.


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## DouglasGibsonComposer (Sep 8, 2010)

I did a orchestration of one of the Fugitve Vision pieces not too long ago. I have added for anyone who is interested. The piece was composed in 1915 so there are no copyright restrictions I am aware of. I have left in the piano score at the bottom.

The file can be both downloaded and printed here:

http://douglasgibsoncomposer.wordpress.com/


I have a blog that I have done nothing with, so this gets me motivated to do some renovation !


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## nikolas (Sep 9, 2010)

Hmmm... Prokofiev died after the war (in 53 if I recall correctly), thus it's been around 57 years since his death. I'm not sure how copyrights work, but I do think it's 50 or 70 years after the composers' death, rather than the year of composing.

In any case I find absolutely no issue in orchestrating anything and I doubt you would have any issue whatsoever...  Just saying here...

BTW, you picked one of my favorites from the set! Fabulous piece of music and I do think that the orchestration would work well, indeed!  Thanks for sharing!


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## Jaap (Sep 9, 2010)

nikolas @ Thu Sep 09 said:


> Hmmm... Prokofiev died after the war (in 53 if I recall correctly), thus it's been around 57 years since his death. I'm not sure how copyrights work, but I do think it's 50 or 70 years after the composers' death, rather than the year of composing.
> 
> In any case I find absolutely no issue in orchestrating anything and I doubt you would have any issue whatsoever...  Just saying here...



It's 70 years after the composers' death.

Here a list btw with composers who recently moved to the Public Domain: http://www.logosfoundation.org/copyleft ... osers.html


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## nikolas (Sep 9, 2010)

Jaap: For you and me, living in Europe it IS 70 years, for that I'm sure. But I'm also hesitant to think that in the States it's 50 years after the composers's death.

In either way this feels way too rubbish. How are we to promote anything contemporary if the works of art are protected for SUCH a long time?!?! I get my students going "I like Bartok. He's very modern" and I'm think... yay, he's amazing but there's so much more to see/listen/performer/learn... yet unavailable due to extremely high pricing! :(


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## George Caplan (Sep 9, 2010)

one of the all time greats. the musicians musician.


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## stevenson-again (Sep 9, 2010)

one of my all time favourites. a composers composer. i know so many composers who adore prokofiev especially.

wow that 'seven' is amazing!

i can give you a tip on an amazing work of his i have played - its his quintet for violin viola, D bass, clarinet and oboe.

just absolutely out of this world...


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## Ian Dorsch (Sep 9, 2010)

I love Prokofiev. I recent discovered his 2nd Symphony, which knocked me flat on my ass. I understand that Prokofiev was unsatisfied with it, but I found it to be really electrifying. Thanks for all great links, there is some fantastic music contained therein.


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## dcoscina (Sep 9, 2010)

I'm partial to the Riccardo Muti reading of the Third (based on his Fiery Angel opera). I love those opening thunderous bi-tonal chords. I have a couple biographies on Prokofiev and there's some speculation that his opening motive is a parody of Stravinsky's Firebird. I do hear a similarity. Prokofiev was apparently a very witty fellow. Very intellectual


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## rgames (Sep 9, 2010)

nikolas @ Thu Sep 09 said:


> Jaap: For you and me, living in Europe it IS 70 years, for that I'm sure. But I'm also hesitant to think that in the States it's 50 years after the composers's death.
> 
> In either way this feels way too rubbish. How are we to promote anything contemporary if the works of art are protected for SUCH a long time?!?! I get my students going "I like Bartok. He's very modern" and I'm think... yay, he's amazing but there's so much more to see/listen/performer/learn... yet unavailable due to extremely high pricing! :(


I'm pretty sure Prokofiev's works are still under copyright in the US because they come up on audition lists all the time and the parts are impossible to get. You have to find someone who, ummm, memorized the rental part. Then you have to, ummm, memorize it from him. Yeah. That's it.

The scores, though, should be easy to find at low prices.

rgames


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## Zei (Sep 9, 2010)

I was always under the impression that, in the US, it's 70 years after the composers death.


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## nikolas (Sep 9, 2010)

This IS interesting, and sorry for derailing further the thread. Perhaps we should make a new one.

We (a lot of us) are pros, working in the world of music, and yet we don't know much about copyrights etc. I'm not too certain that something won't come up (for example I have been asked to take inspiration from pomp and circumstance, which I did, and found out later that the copyrights expired in 2004... It seems risky to say the least).

On Prokofiev, one of the first works I heard was the cantata for the commemoration of the 20th aniversery of the Octobrian Revolution. It's just fabulous!


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## bryla (Sep 10, 2010)

Isn't the PD date calculated by which country the composer was from? Say a russian composer is PD when russian law makes him, and not when US does?


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## dcoscina (Sep 10, 2010)

Someone should call James Horner and tell him he owes the Prokofiev estate a crapload of royalties then. Seriously. 

p.s. I still like Horner.


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## nikolas (Sep 10, 2010)

Everyone: Dave said about horner, not me! :D (since I have a past about exactly that issue... :D)

On Prokofiev, yet again. While I adore him, I can't help feeling that his latest works (especially War and Peace and the last 2 symphonies) seem very... succumbed to the USSR idea(l)s. The same amount of anti-comfortism that was vital for Prokofiev's music seems to have gone in reverse... At least it seems to me.

and, btw, my favorite piano concerto is no. 2 in G minor! Such a fabulous work of art! And created for his final piano exams out of the conservatory. Witty fellow!


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