Please Recommend: Prokofiev ~ works for piano

Debs,

Puccini's greatest sonatas are called his 'War' sonatas, numbers 6, 7 and 8. Together with no.2, it's the best music that Prokofiev has written - eclipsing his symphonies and piano concertos IMO.

Plenty of good recordings available - Yefim Bronfman is getting hard to find but played an excellent integral set - my memory may be colored by having him heard in Amsterdam, years ago. Among the digital generation, Kissin, Chiu and others made good recordings. For the war sonatas, my preferred recordings are:

Cheers,

EJ

Thanks for such a quick reply, EJ

Resent serching on Amazon i saw Bronfman's name a few times.

The hasty Edit:

Actually i've just realised i have 2 cd's with Yefim Bronfman on Beethoven Piano Concertos & the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich with David Zinman conducting. Those cd's are really excellent imho! : )

So right now i'm having an enjoyable audition of this (in B-flat Major) on spotify...

Debs

There is a DGG CD of Pollini doing Stravinsky and Prokofiev Piano Sonata No. 7, which is positively electric.  A once in a lifetime performance with superior sound.

 This one?

Thank you, Mike.

I'm having a sample listen on spotify : )

Debs

That's the one, Debs :-)

Well, you've got recommendations for Pogorelich and Pollini playing the Sixth and Seventh Sonatas, each on DG.

So why not complete the 'War' sonatas by getting Richter's wonderful Eighth, also on DG, coupled with Prokofiev's Fifth Piano Concerto plus a couple of throwaway miniatures?

 This one?

Listening to this on spoty now, and i must admit the Warsaw National PO is sounding very good too : )

Thank you, Graham

Debs,

Here's one that is a wonderful experience, one of the best in 20th century music, but it may be hard to find.  I think I got my copy at ArkivMusic a few years ago.

Prokofiev's Sonatas for violin and piano.

If you can find Shlomo Mintz doing this, but others have done well with this music.

Mike,

i can see the Shlomo Mintz on DG copy on Amazon uk, and can still be got new but it's pricey at £13.21 but I can't find an sample audition to listen to.

But listening to what they have on spotify, i would be very happy with a copy of this below...

This version is rather expensive on Amazon at £15.99 for just one CD. But what a CD!

Trouble is i'm totally impressed with these 2 guys, especially the no.1 in F minor, for all i know they may be worth the money.

Perhaps i have expensive taste?

play.dot's price is £40 !! or Amazon download for £8.99

I'll put this on my wish list for now.

Debs

Hi Debs,

I am coming into this late and previous posters have already mostly said what I'd like to say so sorry for repeating anything.

The violin sonatas was where I was going to suggest you start.  The mood they can elicit with some surprising shifts and ideas is just remarkable although they can be dark, haunting, and even painful.  But I like this.  Prokofiev to me is more sincere than say Shostakovich who can come across as a little more sarcastic or insincere.

A well known pairing might be Oistrakh/Richter on Orfeo D'or:

 I have several other pairings which are all good as well but if you want to take a risk and have an interesting experience then try this:

What may be best is to hear others for comparison and then listen to Argerich/Kremer and then decide if it is for you.  Argerich/Kremer are definitely two strong willed characters but once they hook you there is no going back.  For me they do bring this music to life and I like there vision.  This is my most played version by choice.  For a strong Prokofiev pianist Argerich is certainly a very strong choice.

If you do end up liking the Argerich/Kremer then you could eventually try Prokofiev's Cello Sonata and there is this live recording that is enjoyable as well:

You'll also get some Shostakovich & Stravinsky on this one.

I really like Prokofiev's earlier solo piano works too.  I was going to recommend the Visions fugitives, Op. 22 but I see you already have this.  Lots of other piano works to get but to listen to it you may have to look at artists that recorded Prokofiev complete.  It is hard to find much of otherwise.

The same goes for the Piano Sonatas.  Out of the nine Sonatas, most performers seem to record #2, 3, 5, 6, and 7.  All very good but don't be afraid to try the others as well.  The other posters have recommended some very decent names in Pletnev, Pogorelich, Bronfman, Kissin, Pollini, Richter etc.  I'd like to say a lot more about the Piano Sonatas but I am short on time at the moment.

Hopefully this gives you a little start or encouragement.

Regards,

Doug

Hi Doug,

It’s okay… i’m not in any hurry to purchase just yet but i am compiling nice things on my wish list.

I’m a bit surprised all the recommendations here are the older masters, is there really nobody new on the scene quite up to the job?

I must admit noticing the Oistrakh/Richter version when looking around yesterday.

David Oistrakh is know to me on one of my LP’s ~ Schubert trio in B-flat op99 (D 898).

With Lev Oborin on piano and Sviatoslav Knushevitsky cello, and they play well together, all very easy on the ear nothing pretentious, they hold nicely together with a slight bouncy rhythm. The piano sound is slightly clanky distance and the vinyl a bit crackly but there you go.

I often find a violin slightly too shrill for my ears so may actually prefer the cello sonatas, that's a good idea so will explore them.

I had an enjoyable listen to the Argerich/Kremer on DG and it does sound good on Spotify, but in all due respect imvho it didn’t scratch my itch like the Grubert/Raekallio who totally spooked me working on the F minor. I wonder what Grubert did to his violin to make it sound like that!?

But I don’t know who these guys are, maybe something is lost in translation on Spotify coming though my diminutive computer speakers (which can make my ears go numb after a little while).

Doug, if you’ve time (and access to Spotify) please give a listen to the Grubert/Raekallio version, be very interested to know your opinion.

Thanks!

Debs

Debs, I agree absolutely about the violin being shrill; I too prefer the cello.   Of course I have to make exceptions as there is a whole lot more written for violin than cello.  I think I have selective hearing too as I may only focus on the the violin parts that I like.  With these Prokofiev violin sonatas I know there are different sections that really grab me and I really focus on them.

I've heard of Spotify but unfortunately that is as far as I've gone.  You know I did learn something knew last week so I thought I'd be good for a while.  I'm not some teenager or something that I can just keep changing my ways and adapting at a snap of a finger 

I'll try to look into it though as I'm always quite interested to hear something new.

Doug

Shlomo Mintz has such a perfect intonation (positively remarkable) that the sound is always clear and unforced, more so than anyone I have heard.

He is my violinist of choice, and never shrill.

One of my favorite pieces of music is Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, especially its first movement. As a young student I grew up with John Browning's fabulous performance with Erich Leinsdorf and the Boston Symphony.

More recently I've really enjoyed Yundi Li's excellent recording with Seiji Ozawa and the Berlin Philharmonic:

To my ears, Li makes a strong rebuttal to the commonly held view (though not by me) that Asian pianists are technically superb but lacking in poetry, a view which is frankly ethnocentric if not racist.

This wonderful work, written by a young Prokofiev, while decidedly tonal (albeit decidedly non-diatonic), seems at times to render tonality into something molten. Taking that imagery even further, the moment when the orchestra re-enters after the cadenza sounds to me like a perfect audio representation of a star nursery full of blindingly brilliant, spinning supernovae.

By the way, I'd be grateful for some recommendations of other recordings of this.

Fred,

Thank you for the Yundi Li recommendation,

i tried to have a listen (on spotify) yesterday but was far too tired out after working, and with no mind for strong focus i got beat up half way thought the Andantino... so i went to bed early.

But i braved it again this morning! ; )

It's certainly a work full of energy!

To be honest the first movement kept leaving me behind, it moves in directions i don't expect. This composition is technically complicated and very new to me. Nevertheless i found myself enjoying more the fast progression of the 2nd and especially the intermezzo (white knuckle-ride) 3rd movement. The piano play of Yundi Li i found easier to understand in the final during those calmer moments... with the BPO making me jump out of my skin more than once.

But this work stimulates me, it's on my wish list now and i will buy it one day.

It'll certainly blow the cobwebs out the speakers : )

Debs

p.s. the Raval is quite fabulous too! Li plays the final Presto superbly imho.

Fred, I'm with you on the first movement in the g-minor Piano Concerto.  I probably listen to it 95% of the time alone repeatedly.  As you described, it takes me somewhere wonderful too.

I have the Yundi Li/ Seiji Ozawa and the Evgeny Kissin / Vladimir Ashkenazy.  Both, in my opinion, are very strong recordings.

For about the past 6 months the recording I listen to the most though is Anna Vinnitskaya / Gilbert Varga on the naive label.  While I enjoy all three renditions, I find Vinnitskaya to be a marvellous pianist who holds here own even being that this is only her second CD.  Of course, Kissin and Li have the upper hand in experience etc. but there is a satisfying determination about her that I like very much (with my head and heart).  Actually, I think I even prefer the recorded sound of her CD the best too as the balance seems the most realistic.

The three youngen's then that I'd recommend....

Doug, thanks for the recommendation of Anna Vinnitskaya ... I checked out a few excerpts and already know that it will be my next recording of the Prokofiev. A little slower than the Li, not that there's anything wrong with that!

Ditto, Doug! 

EJ

For Prokofiev's piano works anything you can get by Sv Richter is self-recommending. Het is just the best interpret, and also one of the best pianists of the 20th century.

Yundi Li is no good, sorry. Vinnitskaya's 2nd concerto is good. I have not heard the record but I have heard her live performance of the concerto.

I have always liked the Toradze / Gergiev Cto 1 - 5 recording on Philips.

Demidenko playing the Visions Fugitives is pretty good too (Hyperion).

Can you offer some reasons why you feel that way?

Yundi Li, the way I hear it, is a rather faceless performer. I have heard some really terrible live broadcasts of his (last summer, a Festival Hall Chopin recital that was falling apart as he went along). Of course a recording can be patched, but why seek out a weak performer when there are better options?

I have only heard Yundi Li on the one recording I've mentioned here of the Prokofiev No. 2. I think he sounds fantastic, neither faceless (what exactly does that mean?) nor weak. And it is a live recording, which of course doesn't mean that it hasn't been patched, but then no one but the musician, producer, and editor know where a recording has been patched. You can count on the fact that many of your favorite recordings have been patched, and thankfully so. That's the beauty of good editing ... the listener only hears the intention of the music, unaware that an edit has been made.

But I still don't have a specific sense of why you think "Yundi Li is no good" other than that you heard a recording of a bad gig ... everyone has a bad gig from time to time.

I have this Yundi Li of the Prokofiev 2nd on Fred's recommendation, and I am compelled to say that it leaves me utterly unmoved, for whatever reasons.

I have left it at that because I am occupied with music that does engage me, and I feel no urge to explore further.

The reason why is I have heard no good gig of his, ever.

If you listen to the Toradze / Gergiev / Mariinsky recording of Prokofiev 2 and the Gutierrez / Järvi / Concertgebouw you will find Yundi Li doesn't matter anymore, even though it is a recent DG release. 

If you want to support young artists Vinnitskaya would be a much more deserving pianist.

The music doesn't move you, or Li's performance?

Maybe you should try the recording by Anna Vinnitskaya, as I'm considering doing.