Severin von Eckardstein writes: "Prokofiev's music has always been close to my heart. In his childhood, the Russian composer loved to improvise on the piano, just as I did. His piano style was not as sprawling as, say, that of Rachmaninov, his contemporary. Yet it was all the more flexible, capable of instantly morphing to reflect current events - a style at times fresh and charged with energy, at others suddenly brooding. Prokofiev's music was stylistically multilayered from the onset, here and there juxtaposing melodies of a Classical bent with irony, self-deprecation, and driving rhythmic impulse. His skillful formal mastery and his unquenchable thirst for drama derived from opera, and always served him as a striking, never-ending source of inspiration. In it's impressive cohesion and vitality, Prokofiev's piano output elaborately intermingles a variety of surprising moments where a touch of human feeling sneaks up on the listener, thereby revealing striking sincerity and profound inner feeling. Far from consisting in episodes of post-Romantic bathos, these are moments of bleak, violent despair. Take, for example, the emotional outbreaks and the instances of sudden, hushed introversion in Prokofiev's Second Piano Concerto, written prior to the Russian Revolution."

Classical Music

Also available on Blu-ray

This classic choreography of Romeo and Juliet by Kenneth MacMillan, set to the immortal notes of Prokofiev, is legendary in La Scala´s repertoire. In this ballet the choreographer MacMillan deals with the matter paying great attention to human relations, lyricism and psychological tension, without neglecting moments of humour, through the dynamics and the emotions of ballet d’action. Set and costumes are designed especially for La Scala by Mauro Carosi and Odette Nicoletti. The stars of this masterly performance are Roberto Bolle and Misty Copeland, together for the first time in this ballet. Iconic ballerina Misty Copeland makes history as the first African American Female Principal Dancer with the prestigious American Ballet Theatre. As a bonus, this release also includes an exciting feature: Roberto Bolle talks about Romeo & Juliet.

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REVIEW:

Misty Copeland and Roberto Bolle are an interesting couple; their dancing, as is only to be expected, is superb. Antonino Sutera, Mick Zeni, Marco Agostino, and Riccardo Massimi are excellent in their roles, as is the entire company. Patrick Fournillier, a neglected conductor, demonstrates his feeling for the music and also gives it the sweep that is so necessary for the dancers.

– Fanfare

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DETAIL:

Booklet: English, German, French
Run time: 160 mins
Disc Format: 2 x DVD 9
Picture: NTSC 16:9
Audio: PCM Stereo, Dolby 5.1
Bonus Material: Roberto Bolle talks about Romeo & Juliet
Subtitles Bonus: IT, E
Region Code: 0 (worldwide)

Avery Fisher Career Grant winner, violinist Jennifer Frautschi is capturing the attention of audiences and critics round the world, with edge-of-the-seat performances of an adventuresome, wide-ranging repertoire from Bach and Schumann to Stravinsky and Davidovsky. Selected by Carnegie Hall for its Distinctive Debut series, she made her New York recital debut at Weill Hall in April, 2004. As part of the European Concert Hall Organizationís Rising Stars recital series, Ms. Frautschi made debuts in ten of Europeís most celebrated concert venues. Born in Pasadena, California, Ms. Frautschi was a student of Robert Lipsett at the Colburn School for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles and the University of Southern California School of Music. She also attended Harvard, the New England Conservatory of Music and The Juilliard School, where she studied with Robert Mann.

This album is taken from live performances in England between 2000 and 2005 by Russian pianist Sergei Dukachev and includes the Second and Seventh Sonatas, Visions Fugitives, and extracts from the composer's piano transcription of 'Romeo and Juliet'. Dukachev is gaining an enthusiastic following in the UK as well as in his native Russia, and the brilliance of these concert performances demonstrates why.

Masques, the title of this album, is a reference to Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet; it mirrors his visionary music, so full of wit, color and drama, that expresses every possible human emotion. The thousand characters created by the music are both actors in and spectators of their own lives by turns. The Sonata No. 1 is a truly epic work; it leads us from an anguish-laden grief permeated with a gust of wind from the grave to a nostalgic lyricism — the memory of a lost paradise? — that is then driven by tremendous rhythmic energy to the apocalyptic climax of the work: we experience an explosion, a dissolution of every hope, before a return to the frozen whiteness of the beginning and an ending in resignation. The Sonata No. 2, unrestrainedly lyrical and punctuated with humour, can be seen as a contrasting counterpart to the previous work. The release also includes the undervalued Sonata for solo violin and two miniatures in Prokofiev’s characteristic style: they are filled with alacrity, humour and biting wit — an extract of life!

Also available on Blu-ray

Romeo and Juliet: Beyond Words is a ballet feature film created by the International Emmy Award-winning Michael Nunn and William Trevitt. It stars the dancers of The Royal Ballet in Kenneth MacMillan’s classic ballet and is set to Sergei Prokofiev’s original score. Highlighting the essence of MacMillan’s world-renowned choreography, Nunn and Trevitt’s Romeo and Juliet takes us into the action with striking intimacy. Through detailed portrayals by The Royal Ballet dancers, we experience Shakespeare’s iconic characters in a new and intimate way, and this groundbreaking film captures the kind of extraordinary performances that have earned The Royal Ballet their world-class reputation. Filmed on location, Nunn and Trevitt’s Romeo and Juliet has been re-imagined for the camera, in a production that is internationally recognized as being at the zenith of dance storytelling. This is a story everyone knows, told in the universal language of dance, presented in a way never seen before.

Pianist Anna Shelest was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine. She began studying piano at six years old, and later attended the Kharkiv Special Music School for Gifted Children, where she studied under Sergei Polusmiak and Gary Gelfgat. A multi-award winning artist, she won her first competition when she was only eleven at the Milosz Magin International Piano Competition. She has since gone on to win the Louisiana International Piano Competition, Kawai American Recording Contest, Bradshaw-Buono International Piano Competition New York, and many more. Recorded in the Czech Republic in 2014, this release features Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2. These works were written early on in Prokofiev’s career, and feature his virtuosic and wildly dissonant style which caused his first leap into fame.

Review quote:

"Prokofiev, himself a virtuoso, wanted to make sure that the piano part stood out, and where he recesses the accompaniment or provides cadenzas and solo passages Shelest’s playing is very present in audio terms. Considering his ambition to be considered a Modernist the equal of Stravinsky, I think Prokofiev came closest in his concertos, one genre where Stravinsky wasn’t dominant. Prokofiev’s piano writing remains fresh and powerful to this day, and Shelest can be proud of her achievement in exploiting every gesture to its fullest. Slimline cardboard packaging, and very readable program notes." - Huntley Dent, Fanfare

Prokofiev's freewheeling Chout ballet, with its driving rhythms, highly virtuosic instrumental writing, and vivid and brilliantly varied orchestration, in many ways resembles his Scythian suite. Chout, or "buffoon", portrays the comic mishaps that occur when a husband concocts a scheme to swindle money out of seven clowns by faking his wife's death, and then selling his victims the magical whip that has restored her to life. For this scenario Prokofiev supplied music that is bitingly satirical (sounding close to the early ballet music of his contemporary Shostakovich) but also quite lyrical, even featuring some soaring Prokofievian tunes.


Yet for the most part the piece hustles along in a busy manner that at first seems chaotic but actually adheres to a larger thematic plan (each of the six Tableaux begins with the same material). Even so, it's the sheer sound of the music--and the amazing fecundity of Prokofiev's imagination--that make the greatest impressions, especially in this remarkable performance by Michail Jurowski and the Cologne WDR orchestra, which plays with marked precision and enthusiasm. CPO's recording, with its solid imaging and dynamic impact, no doubt enhances the music's overall effect. Neeme Järvi's Chandos disc is a safer bet for those who prefer just the ballet suite, but to experience the full effect of this striking score, this new version is the way to go. [12/15/2003]
--Victor Carr Jr, ClassicsToday.com

Neither of these ballets receives regular performance on stage or in concert. Indeed, L'enfant prodigue enjoys the remarkable distinction of being ignored both in ballet form and as arranged (twice!) as the composer's Fourth Symphony. And yet the composer's unwillingness to let go of the music tells us something, for although it isn't in his popular, "Romantic" vein, it's a pretty substantial 38 minutes that contains plenty of first-rate invention. And in fact the same holds true for Le Pas d'Acier (The Steel Steps), which many listeners associate with Mossolov's Iron Foundry and other examples of Socialist Realist machine music. In reality, it sounds just like Prokofiev, full of the gawky harmonies, rhythmic ostinatos, bass drum-laden and heavy brass orchestral textures, and the hard brilliance that feature prominently in all of the composer's big works.


So the bottom line is that both ballets are in fact consistently inventive, ear catching, and very well played and recorded by Michail Jurowski, the WDR orchestra, and CPO. Jurowski manages to maintain a consistent level of excitement and energy without ever becoming crude or coarse, which is no mean achievement in the more densely written passages. There aren't many recordings of these pieces in any case, and if you enjoy the Prokofiev of, say, The Gambler and the other early operas, you really ought to give this a listen.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

While in the midst of his "war sonata" trilogy in the early 1940s, Prokofiev found the sparkling fairy tale world of 'Cinderella' easy to approach, and despite the difficulties of those years, with numerous relocations and a divorce, he completed the score in 1944. It was simply one of those cases where the magic worked, and while not as well known as his 'Romeo and Juliet,' 'Cinderella' is, if anything, even more inspired, its brilliant melody and invention so vast that the action moves forward with virtually no reliance on repetition.
Michail Jurowski leads a robust performance of the complete ballet, getting just the right mixture of romantic sweetness and tart wit, with the West German Radio Orchestra sounding very fine indeed in a recording that admirably combines fullness and natural hall atmosphere.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Centaur presents Volume 2 in the Steven Staryk Retrospective. Staryk is a true violin virtuoso.

During the summer of 1917, whilst the first World War was raging, Sergei Prokofiev found inspiration for his first Violin Concerto, Op. 19, during walks through the fields. This concerto’s premiere in Paris did not take place until 1923. The Parisians found it “harmless” and “old-fashioned.” Despite putting all violinistic techniques to the test, the work indeed features a distinctly lyrical character. Even if Prokofiev resisted reproaches made against the style of this work, he nonetheless paid heed to them: in the works written immediately after this concerto, he adopted a markedly more modern pace. Unlike the first concerto, the second one was not written in the idyll of nature, but during Prokofiev’s nomadic phase in 1935 between Paris, Voronezh, Baku and Madrid, where it was premiered: “I wanted something completely different from the first one, in terms of both content and form.” Whereas many listeners are reminded of spring-like feelings in the first concerto, Prokofiev strikes a more nostalgic, sometimes even romantic, note. The writing is often reduced, homophonic, preferring chamber scorings to full textures. Rudolf Koelman is a brilliant interpreter of these masterworks. His solo career began in 1999, when he left his post as First Concertmaster of the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam.