A little Prokofiev

This week were are looking at music and just one composer.

Sergei Prokofiev was a Russian Soviet composer, pianist and conductor who was born in April 1891 and died in March of 1953. As the creator of acknowledged masterpieces across numerous music genres, he is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century.

I only had a couple of discs that contained any music by him bought in the early 1990's so for my birthday I had my eye on a fairy recent complete set of his symphonies.

I had the first in a landmark 1955 stereo recording which I loved and the Bergen Symphony Orchestra based Norway has over the years grown a reputation for excellent performances.

Strangely enough there are two versions of his Fourth symphony and this uses the composers own preference rather than the then Soviet leader Stalin's.

I had the Seventh as part of that pioneering stereo recording originally made for EMI Records in the UK.

The Fifth symphony is widely regarded as his finest and here is coupled with the orchestral gem the Scythian Suite.

The second but last symphony equally is joined by two desirable orchestral suites The Love of Two Oranges which I had one recording of and the Lieutenant Kijé suite.

Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64, is a ballet by Sergei Prokofiev that is based upon William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. 

To round off the four discs containing his symphonies I picked up this recent recording by the London Symphony Orchestra by the popular conductor Valery Gergiev recorded at London's Barbican Centre.

All the discs are Hybrid super audio cds with surround sound options that play in regular players too