Prokofiev: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 2

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Free Music Notes for Prokofiev: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 2

Free Music Review: Echo Chamber
Hit: 5 Stars

One other note here. Schoenberg and his ilk did a lot to discredit the modern Russians, claiming that they were just hacking out forms that had been long ago interred by more advanced practitioners (like himself of course). A lot of that has worn off, but revisionism has still not landed Prokofiev his just due. Nevermind his lyricism, which is a match for anyone else, but many of his ideas and forms are very interestingly modern in other ways. For instance, he was a master of idiom and turning pieces inside out based on their structural underpinnings. His first symphony was composed as an exercise based on the thought 'If Haydn were still alive, what would he compose?' and Prokofiev's answer was much the same thing, with a few amendments to his musical language. (A wonderful counter to Shoenberg's cretinous progressive/positivist views of musical history.) Also, many of his compositions use popular idioms and take them apart, turning them into farces, in a very interesting way. Ravel's La Valse got a lot of attention for lampooning the Waltz, but Prokofiev wrote some of the most beautiful waltzes ever, and yet they are tinged with irony, nay parody. This practice is on display in these pieces, and the result is similar to what became the dominant mode of exploration during the Cool Jazz period: taking popular pieces and pulling them apart and reconstructing them in other forms.

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