MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


Support us financially by purchasing this from

Sergey PROKOFIEV (1891-1953)
Old Grandmother’s Tales Op. 31 [9:98]
Six Pieces Op 52 [30:02]
Childhood Manuscripts:
Tarantella in D minor [2:03]
Pesenki Series 2 No. 7 [4:34]
Pesenki Series 3 (excerpts) [8:08]
Pesenki Series 4 (excerpts) [9:35]
Pesenki Series 5 (excerpts) [13:00]
Examination Fugue in D [1:44]
Scherzo in D [1:37]
Alexandre Dossin (piano)
rec. 2016, Moon Mountain Studios, Eugene, USA
NAXOS 8.573435 [79:53]

As both pianist and composer Sergey Prokofiev was something of a child prodigy, so much so that Reinhold Glière was employed as the youngster’s live-in musical tutor. This arrangement seems to have worked well for Prokofiev, with Glière’s lessons not only building on what the boy already knew but also setting him new and complicated challenges which stretched the young Prokofiev.

The earliest piece on this disc is the Tarantella in D minor of 1901, a charming work that belies the composers tender age, there is a Spanish feel to the music and it depicts the dance rhythms well.

Prokofiev composed five books of Pesenki or Little Songs before he was sixteen and the 15 excerpts presented here, the earliest dating from 1903 when he was only twelve, display well Prokofiev’s mastery of the piano even at this early age. The pieces are hardly masterpieces, but they do show a mastery of the styles and musical language that he had been introduced to by Glière, whether the March of Series 3, the Minuet from Series 4 or the charming Waltz from Series 5, they all show a depth of knowledge and understanding.

The final two works from his early period are the Examination Fugue in D of 1908, which shows a complete understanding of the idiom, and the Scherzo in D, date unknown, which when presented to Myaskovsky, we are told, were received favourably, the older composer declaring that “I never suspected what a little viper we had nursing in our bosom.”

The disc actually opens with the Old Grandmother’s Tales, a series of four pieces dating from 1918, and showing a great advancement in Prokofiev’s musical technique. They are still, however, set in an older - one could say more conservative - idiom, an advancement on the early student pieces but still not the style that the composer would become famous for.

The most substantial work on this disc is the series of pieces that the composer adapted from earlier works. The Six Pieces Op 52 present music taken from The Prodigal Son, Songs Without Words Op. 35, the String Quartet No. 1 and the Sinfonietta. These are, for me, the real interest on this disc; this is the more mature composer, music that although harking back to an earlier period, clearly shows Prokofiev in his prime.

Alexandre Dossin rises to every challenge posed by this music, all too often juvenile music can be glossed over, but not here as Dossin plays it with the same respect that he gives to the later works. The sound is good as are the booklet notes, making this a valuable addition to any Prokofiev collection.

Stuart Sillitoe

 

 



Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing