Prokofiev. "Must Have " CDs.

[Bryn]

Prokofiev did not write a Sinfonia Concertante. He did, however, develop the music of his Cello Concerto Op. 58 into the Op. 125 Symphony-Concerto. I prefer the original.

[AmpH]

Wonderfully performed and recorded ........ and a funky cover !

Should be in any collection IMHO.

[Barbirollians]

Prokofiev did not write a Sinfonia Concertante. He did, however, develop the music of his Cello Concerto Op. 58 into the Op. 125 Symphony-Concerto. I prefer the original.

All my three recordings of the piece Rostropovich, Maisky and Wallfisch all say Sinfonia Concertante on the cover so its alternative name is of long-standing - it appears to be on the cover of the original LP that Slava recorded in the 1950s.

[cloughie]

Wouldn't want to be without the Nicolai Malko 1&7 with the delicious suite from The Love of Three Oranges

I would agree with this one plus Kletzki's Sym 5 and Ancerl's R&J highlights.

[Barbirollians]

I would agree with this one plus Kletzki's Sym 5 and Ancerl's R&J highlights.

Me too re the Malko and Kletzki - don't know the Ancerl but want to . Magnificent conductor .

[Bryn]

All my three recordings of the piece Rostropovich, Maisky and Wallfisch all say Sinfonia Concertante on the cover so its alternative name is of long-standing - it appears to be on the cover of the original LP that Slava recorded in the 1950s.

And it's a gross mistranslation. Prokofiev was quite clear on the title, Симфония-концерт. It simply is not a sinfonia concertante. When first performed it was in fact referred to as the 2nd Cello Concerto. As Phillip Huscher points out:

The new work was so new, in fact,
despite its wholesale reuse of material, that when
Rostropovich introduced it in February 1952, it
was called Cello Concerto no. 2.
But Prokofiev was still dissatisfied with
the concerto, and so, in the months after
the premiere, he took the score back to the
drawing board one last time, giving it another
makeover and changing its name as well. The
new Symphony-Concerto was premiered in
Copenhagen in December 1954, again with
Rostropovich as soloist, but by then Prokofiev
had been dead more than a year, and so he
never heard his final thoughts on his last
important piece.

The new title—Simfonia-Kontsert in Russian
transliteration—is often misleadingly translated
as Sinfonia concertante, after the form popular
in the late eighteenth– and early nineteenth–
centuries, which calls for more than one soloist
(Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante for violin and
viola is perhaps the best-known example). But
Prokofiev’s title was intended to stress that soloist
and orchestra are equals and to suggest how a
work that had started life as a traditional concerto
had grown closer to becoming a symphony.
In the end, the piece is something of a hybrid. Its
large dimensions and rich orchestral writing are
certainly symphonic in stature, but the cello part,
which has highly virtuosic music almost nonstop,
is also one of the great solo roles in the literature.

[Ferretfancy]

Wouldn't want to be without the Nicolai Malko 1&7 with the delicious suite from The Love of Three Oranges

One of my first classical tapes worn to bits and replaced by CD.

The Malko was EMI's first stereo recording, dating from 1954,long before stereo LPs, and it still sounds good.

[Ferretfancy]

I can recommend The Andrew Litton performance of the Sixth Symphony on BIS with the Bergen Philharmonic. There's perhaps a little less melancholy and tragic sense than in some performances, but the drama is there and the recording is stunning.

Both Lieutenant Kije ( with baritone soloist Andrei Bondarenko) and The Love of Three Oranges Suite are equally good, the bass drum thumps in the first movement of Kije really test the speakers !

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

For those with plenty of spare time, there's always War and Peace. 4 rather fine CDd on Chandos at its best.

[richardfinegold]

The Ancerl recording of Alexander Nevsky, amazon.co.uk ASIN: B0001NPU4C . Check out the marketplace for "New". O.k., Navarra is no Slava in the Symphony-Concerto, but he's not that bad either. Věra Soukupová is superb.

[richardfinegold]

I had an lp of Abaddo conducting Kije and the Scythian Suite that was tremendous . I don't remember the Orchestra.
I have the Beroff/Masur PCs and have played them for years.
Ancerl's Nevsky and R&J are hard to beat. I really enjoy the Reiner Nevsky, which Brynn hates because it is sung in English.
Richter in the 'War Sonatas' is a must.
One to avoid is Slava conducting the Symphonies.

[Barbirollians]

I had an lp of Abaddo conducting Kije and the Scythian Suite that was tremendous . I don't remember the Orchestra.

Chicago SO now coupled with Abbado's LSO Nevsky

[jayne lee wilson]

Wonderfully performed and recorded ........ and a funky cover !

Should be in any collection IMHO.

Ooh yes, forgot about that one - special, inside and out (courtesy Andrzej Dudzinski)!

Two other great one-offs: Rozhdestvensky's Cinderella on Audiophile Classics Gold, and Richter (with Maazel) in the 5th Concerto, c/w Bartok's 3rd on Toshiba-EMI, one of Okazaki's very best remasters, really stunning.

[Beef Oven!]

This is a great CD. Referred to by richardfinegold, too.

[Sir Velo]

Can't recommend Boris Giltburg's "War" trilogy of the piano sonatas 6-8 highly enough. Commanding playing; spectacularly well recorded. This combines performances the equal of Pogorelich (6); Pollini (7) and Richter (8) on one well filled disc. Buy it!