Sunday, April 26, 2009

Piano Concerto No. 2 by Prokofiev

You think you're sooooo good at piano, hotshot? Well, why not try giving Prokofiev's 2nd Piano Concerto a try and just learn how wrong you are, hoss. In contrast to his 1st Piano Concerto, Prokofiev's 2nd demonstrates a substantial shift, both into tonal expressionism (a VERY brief period for the Soviet composers, due to Stalin's relentless assertion that "modern" musical trends were anti-worker), and into a different instrumental structure-- here, it is the piano that leads the symphony along, rather than filling in gaps for the symphony, and indeed there are 5 or 6 minute stretches of a full, lush piano exploring a variety of conflicting, complex modal twists, dancing from playfulness to dread, from excitation to tragedy and back. Hey, here's a video of an 11 year old girl playing what is considered one of the hardest pieces of piano music ever composed almost flawlessly. Enjoy a delicious humility sandwich why don't you?

RATING: 93%

7 comments:

Fake R3 Persona said...

I'd be happy with any kind of sandwich right now. Thank you very much.

John said...

Arms are awful.

laurie said...

That little girl is the matrix!

Internet John said...

Did someone say "little girls?" I came as fast as I could!

laurie said...

Ewwwww. Gross.

Anonymous said...

R3 is becoming weirder and weirder. It's almost where I'm ready to become a regular.

laurie said...

You should meet us in real life. We're freaks.