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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Piano Concertos by Sergei Prokofiev, Piano Concerto No. 2, Piano Concerto No. 3, Symphony-Concerto, Violin Concerto No. 1, Piano Concerto No. 4, Violin Concerto No. 2, Piano Concerto No. 5, Piano Concerto No. 1, Cello Concertino, Piano Concerto No. 6. Excerpt: Sergei Prokofiev set to work on his Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16 in 1912 and completed it in 1913. Performing as solo pianist, he premiered the work on August 23 the same year at Pavlovsk. Most of the audience reacted intensely. The concerto's wild temperament left a positive impression on some of the listeners, whereas others were opposed to the jarring and modernistic sound ("To hell with this futurist music!"/ "What is he doing, making fun of us?"/ "The cats on the roof make better music!"). Today it is generally recognized as a masterpiece. The work is dedicated to the memory of Maximilian Schmidthof, a friend of Prokofiev's at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, who had committed suicide in April, after having written a farewell letter to Prokofiev. The original orchestral score was destroyed in a fire following the Russian Revolution. Prokofiev reconstructed and considerably revised the concerto in 1923, making the new version, in his own words, "less foursquare" and "slightly more complex in its contrapuntal fabric". The finished result, Prokofiev felt, was "so completely rewritten that it might almost be considered No. 4". (The Third Concerto had premiered in 1921). He premiered this revised version of the concerto in Paris on May 8, 1924 with Serge Koussevitzky conducting. It remains one of the most technically formidable piano concertos today. The work is scored for piano solo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpan... More: http://booksllc.net/?id=2153948 ... Read more

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For piano ... Read more

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VAAP Edition. For unaccompanied violin. ... Read more

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Chapters: Symphony No. 4, Symphony No. 5, Symphony No. 3, Symphony No. 1, Symphony No. 6, Symphony No. 7, Symphony No. 2. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 46. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Symphony No. 4, Op. 47/112 is actually two works by Sergei Prokofiev. The first, Op. 47, was written in 1929 and premiered in 1930. The second, Op. 112, is a large-scale revision from 1947. Both of the works share significant musical material with Prokofievs ballet Lenfant Prodigue or The Prodigal Son. The two works are stylistically different, because their respective compositional contexts were different. They are formally different as well, and the instrumentation and scope of the revision is much larger. Because Prokofievs Symphony No. 4 is in fact two different works, two different but related examinations are required. ParisAs a concert pianist, Prokofiev travelled worldwide, and toured the United States during the 1925-26 season. In early 1927, he went on a two-month concert tour of the Soviet Union. He planned to return in 1928, but those plans fell through. In 1929, another planned Soviet tour was cancelled, this time because of a hand injury Prokofiev suffered in a car accident. Sergei Diaghilev, in a 1909 portrait by Valentin Aleksandrovich SerovThroughout this time as a touring virtuoso, Prokofiev also continued to compose. Symphony No. 2 in D minor premiered in Paris under the baton of Serge Koussevitsky in the summer of 1925, to tepid critical response. At the same time, Sergei Diaghilev, the ballet impresario, suggested that Prokofiev write a ballet on a Soviet subject. The resulting piece was Le pas dacier (The Steel Steps), Prokofievs third ballet for Diaghilev, which premiered in Paris in the summer of 1927. He had also been working on an opera entitled The The Fiery Angel, o...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=656263 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

a ripoff
I thought I was buying a book on Prokofiev's symphonies, with detailed commentaries on the music. It is a summary of comments that you could find better analysed on many programs of concerts in USA. I have thrown it away. ... Read more

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Sergei Prokofiev composed his Peter and the Wolf in 1936 with the hope of introducing children to the instruments of the orchestra. It happens that he also devised a wonderfully dramatic story. The characters - boy, bird, duck, cat, grandfather, wolf, hunters - and their doings have been beloved by young and old for decades.

Writer, artist, musician, and Caldecott Medalist Chris Raschka has given the original story a new setting: a stage performance. Here you will relish language inspired music; enjoy mischief, suspense, and triumph in the theater; and delight in a surprise (and an additional character) Prokofiev's merry tale didn't provide. Please do not turn immediately to the last page. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (34)

Please don't bother with this
Do not waste your time or your money. It is a lousy book.I am interested in the accolades given to Raschka because this must have been published because the author had previous success.I anticipated experiencing at least a little morsel of delight from this book given my enjoyment of Prokofiev's music.Nada.

Terrific fun for parents and kids!
Abandon all hope of maintaining dignity while reading this aloud to your little one -- just give in to the rhythmic, repetetive, sing-song fun of it and enjoy the giggles!The first time I read this to my four-year-old I realized that this book is as much performance as it is story.The bird, the cat, the duck, the wolf . . . all come alive in this telling of the classic tale, and the bright bold illustrations add to the fun.All with a happy ending!Highly recommended.

Unique Interpretation of a Classic
Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf is often the first introduction children have to symphonic music. Raschka recreates the rhythms and melody lines of the music with his text.

Recall the iconic opening of the symphony that represents Peter. It goes like this: 'de dum dum de dum de dum de dum de dum de dum de dum de dumdum de dumdum de dumdumdum.' Rashka echoes this theme with his words as Peter introduces himself

Look at me
Run around and climb around and skip around
in this lovely, large, lovely
Field of green.


Listen to the music as you read this book. The menacing wolf theme is voiced as:

BAaAaAaAH!
Gimme, gimme, gimme
Me, meat to eat
NOW!


Raschka zigs and zags the words and characters across the page as the music moves the story along. Crescendos and rhythms are depicted with upper and lower case letters, as well as, different sized fonts. The reader can hear the oboe and the bird flutter of the flute.

Some scenes are framed in a proscenium theater "made of four squares of heavy paper, cut and painted in water color then glued together to make a three-dimensional illustration." The Caldecott medalist's signature style is a good match for Prokovfiev's music.

I wish this had come with a CD but the melodies are familiar and easily found if your children do not know them already. Without knowledge of the symphony, this book is not accessible as a straight forward retelling but if you know the music, this is splendid.

Check it out from the library first
This is such an unusual book, I highly recommend checking it out from the library first to make your own judgment about it.The words are written to go along with the music, which makes them quite odd.For instance, the bird says, "P-Peter p-pitter P-Peter p-potter/ Everythingy thingy, thingy/ Izzy, izzy quiet singy."I think it's fair to say that my 2YO daughter is currently obsessed with Peter and the Wolf.She listens to it almost constantly on her little MP3 player and asks me to tell her the story repeatedly throughout the day.I introduced this book to her this morning and she had me read it through 4 times in a row.We read it along with the music playing, which definitely helps it make sense.Even with that, though, I have trouble fitting some of the words with the music.Peter's words fit perfectly with the music, but other parts are a lot harder for me to get the timing quite right.As for the illustrations, they're also abstract and odd.My daughter is at a stage where she likes to talk about all the details of illustrations, so we just talk through the strange illustrations.
Personally, after reading the book myself, I don't plan to buy it, but it's an interesting read from the library to go along with my daughter's Peter and the Wolf craze.

The words are music... listen!
The words are meant to go with the music!Listen to a recording of Peter & the Wolf and hear how the words are like lyrics to the orchestral score.It's really great fun.

As for whether or not this product would appeal to everyone... my 2-year-old daughter asks for this one over and over... and it was her first introduction to Peter and the Wolf.Now we've listened to a CD of the music as well, and she loves it as well. ... Read more

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Chapters: Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev, Alfred Schnittke, Gara Garayev, Aram Khachaturian, Mieczysław Weinberg, Boris Tchaikovsky, Andrei Volkonsky, Boris Tishchenko, Isaak Dunayevsky, Alexander Knayfel, Dmitry Pokrass, Yuri Shaporin, Vissarion Shebalin, Vladimir Shainsky, Aleksandr Zatsepin, Andrey Petrov, Gavriil Popov, Mikael Tariverdiev, Eduard Artemyev, Andrei Eshpai, Yuri Levitin, Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov, Jaan Rääts, Vano Muradeli, Pyotr Todorovsky, Vladimir Dashkevich. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 138. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (Russian: ·), tr. Dmitrij Dmitrievi ostakovi) (25 September 1906 9 August 1975) was a Soviet composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century. Shostakovich achieved fame in the Soviet Union under the patronage of Leon Trotsky's chief of staff Mikhail Tukhachevsky, but later had a complex and difficult relationship with the Stalinist bureaucracy. His music was officially denounced twice, in 1936 and 1948, and was periodically banned. Yet he also received accolades and state awards and served in the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. Despite the official controversy, his works were popular and well received. After a period influenced by Prokofiev and Stravinsky, Shostakovich developed a hybrid style, as exemplified by his opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (1934). This single work juxtaposed a wide variety of trends, including the neo-classical style (showing the influence of Stravinsky) and post-Romanticism (after Mahler). Sharp contrasts and elements of the grotesque characterize much of his music. Shostakovich's orchestral works include 15 symphonies and six concerti. His music for chamber ensembles includes 15 string quartets, a piano quintet, two pieces for a string octet, and...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=8520 ... Read more

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Chapters: Maurice Ravel, Igor Stravinsky, Erik Satie, Sergei Prokofiev, Paul Hindemith, Bohuslav Martinů, Ferruccio Busoni, Ottorino Respighi, Richard Kastle, Alfredo Casella, Vagn Holmboe, Jean Françaix, Willson Osborne. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 137. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Joseph-Maurice Ravel (March 7, 1875 December 28, 1937) was a French composer of Impressionist music known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects. Much of his piano music, chamber music, vocal music and orchestral music has entered the standard concert repertoire. Ravel's piano compositions, such as Jeux d'eau, Miroirs, Le Tombeau de Couperin and Gaspard de la Nuit, demand considerable virtuosity from the performer, and his orchestral music, including Daphnis et Chloé and his arrangement of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, uses a variety of sound and instrumentation very effectively. Ravel is perhaps known best for his orchestral work, Boléro (1928), which he considered trivial and once described as "a piece for orchestra without music." According to SACEM, Ravel's estate earns more royalties than that of any other French musician. According to international copyright law, Ravel's works are public domain since January 1, 2008 in most countries. In France, due to anomalous copyright law extensions to account for the two world wars, they will not enter the public domain until 2015. Birthplace of Maurice Ravel in CiboureRavel was born in the Basque town of Ciboure, France, near Biarritz, close to the border with Spain, during 1875. His mother, Marie Delouart, was of Basque descent and grew up in Madrid, Spain, while his father, Joseph Ravel, was a Swiss inventor and industrialist from French Haute-Savoie. Both were Catholics and they provided a ha...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=48068 ... Read more

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Chapters: List of Compositions by Sergei Prokofiev, Peter and the Wolf, Zdravitsa, Flourish, Mighty Land, Ivan the Terrible, Overture on Hebrew Themes, Piano Sonata No. 7, String Quartet No. 2, Sinfonietta, Toccata, Pushkin Waltzes, Symphonic Song, Visions Fugitives, Seven, They Are Seven, Violin Sonata No. 1, String Quartet No. 1, Violin Sonata No. 2, Songs of Our Days, Quintet, Piano Sonata No. 2, Waltz Suite, Piano Sonata No. 6, Piano Sonata No. 8, Flute Sonata, Piano Sonata No. 4. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 86. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Peter and the Wolf (Russian: Петя и волк, Petya i volk) is a composition by Sergei Prokofiev written in 1936 after his return to the Soviet Union. It is a children's story (with both music and text by Prokofiev), spoken by a narrator accompanied by the orchestra. In 1936 Sergei Prokofiev was commissioned by Natalya Sats and the Central Children's Theatre in Moscow to write a new musical symphony for children. The intent was to cultivate "musical tastes in children from the first years of school". Intrigued by the invitation, Prokofiev completed Peter and the Wolf in just four days. The debut on 2 May 1936 was, in the composer's words, inauspicious at best: " was poor and failed to attract much attention". He could scarcely have foreseen quite how successful his playful classic would become or how consistently it would delight and inspire children and adults of all ages for years to come. Peter and the Wolf is scored for flute, oboe, clarinet in A, bassoon, 3 horns, trumpet, trombone, timpani, triangle, tambourine, cymbals, castanets, snare drum, bass drum and strings. Each character in the story has a particular instrument and a musical theme, or leitmotif: Peter, a young boy, lives at his grandfather's home in a forest clearing. O...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=7718451 ... Read more

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Sergei Prokofiev (1891¿1953) can be considered both as one of the most important composers of the early twentieth century and as a piano virtuoso. This book examines both of these aspects by studying Prokofiev¿s recorded performances of his own work, in a historical context, and comparisons made between his recordings and the recordings of other pianists spanning from his generation into the present. The comparisons show how his performance practice has changed over time, and how this change has influenced the performance of Prokofiev¿s works. This book focuses on one particular piece for compositional and performance analysis, the ¿ Ten Piano Pieces, Op. 12 (1906¿1913). The goal of this book is to contribute to the growing field of research in historical performance practice from the early twentieth century until the present, particularly for works of the early twentieth century. In highlighting how performance practice has changed, not only do scholars gain a deeper insight into how to understand works in a historical context, but performers can also gain much by becoming aware of how works have been interpreted by the composer and others who came after. ... Read more

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Film Scores by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Film Scores by Sergei Prokofiev, 49th Parallel, Alexander Nevsky, Lieutenant Kijé, Coastal Command, Scott of the Antarctic, Ivan the Terrible, the Loves of Joanna Godden. Excerpt: 49th Parallel is the third film made by the British writer-director team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It was released in the United States as The Invaders. Despite the title, no scene in the movie is set at the 49th parallel, which forms much of the U.S.-Canadian border. The only border scene is at Niagara Falls, which is located farther south. The British Ministry of Information approached Michael Powell to make a propaganda film for them, suggesting he make "a film about mine-sweeping." Instead, Powell decided to make a different film to help sway opinions in the still-neutral United States. Said Powell, "I hoped it might scare the pants off the Americans ." Screenwriter Emeric Pressburger remarked, "Goebbels considered himself an expert on propaganda, but I thought I'd show him a thing or two." After persuading the British and Canadian governments, Powell started location filming in 1940. Early in the Second World War, Nazi survivors of a German U-boat sunk in Hudson Bay attempt to evade capture by travelling across Canada to the still-neutral United States the title comes from the 49th parallel north which marks part of the border between the two countries. Led by Lieutenants Hirth and Kuhnecke, the small band of sailors encounter a wide range of people, including a French-Canadian trapper, pacifistic German Hutterite farmers and an eccentric English academic who despite being wounded helps capture a Nazi. Finally, it all comes down to a confrontation between the sole remaining fugitive at large, Hirth, and A... More: http://booksllc.net/?id=1273501 ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Notes, published by Music Library Association, Inc. on March 1, 1999. The length of the article is 1861 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Selected Letters of Sergei Prokofiev.(Review)
Author: Simon Morrison
Publication: Notes (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 1999
Publisher: Music Library Association, Inc.
Volume: 55Issue: 3Page: 670(3)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

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Chapters: Soviet Composers, Soviet Singers, Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev, Alexandrov Ensemble Soloists, Evgeny Belyaev, Sofia Rotaru, Leonid Mikhailovich Kharitonov, List of Compositions by Sergei Prokofiev, Nikolai Roslavets, Nikolai Myaskovsky, Alla Pugacheva, Tikhon Khrennikov, Georgi Vinogradov, Uzeyir Hajibeyov, Alexandrov Ensemble Choir, Alfred Schnittke, Dmitry Kabalevsky, Galina Ustvolskaya, Reinhold Glière, Gara Garayev, Aram Khachaturian, Victoria Poleva, Boris Alexandrovich Alexandrov, Ivan Kozlovsky, Rashid Behbudov, Serafim Tulikov, Alexander Shchetynsky, Georgy Sviridov, Joseph Kobzon, Boris Tchaikovsky, Valery Leontiev, Muslim Magomayev, Rodion Shchedrin, Arnold Azrikan, Leonid Sobinov, Boris Tishchenko, Andrey Makarevich, Isaak Dunayevsky, Václav Suk, Alexander Knayfel, Lidia Ruslanova, Mikhail Boyarsky, Balys Dvarionas, Dmitri Klebanov, Mark Bernes, Mark Reizen, Volodymyr Ivasyuk, Anna German, Maria Bieşu, Andrei Mironov, Boris Sobinov, Sergei Slonimsky, Ghazaros Saryan, Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, Oscar Feltsman, Leonid Utyosov, Leonid Hrabovsky, Taras Petrynenko, Natasha Koroleva, Vasif Adigozalov, Dmitry Pokrass, Sergei Vasilenko, Yuri Shaporin, Vissarion Shebalin, Sergei Lemeshev, Lyudmila Zykina, Alexander Krein, Ivan Dzerzhinsky, Lyudmila Gurchenko, Igor Nikolayev, Vladimir Martynov, Sargis Barkhudaryan, Tolib Shakhidi, Veniamin Fleishman, Irina Ponarovskaya, Isaac Schwartz, Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov, Jovdat Hajiyev, Nikolai Rakov, Irina Allegrova, Valery Gavrilin, Roza Rymbaeva, Vyacheslav Artyomov, Imants Kalniņš, Georg Ots, Raimonds Pauls, Anne Veski, Haji Khanmammadov, Afrasiyab Badalbeyli, Ruslan Sirota, Alexey Ekimyan, Fikret Amirov, Armen Grigoryan, Arno Babajanian, Nikolai Kapustin, Alexander Mosolov, Aleksandra Pakhmutova, Tofig Guliyev, Yan Frenkel, Karl Rautio, Andriy Shtoharenko, Aleksandr Zatsepin, Jānis Ivanovs, Tatiana Nikolayeva, Valery Viktorovich Zhelobinsky, Boris Ara...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=22469941 ... Read more

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The bulk of this book was written in 1941 to mark Prokofiev`s fiftieth birthday. ... Read more

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Romeo and Juliet, on the Dnieper, Chout, Romeo + Juliet, the Tale of the Stone Flower, Prodigal Son, Cinderella, Montagues and Capulets, Scythian Suite, Romeo and Juliet, Romeo and Juliet, le Pas D'acier. Excerpt:Chout , Op. 21 (pronounced "shoot"), is the usual English-language title of a ballet by Sergei Prokofiev , written in two versions between 1915 and 1921. It is sometimes known as "The Tale of the Buffoon", or simply "The Buffoon". There also exists a symphonic suite from the ballet, Op. 21 bis, which is much more often performed than the full ballet score. The original Russian-language full title was , (Skazka pro shuta, semerikh shutov pereshutivshago), meaning "The Tale of the Buffoon who Outwits Seven Other Buffoons". The spelling "Chout" is a French romanization of the Russian word meaning "buffoon". Chout was Prokofiev's first completed ballet score for Sergei Diaghilev . Diaghilev had first commissioned Ala and Lolli , but rejected the score submitted by Prokofiev. Although the composer recast some of the music as the Scythian Suite , the projected ballet never saw the light of day. Instead, Diaghilev now asked Prokofiev to write a ballet based on a folk tale recorded by Alexander Afanasyev . The story had been previously suggested to Diaghilev by Igor Stravinsky as a possible subject for a ballet, and Diaghilev and his choreographer Léonide Massine helped Prokofiev to shape this into a ballet scenario. The story is somewhat ridiculous and brutal, involving seven buffoons who all murder their wives after being told by an eighth buffoon that he has killed his own wife and brought her back to life with a magic whip, and promises to do the same for them. When he fails to deliver on his promise, the other buffoons seek revenge. The principal buffoon is forced to dis... ... Read more