The music derives from Prokofiev's opera The Fiery Angel, a touching love story set against the backdrop of demonic possession.This opera had been accepted for performance in the 1927–28 season at the Berlin State Opera by Bruno Walter, but this...

REPRINT SERIES Prokofiev wrote his Symphony No. 2 in D minor, Op. 40, in Paris in 1924-25, during what he called "nine months of frenzied toil". He characterized this symphony as a work of "iron and steel". Prokofiev modeled the symphony's structure on...

Dreams has a curious structure, featuring one theme and a few related motifs, a churning, mysterious background, and virtually no development. Yet the work lasts ten minutes or more. The ethereal main theme returns again and again, only slightly varied...

REPRINT SERIES   After he departed the Soviet Union in 1918, Sergei Prokofiev (1891 - 1953) spent a fair amount of time in the U.S. concertizing. On one such tour in 1930, the Library of Congress commissioned him to compose a string quartet; the...

REPRINT SERIES   The suite is in four movements, and lasts around 20 minutes. It is based on Prokofiev's ballet "Ala e Lolli" (Ala and Lolly).1. Invocation to Veles and Ala - barbaric and colorful music describing the Scythians' invocation of the...

The symphony, written as an elegy of the tragedies of World War II, has often been regarded as the darker twin to the victorious Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major.The symphony is in 3 movements (rather than the conventional 4), and lasts 40–45...

REPRINT SERIES The Stone Flower was the last of Prokofiev’s Soviet ballets, dating from 1948, and is based on a folk tale from the Urals. The Suite contains music of great beauty, with soaring tunes that are as memorable as anything in the two...

The Seventh Symphony was Prokofiev's last completed major work. It was written for the Soviet Children's Radio Division, but the simplicity of the composer's approach in the work often conceals deeper expressive currents. Though the Symphony adheres to...

REPRINT SERIES A one-movement concerto, it is the shortest of his five complete piano concertos, lasting only around a quarter of an hour. The first and last sections have a clear thematic relationship, as the concerto begins and ends with the same...

REPRINT SERIES The concerto radiates a crisp vitality that testifies to Prokofiev's inventive prowess in punctuating lyrical passages with witty dissonances, while maintaining a balanced partnership between the soloist and orchestra. Of the five piano...

Also known as Symphony-Concerto in E minor, Op. 125,  it is a reworking of the Cello Concerto Op.58.  This "Sinfonia Concertante" is a large-scale work for cello and orchestra, dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich. The three movements are all...

REPRINT SERIES The Violin Concerto No.1 is a pivotal work, one which displays a maturation of the composer. If one compares this Concerto to Prokofiev's earlier piano concertos, it is easy to see that the former is decidedly more natural in its thematic...

"Montagues and Capulets", known by its proper title as "Dance of the Knights", is a work of classical music written by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev for his 1935 ballet "Romeo and Juliet". Extracted from Suite No.2 Op.64ter

Romeo and Juliet Suite No.3 Op.101 has 6 movements and is the briefest of the three suites extracted from the Ballet, lasting just under twenty minutes. 1.Romeo at the Fountain2. .Morning Dance3.Juliet4.The Nurse5.Aubade6.The Death of Juliet

Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5, Op. 100, is his biggest, his grandest, and his greatest symphony, a massive and monumental work that celebrates the triumph of all that is decent and virtuous over all that is depraved and immoral. Fourteen years had passed...