Search - Sergey Prokofiev, Michail Jurowski, NDR Philharmonic Orchestra (Hannover) :: Sergej Prokofiev: The Stone Flower

Sooooo Disappointing

Lawrence Rapchak | 12/15/2000

(2 out of 5 stars)

"The Stone Flower Ballet is one of my favorite peices of music. For over 20 years I have listened to an old Melodiya recording of the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra (Gennady Rozhdestvenshy conducting)with unabated pleasure. That recording evokes indescribable emotions. In short, it is a work of art which involvement with is amoung the things that makes life worthwhile. Then again, there is this recording which is supposed to be the subject of this review. It is dull. It is harsh and brassy. It is irritating. It is downright unpleasant, or worse. The contrast between the two performances is as profound as any I have ever noted for one peice of music. Whether you are familar with the Stone Flower or not, I highly recommend that you skip this recording. If the music is new to you, this is an off-putting introduction. If you know the Stone Flower I trust you too will be terribly let down. Unfortunately, this appears to be the only CD rendition in print. A couple of years ago, however, there were also video dance performances of the ballet. I saw the Bolshoi's version which was quite good. I give this 2 stars instead of one because every now and then the bad performance fails to completely obliterate the lovely score."

Confused by Carrie-Lee

Lawrence Rapchak | Whiting, IN United States | 10/24/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"(...)This recording of Prokofiev's colorful final ballet is, I believe, exceptionally well conducted, played and recorded. My only complaint would be the somewhat too-lean string sound; it just doesn't have quite the body and warmth needed for some of the more powerful passages. That reservation aside, I find the orchestral sound wonderful, with all sorts of vivid detail---the full range of woodwinds, powerful, well-balanced brass, all of the percussion neatly delineated, etc.When one considers Prokofiev's unique orchestral "voice" by studying his scores, it is obvious that a certain ponderous, brazen sound is called for rather frequently, particularly in music such as this which deals with very elemental story material
(a fantastic rural folk-tale involving all manner of gems, malachite, the Goddess of the Copper Mountain, fire spirits, etc)... and, for such a late work, "The Stone Flower" contains much that harkens back to Prokofiev's early days as an "enfant terrible" and works such as "Chout", "The Fiery Angel", the Second Piano Concerto, etc.The point is that I was greatly impressed by this recording and the conductor's grasp of this rather unwieldy and at times tedious score. His shaping of the music is quite expert, even when Prokofiev was obviously just padding things to satisfy the requirements of the stage. And that "ponderous" quality of the orchestral writing is quite telling in this performance ---the writing of unison trumpets in their lower register, the frequent pounding of the tuba and bass drum, the distinctive use of the piano--all of those bizarre, cool sounds that are so uniquely Prokofiev---are brilliantly captured here.I have also listened recently to the Rozhdestvensky recording of which Carrie-Lee Coke writes so enthusiastically. What I find remarkable is that it is, like most all of those Russian recordings of that vintage, incredibly harsh and dry, with bleating brass, hard-edged, wobbly strings, and shrill woodwinds, in addition to the raw-sounding percussion...all of which is reverbed to death by the engineers!Don't get me wrong-----I find this type of recording for this type of music quite exciting--and Rozhdestvensky is a fabulously
imaginative conductor, though not nearly so sensitive in his shaping of the music as Maestro Jurowski. (...)In fact, as I jumped back and forth between the 2 recrodings, I was AGAHST at Rozhdestvenstky's SLAM-BANG approach, as if he was out to kill anything that moved! (Once again,this is not necessarily inappropriate for this music!)BOTTOM LINE----if you are interested in this unusual, rare score by the fabulous MR. Prokofiev, you cannot go wrong with this recording. Let's face it---this is NOT great music----but Maestro Jurowski, through his insightful and well-paced conducting (not to mention the fine orchestral playing and the brilliantly detailed and well-balanced recording) makes the best possible case for it.Buy with confidence! (...)"