prokofiev and the art of emotion

[keokime]

This is just something me and a friend were discussing. I had recently bought Prokofiev's first symphony. Now, I love much classical music. My collection is quite broad. This was my first Prokofiev CD, and was kind of excited to hear him. I listened, I listened, and I listened. Truthfully, I could not find anything in it. It never spoke to me, never moved me, it did nothing. I ended up giving the CD to my friend. <P>Well, he told me Prokofiev was too much for me. It was "beyond my intelligence" is what he basically said. He said that because the piece wasn't filled with as many emotional highlights, as say, B.'s 9th, that it would have no appeal to me. Is he right?

[treebeau]

And you're still friends with him ?<P>So what if you don't like Prokofiev ? A love for Classical Music does not require you to enjoy every composers music.<P>That crack about being beyond your intelligence sounds to me like someone else has an over inflated opinion of his own intelligence. If he WERE intelligent and you were not as much so, then he would never have made such a comment.<P>I say listen to what you like and don't let anyone bully you into listening to what you don't like.<P>Regards,<BR>Tim B.<P>P.S. And if you're a woman, don't marry him.

[shostakovich]

Hi Keokime. Tim gets my vote for "best answer on the bulletin board". The "Classical Symphony" was a spoof on the earlier symphonies of Haydn and Mozart. They were written during a time when emotion, as we think of it, was kept out of the music. I listen to it as a good example of symphonic structure in miniture. It is NOT representative of Prokofiev's music. And it is not "beyond you".<P>What else was on the disc? What classics do you normally enjoy?<P>Regards to Tim B.

[~Leslie]

Keokime, if you are familiar with Sting's anti-nuclear war lament from the 1980's called the Russians, you should know it contains the romanze motif from the Prokofiev's Lt. Kije Suite.~