Prokofiev

As part of Deutsche Grammophon’s release of a limited and numbered edition of Claudio Abbado’s complete recordings for DG, Decca and Philips, you can now enjoy Volume 11 in a series of 16 digital albums, which are organised in alphabetical order of composer name. This eleventh digital album presents music by Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff and Ravel.

In a century that seemed to turn it's back on the aspirations of 19th century composers, some musicians kept the Romantic tradition of the composer/virtuoso alive well into the 20th century. Perhaps the most important and forward thinking 20th century virtuoso pianist and composer was Serge Prokofiev. Unlike his fellow Russian, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev created a significant body of virtuoso pieces to the piano literature, which also reflected his modernist sensibilities. Among the strongest of these works are the five piano concertos.

Kiril Kondrashin was perhaps the greatest conductor to emerge from the Soviet Union. Trained at the Moscow Conervatory, he led most of the Soviet Union's great orchestras although he is most well-known for his stints at the Bolshoi Theater and as principal conductor of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra from 1960 to 1976. He defected to the west in 1979 during a tour in Holland. He was immediately named a principal conductor alongside Bernard Haitink to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
This massive six-disc compilation covers some of the best of Kondrashin's work while behind the iron curtain. It includes no less than four of Prokofiev's major works: the First and Third Piano Concertos, the Second Violin Concerto, and the October Cantata, Op. 74, a work for which he gave the original premiere performance in 1966.