Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 1; Piano Concerto No. 2; Romeo's Farewell from 'Romeo and Juliet'; The Love for Three Oranges Suite

COMPOSERS: Prokofiev
LABELS: Sony
WORKS: Piano Concerto No. 1; Piano Concerto No. 2; Romeo’s Farewell from ‘Romeo and Juliet’; The Love for Three Oranges Suite
PERFORMER: Vladimir Feltsman (piano)LSO/Michael Tilson Thomas, French National Orchestra/Lorin Maazel
CATALOGUE NO: SMK 64243 DDD (1981/89)

Did anyone, even the composer himself, ever play Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in 23 minutes, the timing in the printed score? The present performance (from 1988) takes 32 minutes. Vladimir Feltsman brings a thoroughly artistic and marvellously dextrous approach to this work and the single-movement No. 1, mastering equally their super-Lisztian thunder and their delicate scale-work. The recording balance rather under-represents the orchestra. The couplings are an attractive extract (‘Romeo’s Farewell’) from the suite for piano solo which Prokofiev made from his Romeo and Juliet ballet and Maazel’s 1981 recording of the suite from The Love for Three Oranges. The performance is undistinguished, but the whole makes up an acceptable, unusual Prokofiev presentation. Arthur Jacobs