Prokofiev

When I was in graduate school my trumpet teacher told me that his favorite two composers were Bach and Prokofiev. I thought that was an odd pairing, but it makes more sense to me, at least as a trumpet player, several years later. I spent the last week playing Prokofiev 5 with the BPO, and I'm utterly taken with the piece. I already knew and loved the 4th movement (listen here), which is exciting whether attached to the previous 3 movements or not, and serves as an excellent demonstration par excellence of Prokofiev's style. The earlier movements I was unfamiliar with, except a brief passage in the 2nd movement I'd once worked on for an audition. (As it turned out, I really didn't prepare it very accurately...we played it quite differently than I'd practiced it.)

I'd listened to recordings of the earlier 3 movements before, and had even heard the Chicago Symphony play the whole work in 2005. Yet when I sat in the orchestra, the texture and pace of the work came alive. "This," I thought by Wednesday afternoon "is really incredible music!" It's the sort of music, however, that really has to be heard live. For example, the whole third movement is pure magic in a live concert hall, where there's nothing but the orchestra to look at, and every soft subtlety is hear clearly. Listening in the car or the living room you miss all of the softs and have to turn down the recording for the louds. Classical music really must be heard live! My brothers tell me that there's nothing quite like the exhilaration of a well performed live rock and roll show either, but I don't imagine that the trouble with that genre is the difficulty in appreciating the softs.

It's a very busy week for gigs in the Smith household. I'm back in Buffalo playing the 1812 Overture and other educationalish works on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings, and I'm playing a quintet recital with an Eastman group on Wednesday evening at the Strong Museum. (It's a very long and very demanding program. I learned a good lesson about overprogramming about a month ago, and I may learn it again this Wednesday.) After the quintet concert I have a rehearsal with another quintet for a recital in two weeks, and then Flock of Uncles gigs on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night, and a rehearsal with a choir Saturday morning and performance on Sunday evening.

This past Saturday was a big day for us: James D Bear was baptized at Pearce Memorial Church. I still owe this blog an account of our doctrinal journey to his baptism, but not yet. There were no thoughts of controversy on Saturday, just the deeply moving experience of standing in the family of God with our own families as James by grace was entered en Christo.