Containing the only digital recordings of
Prokofiev's Symphonic Song, Divertimento, and transcription of the Andante from his Fourth Piano Sonata, as well as one of only two digital recordings of his ballet The Prodigal Son, this disc will be mandatory listening for hardcore fans of the Soviet modernist. Whether they enjoy it or not is another story. A reissue of Chandos' identically coupled 1988 disc -- though the running order has been changed so that the first comes last and the last comes first, this disc features
Neeme Järvi at his most generic.
Järvi, of course, is a more than moderately skilled conductor gifted with an amazing ability to learn scores seemingly overnight, and his performances here are never less than competent. Unfortunately, they are also never inspired. The Prodigal Son ballet was
Prokofiev's last Western ballet and in it he eschews the cold-hearted violence of his earlier Western scores for warm-hearted Russian lyricism. In
Järvi's reading, however, the work lacks both brutality and lyricism and the result is tepid at best and dull at worst. The remaining works on the disc fare even worse in that they all sound like the could have been by virtually any second-string modernist from Malipiero to
Martinu, though with far less character than either of those composers. The Andante sounds wan and watery, the Symphonic Song bathetic and bombastic, and the Divertimento listless and lifeless. Recorded in very loud and colorful but very shallow and glassy digital sound by Chandos, this disc may be mandatory but it may not be enjoyable.