Prokofiev Concerto No.2

[viking]

Alright, so I've posted this piece a few times, but I just finished memorizing the whole concerto very recently.  Here is a recording of the piece done with two pianos at a local concerto competition.  It's certainly not perfect, nor is the sound quality, but you might get a few laughs out of it.  I really hope that with a little more time (AND AN ORCHESTRA) I'll be able to record this piece properly and give it the justice it deserves. 

http://www.lesdjinns.org/elite2/prok2.mp3

Have fun.

Thanks,

Sam

PS.  Thanks to DASDC for graciously recording me.

[rachfan]

Hi viking,

The fact that you're highly accomplished is evident in your musicianship and musicality.  I can tell that you also have a great affinity for this piece, which, unfortunately, has often taken a back seat to the 3rd Concerto, yet it is every bit as great.  The 2nd has not been recorded nearly as much either.  One very good old performance that sticks out in my mind was the late Nicole Henriot-Schweitzer as soloist with Charles Munch (her uncle) conducting the Boston Symphony.  Probably the recording is no longer available.  (I also saw her in recital once.)

You've brought this concerto along so well over the past months, that I hope you get an opportunity to do it with orchestra.  The two-piano reduction has its advantages though.  You can sometimes follow the lines more clearly than with the denser orchestral timbres.

I believe you're playing is very artistic.  Great job!

[thierry13]

Amazing ! Really man that's an awesome job you did there ! It's even better than your youtube video (for the cadenza). Your playing is so fluid and you really have an amazing drive. The only thing I like less is your "colossal" part of the cadenza ... I don't know if it's only the recording (probably) but I don't know why, we loose like every note except the important ones. Must have been harder to keep right while performing, you took it way faster than at CMC haha ! Anyways, I know way less the other movements so I can't really give other comments than amazing ! Was it Marc accompanying you ?

[viking]

Thanks for the comments.  As for the collosale section, I completely agree.  I'm working on a new approach trying to minimize the use of fingers and maximize action from my back using straight fingers to make sound.  However, with that piano, and the adrenaline, I completely reverted back to my old habit, and as a result there was not enough sound on each note.  However, I have done much work on the structure of the cadenza on the whole so that it makes more sence than my rendition currently on youtube.  And the accompanist was my old teacher from Saskatchewan, Bonnie Nicholson.  Marc usually doesn't have the time, or the sight to be able to do much accompanying anymore, although he did do the 2nd piano part when I performed the 2nd movement of the Khachaturian Piano Concerto at Orford.  Anyway, thanks for listening!

Sam

[yerko]

Thank you very much for your post, a truly gifted pianist!, it is always a pleasure to hear someone playing this great concerto, regards and greetins from Spain!, by the way... are interested in contemporary music? (I am a pianist and composer, my main influences are Ligeti, Schostakovich... I am finishing my fourth piano sonata) Thanks!!!