Prokofiev or Shostakovich?

[scherzo123]

 

[grandstaff]

Prokofiev is one of my all time favorite composers, and, in my opinion, far superior to Shostakovich.
My favorites of his:
5th Symphony
3rd Piano Concerto
3rd, 4th, 6th, and 7th Piano Sonatas
Flute Sonata
Music from the Love for 3 Oranges, Cinderella, and Romeo and Juliet
Toccata
Suggestion Diabolique

[scherzo123]

Prokofiev is one of my all time favorite composers, and, in my opinion, far superior to Shostakovich.
My favorites of his:
5th Symphony
3rd Piano Concerto
3rd, 4th, 6th, and 7th Piano Sonatas
Flute Sonata
Music from the Love for 3 Oranges, Cinderella, and Romeo and Juliet
Toccata
Suggestion Diabolique

-High Five-

[davidjosepha]

I like the (currently) unanimous vote. Shostakovich doesn't stand a chance next to Prokofiev.

[patrickd]

Prokofiev

[danielekstrom]

I like Shostakovich better.

[j_menz]

I like Shostakovich better.

Me too. Prokofiev never wrote a fugue! (His Buxtehude transcription doesn't count)

[gep]

For some reason that I cannot explain Prokofiev's music has never been close to me. I cannot connect to it; to me it seems to contain little if not indeed nothing more that the actual music. This may sound odd, but when I listen to Shostakovitch there are, to me, multiple layers; his music is always different when I listen to it at different times or in different moods. Moreover, different performers/conductors perform the music in so many different but equally valid sounding ways (compare Mravinsky with Kondrashin with Maxim Shostakovitch, for ex). In other words, Shostakovitch seems, again to me, to contain so much beyond and behind the notes (Mahler and Bach are others) where Prokofiev does not.
No doubt my loss, but so it is. Among the very few pieces by Prokofiev I ever return to, if rarely, are the 6th Symphony and 2nd Piano Concerto.

all best,
gep

[evitaevita]

 
Prokofiev