Prokofiev Piano Concerto No.3 - my final evolution

[mrcreosote]

I've listened to the P ever since Cliburn recorded it.  I liked it.  I liked the Rach 3 more when I was young.

However, in my 50's, when surveying Thirty Two Short Films About Glen Gould looking for short, impressive, unattended piano pieces, I discovered P's Precipitato.  (I did learn the Visions "Ridiculosamente" [how can you not love P after that notation!] after hearing it on public radio)

Then Lang Lang Goes Crazy - the finale of P3 (which I learned also.)

Tocatta was electric in some places.

But revisiting P3 (Nahre Sol partially to blame(!))   Martha going at it is a joy.  LL can sure turn up the wick too.

I realized Prok was "scratching an itch I just couldn't reach!"  (Yuja Wang said something to the effect there are times when she has to play her Prok - I like to wallow in it, maybe she does too)

I've tried looking beyond P but the going gets too tough - for one thing, reading or playing the score or such works is useless - I have to hear them performed to understand what was written. 

I think there is an "undiscovered land" for me in Debussy, but he is just too difficult - I don't have the technique and am simply not particularly familiar with his works. 

Shostakovich's 5th is stupendous but can't get a connection with any of his piano music (a transcription of the 5th?)

I madly love Ligeti's Mysteries of the Macabre and have been sorting through his piano music.

I just don't know if I will evolve past P given I'm 65.  But P connected very late in life - a life spent infatuated with Rach, and Bach, Bee and Chop when young.

But seriously, I would jump at a performance of P3 over R3.  Not a doubt in my mind.