The Weasels Are Now Playing LIEUTENANT OTHER NAMES, ...

[dulcinea]

... a lightweight piece of nothing that is far from being the best that Prokofiev produced.
Meanwhile, apart from the CLASSICAL and the Fifth, they hardly ever acknowledge his symphonies, which I have in my CD collection; not very considerate of them.

[dulcinea]

I'm terribly concerned that much of the public of WSMR-FM have not outgrown the easy listening light classics, such as KIZHE and the CLASSICAL, and if they ever try anything more demanding, such as P's Fifth, 'tis only because they have already heard it several times before.

[piston]

But it was a really good film score for its time (1934). That old Soviet movie is worth watching to better appreciate the music.

[karlhenning]

"Far from being his best" does not make it "nothing."

Cheers,
~k.

[John F]

I think the "Lieutenant Kije" music is brilliant - perfectly suited to the movie for which it was written and the story the movie tells. Just as the "Alexander Nevsky" music is perfectly suited to its movie, and the music in "Love for Three Oranges," "War and Peace," "Romeo and Juliet," and "Cinderella" are to the stories they have to tell. Prokofiev had a special flair for theatre music, I'd say more than any Russian composer after Rimsky-Korsakov, and he's one of the very few whose film music has had and deserves prominence in the concert hall, more than in the movie house. Credit where it's due.

dulcinea, will you ever get over wanting every work by every composer to stand comparison with the Eroica Symphony? Even Beethoven didn't want that, as witness his 8th symphony. In the house of classical music are many mansions, and they are not all furnished alike. Vive les différences!

[karlhenning]

And the two romansy are exquisite.

Cheers,
~k.

[jserraglio]

If Kije had appeared in opera instead of film it might be accepted as high art.