The Wayward Prokofiev #53.
A long-running docudrama about one of the most prominent and independent composers of the 20th century.
Today: Prokofiev’s new opera production ‘The Duenna’, a selection of songs from 1940 by a Japanese composer who completed the first Japanese opera in 1940, and a piano concertino by perhaps the most famous war pianist from Poland, Wladyslaw Szpilman.
Kosaku Yamada. 4 Songs for Soprano and Piano (Arr. Spring Breezes) (1940)
Charlotte de Rothschild (soprano) with the City of London Sinfonia conducted by Michael Collins.
Sergei Prokofiev. The Duenna (1941) Act I. St. Petersburg Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra/Kirov Opera Chorus conducted by Valery Gergiev with Nikolai Gassiev, Alexander Gergalov, Anna Netrebko, Larissa Diadkova, and Evgeny Akimov. Wladyslaw Szpilman. Concertino for Piano and Orchestra (1940). Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Axelrod with Ewa Kupiec on piano.
