Prokofiev - The Complete Symphonies

It has been a while since my last post -- I have been taking a minor break from watching movies, and have been enjoying life as of late. Here's something I received recently, and it will fulfill my "occassional" music review requirement, in case anyone was wondering.

Sergey Prokofiev (1891-1953) is considered to be one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. He was well known for his orchestral works, operas and film scores. Notable works are the Love of Three Oranges, Chout ballet, Scythian Suite, and the film scores to Lieutenant Kije, Ivan the Terrible, and Alexander Nevsky, and his most famous, Peter and the Wolf. His symphonies spanned his entire career, and reflected the various stages of his life - from the Haydn influenced 1st Symphony, to his triumphant 5th Symphony, to his final 7th Symphony, written in the Cold War Stalin era. Philips has issued this year a 4 cd set of the complete symphonies, conducted by the Russian composer Valery Gergiev, who is known for a powerful, sometimes heavy handed approach, but always exciting interpretations. Many of the operas he has conducted with the Kirov Orchestra has drawn rave reviews - his version of The Love of Three Oranges is considered to be the best available. Working with the London Symphony Orchestra, Gergiev produces one of the best sets of Prokofiev's symphonies around. While some consider the 1st Symphony to suffer from Gergiev's heavy handedness, I found it to be brisk and lively. All the others I found to be equally well done. The 2nd and 3rd Symphonies are raw and exciting. There are two versions of the 4th Symphony, original and revised. The 5th Symphony is one of the best versions around, conveying deep emotion. The 6th is also as powerful, and the 7th reflects the somber mood as Prokofiev was under pressure from the Stalin government to fall under the party line. The sound is excellent. There is a booklet with notes on Prokofiev's life and the symphonies. Recommended!