Karl Miller replies to Jim Tobin:

>Reflecting on your comments and others, I wonder if one could say that
>Shostakovich's writing is more about emotion and Prokofiev's writing is
>more often about music?

I certainly wouldn't.  In fact, to me Shostakovich writes tighter than
Prokofiev, generally speaking.

I would also say that Shostakovich is more focused emotionally, because
his range of emotion is narrower than Prokofiev's.  Prokofiev also has
a string to his bow (or an arrow in his quiver) that Shostakovich doesn't
have: a real feeling for nature.  Shostakovich's landscapes (not counting
something like Song of the Forests) are generally pretty bleak.  With
Prokofiev, you get Spring as well as Winter.  But again, I'm not denigrating
one at the expense of the other.  They are, however, different.

Steve Schwartz