I first heard Prokofiev's sledgehammer 2nd Symphony in 1990, on a
Jarvi/SNO/Chandos tape and a Downes/BBCPO live performance.  "What a
cacophonous waste of time!" I reacted on both occasions.  In those days,
Prokofiev sounded callous, brusque and I detected no soul behind his
gunmetal sonorities.

I've now come to appreciate much of Prokofiev's music.  For instance, the
Ozawa/BPO set of the 7 Symphonies and the Lt.  Kije Suite revealed even
more of Prokofiev's tenderness, humour, demonism, crunchy harmonies and
killer tunes.  But I still avoided the 2nd Symphony.

Then John Smyth wrote on 18 June:

>The second mov't of the 2nd symphony is a real sleeper.  I only know the
>Rostropovich on Erato, but I'ts ok.

His comment made me shrug and think - I'll give it another go..  I played
the second movement of the Ozawa disc for the first time.  And I was
gobsmacked!  I was thrilled by a work "made of iron and steel." I think
it helped that the savage 3rd and 6th Symphonies had toughened my musical
tolerance in the meantime, roughing it up so that I could now cope with
the 2nd.  My thanks to John for the suggestion to try it again.

James Kearney
[log in to unmask]