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]