It was an evening of Prokofiev at Lincoln Center last night, and seat 6, row LL needed filling, so I answered the call. Couple of things... I've never been to a symphony performance before where they did encores. The first half of the concert comprised Symphony #4 and Violin Concerto #2, and people were on their feet at the end. (I say that because I'm a poor judge of music at best, and almost incapable of an opinion beyond "um, uh..." when it's music I'm not familiar with, but judging by the audience, many of whom were Russian, the London Symphony Orchestra is pretty good.) So the violin soloist and the 1st violin did a little dueling violins thing as an encore. (Two questions re: the violinists... When the soloist was playing the concerto, were they all thinking, as I think actors are, 'some day, that'll be me, I could do better!', and secondly, are there any left-hand playing violinists?) Then after the second half, the Symphony # 5 (one of the 'war symphonies', written at composers' camp outside Moscow in 1944--huh, really?), they did a couple minutes of, I think, "Peter and the Wolf". But I do have a beef... According to the program notes, in the #5, there is unusual use of the piano, especially in the fourth movement, where it's used almost as a percussion instrument. I'm not conservatory-trained or anything, but there was no piano on that stage!

When I listen to music, my mind wanders, and when the music is Russian and you try to let it evoke images, you, and by you, I mean I, always see a sleigh racing through a quiet snowy forest. But having read about the Fifth being first performed in 1945 as the Russians crossed the Vistula on their way to capture Hitler's Death Car, here's what I heard:

Movement #1 (Andante): Life in Soviet Russia--pretty good, though clearly the Revolution is going to take longer than we thought. And didn't there used to be about 30 million more peasants? Oh well, la-la-la . . .

Movement #2 (Allegro marcato): Hee--the rest of the world seems to be organizing another world war, but we've got this get out of jail free card, the Non-Agression Pact, la-di-dah!

Movement #3 (Adagio): Fucking Germans!

Movement #4 (Allegro giocoso): You're overextended and we're used to the climate--Victory!!