A new addition to our 'Best of' series features the outstanding series of Prokofiev recordings made with the Ukraine orchestra. It is worth repeating that the composer so frequently referred to as 'Russian', was born in the Ukraine, and anyone who has heard this orchestra play Prokofiev in the concert hall, will have experienced a fervour for the music no other orchestra quite equals.
This burning passion seers through their recording of the Fifth Symphony, and, as the Gramophone magazine says, they play with an "intensity of feeling so often right".
The disc also contains a long extract from the recording of the Third Piano Concerto, part of the award winning cycle of concertos played by Kun Woo Paik. These are performances which Classic CD state, "leave most full-price versions standing".
Prokofiev was a prolific composer, whose style did at one stage undergo a dramatic change. This disc concentrates on his most popular works written during his years living in Moscow, and includes music from the two great ballet scores, Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella. The critic in the major UK newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, comments on "the beauty of sound from the Ukrainian Orchestra" when reviewing Cinderella.
