This excellent and extremely well-filled CD reminded me, even more forcefully than the recent and equally superb James Ehnes traversal of Prokofiev’s violin oeuvre, what a Janus-like composer he was. My other reaction was one of awe-struck admiration for Roger Woodward’s complete mastery of both sides of Prokofiev’s musical and creative personality. 

Don’t be put off by the 1991 recording date: the sound from the ABC’s Sir Eugene Goossens Hall, is excellent. This CD is like a marvellous anthology of short stories that you dip into, not recommended for digesting in one go. Much of the music was composed when Prokofiev was very young. The Sarcasmes Op 17 (1912-14), the Four Etudes, Op 2 (1909) and Suggestion diabolique (1910-12) are among his angriest, most percussive, frenetic and radical keyboard works, yet they are so much more assimilable and create more of an adrenalin rush than anything Schoenberg was writing simultaneously. Interspersed among them are the exquisite Prelude, Op 12, No 7 (1906-13) an oasis of pellucid lyricism. Likewise the Pensées “Thoughts” Op 62 (1933-4), composed when he had mellowed considerably. These are delightfully dreamy cameos, although I agree with one critic who expressed bemusement at the composer’s declaration that the second was “one of the best things I have ever written”. My favourite piece is the Nocturne which radiates wistful charm. 

Almost one third of the CD comprises the Visions Fugitives, probably best translated as “Fleeting Glimpses” technically a cycle of sorts but one designed to be performed in excerpts, usually to ginger up a recital program. The nearest equivalent that comes to mind is Bartók’s much larger Mikrokosmos and these works are indeed a kaleidoscopic (to use Woodward’s own description in the exemplary program notes) microcosm of Prokofiev’s array of moods and styles. Bravo!