Prokofiev Symphony No. 2 in d minor, Op. 40

When Prokofiev was living in France in the 1920s he came under criticism for failing to write truly innovative or daring music; in the thrall of the fashionable Les Six, some charged that he was relying on older works to prop up his reputation. This unforgiving attitude toward the composer emerged when Honneger's Pacific 231, a work depicting the sounds and mechanistic rhythms of a locomotive -- fashioned in the so-called style mécanique -- had just scored a colossal triumph. Therefore, Prokofiev decided he would give Parisian audiences what they wanted -- or what he thought they wanted: a symphony constructed of “iron and steel.“ In the process he turned out one of his most dissonant and difficult major compositions, but also, despite its general neglect, one of his most rewarding. Structurally, the Symphony No. 2 is fashioned after Beethoven's last piano sonata: the first movement is an austere Allegro in sonata form, and the second a lengthy theme-and-variations scheme of cons