I personally find myself yawning and unconsciously reaching out for my phone. It's also hard for me to keep following the music, i just zone out and wait for the next allegro section.
This might legit be my favorite part about boardgaming, idk I guess I'm weird. I LOVE cracking open a rulebook, making tons of notes, then organizing my notes in a way that makes it easy to teach. For instance I usually isolate all areas of the game where players have to make a decision, and make those the most important parts to emphasize during a teach. Then to the extent there are steps during a round that don't involve decision-making, I can go over those parts relatively quickly.
For example the invader phase in Spirit Island doesn't usually involve any decision making so I can just skim over that part relatively quickly in a teach, or not teach it at all and they can just see how it works as the game progresses. Or in the board game Heat, about half the steps in a round don't involve decision making so you can just focus on the ones that do.
Every night it's the same crap. I take the time to set up a nice little game of Mage Knight or Barrage or whatever, and then she starts complaining about being tired, feeling nauseous, blah blah blah. Then after only an hour or so she whines about irrelevant shit like we don't have any space for a crib, the basement pipes are leaking, etc. Like I am I supposed to care about that boring stuff? I keep telling her Babe I really need to scratch my deck building itch and she doesn't get it. Idk I feel her heart just isn't in it the way it should be. What should I do Reddit
Note: With one exception noted below, this list excludes piano transcriptions. So no Romeo and Juliet suite, no Cinderella suites, etc. Only the works originally intended for piano.
Since I think lists like these are pointless without any justification, here's my brief writeups on each piece. Would like to hear your thoughts as well!
Piano Sonata No. 6 in A major, Op. 82: An incredibly successful synthesis of his Soviet-era clarity of melody and phrasing, experimental harmonic writing, and a newfound appreciation of the large-scale Beethoven-esque sonata form with clear articulation of structure and long-term dramatic arc. Both the first and last movements build towards spectacular climaxes, getting truly manic in intensity. The third movement seems to take the 4-note fortissimo motif from the end of the first movement and develops it as its main theme, taking that anger and calming it down into a calm, tranquil respite.
Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16: That colossal first movement cadenza never fails to give me goosebumps, but the fourth movement also comes close to matching the sheer insanity of intensity. I only wish there was a lyrical slow movement of more intimate beauty for contrast, but you can’t have everything.
Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26: There’s something about the writing that to me evokes the mystery and beauty of nature. The opening of the piece is the dawn of a new day: the animals slowly wake up and burst into youthful excitement. The third movement’s “love theme” is hilarious in how it starts very melodically in the strings, is answered very tepidly by the piano, then both parts eventually join in unison.
Piano Sonata No. 2 in D minor, Op. 14: I love how he uses chromatic dissonances to build up emotional anguish and torture, and alternates this with moments of real melodic beauty. There’s the sinking into despair of the first movement’s development section and gorgeous climaxes of the third movement. Peak Prokofiev for me.
Piano Sonata No. 7 in Bb major, Op. 83: The famous third movement is the star of the show, but there’s a lot to enjoy in the earlier movements. The first movement gives one of his great thunderously chromatic development sections, and the second movement, based on a lied from Schumann, is quite tender and lovely before transforming itself into something more angry and chromatic.
Six Pieces, Op. 52: I’m sort of breaking my own rules here since these are all technically transcriptions of other works, but they work so well here I have to make an exception. The 12-minute andante is one of the most intensely emotional and powerful works of his I’ve ever heard. It’s flanked by two fierce scherzos, demonic in intensity and explosive power.
Piano Sonata No. 8 in Bb major, Op. 84: The interesting part to follow of the leisurely first movement is how two of the themes are transformed from something quiet and vaguely uneasy into real anger and malevolence, especially in the development. The devilish third movement Scherzo has a crucial major-mode theme that sounds like it could be really Beethovenian and heroic but Prokofiev purposefully holds it back- it’s a brief, minor victory, rather than a blazing triumphant one.
Piano Sonata No. 4 in C minor, Op. 29: The second movement gives us two themes that beautifully complement each other and gorgeous harmonic support throughout. The third movement brings the sonata to a brilliant close with a sort of grotesque madman theme that jumps around the keyboard before falling to a sudden crash.
Piano Sonata No. 3 in A minor, Op. 28: Despite being only one movement, it feels like a full complete musical statement and any succeeding movements would probably feel like a letdown after this. A violent, wild first theme leads to a lovely lyrical second theme and two thrilling climaxes in the development and coda.
Piano Sonata No. 9 in C major, Op. 103: A rather stunning change in ethos from all prior sonatas, this is a sonata of warmth and playfulness rather than torment and strife. The third movement is the highlight, with a lovely singing tenor line that turns into a music box-style melody in the coda. He playfully teases the opening to each succeeding movement at the close of the previous one.
Sarcasms, Op. 17: Prokofiev explained the title as the sort of self-consciousness and sadness one develops when one mocks another person, only to turn inward and find the same flaws within oneself. We hear that laughing and mockery in the earlier pieces in the set and more of the inner guilt and sadness later on, quite fascinating.
Visions fugitives, Op. 22: From allmusic, the title means “fleeting visions” and is derived from the words of a Russian poet: these visions are worlds full of the changing play of rainbow hues. Standouts to me are the lovely strumming beauty of the Pittoresco, the zaniness of the Animato, and the obsessively repeating motif of the Dolente.
Four Pieces, Op. 4: This set seems illustrative of a gradual psychotic breakdown: we start with the relative calm of the Reminiscences, then anxiety in the Elan, then the painful chromaticism of Despair, then the sinister virtuosity of the famous Suggestion diabolique.
Piano Concerto No. 1 in Db major, Op. 10: The gorgeous opening theme is reminiscent of Tchaikovsky’s famous opening theme to his first concerto. The opening sounds to me like rolling ocean waves, contrasted later with a more tragic theme characterized by a falling major 7th. Like the third concerto, I hear a lot of ‘sounds of nature’ in this piece.
Pensées, Op. 62: Three rather dark, melancholic pieces, each beginning slowly and quietly and building towards climaxes of differing intensity. This is some of Prokofiev’s most spiritually intense writing.
Toccata in D minor, Op. 11: Not much to say about this one, it’s short but it’s fucking awesome.
Piano Concerto No. 5 in G major, Op. 55: There’s a relative lack of earbug themes compared to the 1st-3rd concerti, but the music still feels like a journey to new and magical lands. I recommend Yuja Wang’s performance as she fills the music with an anxious fiery energy, full of enthusiasm.
Things in Themselves, Op. 45: A very loose and improvisatory pair, meant to evoke the “things in themselves” idea from Kantian philosophy. I particularly like the second theme of the second piece, it evokes a feeling of lost wandering.
Four Etudes, Op. 2: Uses the etude concept to introduce innovative textures. The second etude is my favorite, with dreamy cascading figurations, running over Debussy-like harmonic shifts, and the third piece revs itself up into a real frenzy.
Sonatina No. 1, Op. 54/1: Both sonatinas are dense, difficult works, full of condensed musical material, not unlike a Bach fugue. I prefer the first with the driving staccato-note theme of the first movement and the lovely slow movement.
Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 1: Although it’s clearly derivative of late-Romantic era composers, I still enjoy it for its bravura and the attractiveness of the second theme.
Three Pieces, Op. 59: This is a trio in a more gentle, leisurely vein, maybe a step towards his later Soviet era. The second piece “Landscape” is the most lovely, with rainbow-like rising and falling patterns.
Piano Sonata No. 5 in C major, Op. 135 (revised): I like the revision a little better with its changes to the third movement to sound less ‘strange’ and chromatic sounding, and more thunderous and dramatic, closer to the sound of sonatas 6-8.
Music for Children, Op. 65: A charming set of twelve pieces in his late Soviet style of mostly diatonic harmonies and simple phrasing. It opens with “Morning” and closes with the calm “Evening” and “The Moon” and in between there are many colorful pieces like “March of the Grasshoppers” and the hazy impressionism of “Rain and the Rainbow.”
Ten Pieces, Op. 12: No high drama or intense modernism in this set, but there are a number of highly attractive themes, particularly in the second half. Favorites are Legend, Prelude, and the closing Scherzo.
Piano Concerto No. 4 in Bb major, Op. 53 (for left hand): The second movement is quite beautiful and there’s some neat bebop-style writing in the outer movements. I quite dislike the third movement march: only one of the themes is at all memorable and it’s poorly developed, and the overall movement is difficult to follow structurally. I also think it’s strange to have the slow movement come second in the order.
Four Pieces, Op. 32: A small suite of four dances, I feel it’s mostly forgettable except for the finale, a dreamy and slow “waltz” which is harmonically and motivically dense but lovely melodically.
Sonatina No. 2, Op. 54/2: If there’s one word to describe this sonatina it’s ‘wandering.’ The themes are generally secondary to the gentle wandering, hazy movement, not keeping to any key center for very long.
Four Pieces, Op. 3: This is a series of very short character pieces which use a lot of dissonant effects; wouldn’t sound out of place in Bartok’s Mikrokosmos. The ideas seem a bit underdeveloped.
Tales of an Old Grandmother, Op. 31: Here we have some rather gloomy and melancholic pieces, simple enough for children to play but probably too depressing for them. I like the Andantino the most.
Piano Sonata No. 5 in C major, Op. 38 (original): The first movement has got to be the single weirdest bit of writing he ever did. It just doesn’t work for me: there’s just too much contrast between the pastoral Haydn-esque opening and the hazy, rhythmically uncertain murkiness that follows it. The third movement is a bit more successful but not enough to save it.