Symphony No. 4 (Prokofiev)

Symphony No. 4, Op. 47/112 is actually two works by Sergei Prokofiev. The first, Op. 47, was written in 1929 and premiered in 1930. The second, Op. 112, is a large-scale revision from 1947. Both of the works share significant musical material with Prokofiev's ballet L’enfant Prodigue or The Prodigal Son.

The two works are stylistically different, because their respective compositional contexts were different. They are formally different as well, and the instrumentation and scope of the revision is much larger.

Because Prokofiev's Symphony No. 4 is in fact two different works, two different but related examinations are required.

Famous quotes containing the word symphony:

    The truth is, as every one knows, that the great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom even ordinarily respectable. No virtuous man—that is, virtuous in the Y.M.C.A. sense—has ever painted a picture worth looking at, or written a symphony worth hearing, or a book worth reading, and it is highly improbable that the thing has ever been done by a virtuous woman.
    —H.L. (Henry Lewis)