Gabriel Prokofiev: Concerto for Turntables No. 1 (CD review)

Also, Cello Concerto. Mr. Switch, DJ; Boris Andrianov, cello; Alexey Bogorad, Ural Philharmonic. Signum Classics SIGCD628.

By John J. Puccio

No, not that Prokofiev. This is his grandson, the Russian-British composer, producer, and DJ Gabriel Prokofiev (b. 1975), who is also the Artistic Director of the record label and nightclub Nonclassical. He studied composition at the Universities of Birmingham and York and became a producer of Dance, Electro, Hip-hop and Grime music. He founded the independent record label and club night Nonclassical in 2003 in order to bring classical music to younger people.

Yes, the title of the first piece on the album, Concerto for Turntables No. 1, is exactly what you think it is. It’s a concerto in which the soloist is a disk jockey playing records on several turntables in various unique and innovative ways to produce various unique and innovative sounds in accompaniment with the orchestra. Naturally, the DJ has to be pretty talented, and in this case it’s Anthony Culverwell (aka, “Mr. Switch”), a world-champion disk jockey. OK, I admit my ignorance (or naïveté) of such things. I had no idea there were DJ contests. In 2014 Culverwell won the DMC World Championship, the longest-standing DJ competition in the world. And it’s just one of many DJ competitions he’s won. So, he’s, like, a star performer, and on this recording uses Technics 1200 turntables (described as “the Steinway of turntables”).

Prokofiev wrote the Turntables Concerto in 2006, and its first orchestral performance was at the BBC Proms in 2011. The composer titled it “No. 1” because he wrote a second such concerto in 2016. Of course, the main questions you may ask are, What’s it like, and is it worth hearing? Obviously, these are subjective questions. It’s an unusual piece of music in five movements that may or may not appeal to you. The sounds made on the turntables are not always what many listeners would call “musical,” yet they’re always fascinating. Put it this way: I was glad to have listened to it, but I’m not sure I’d ever want to listen to it again.

Alexey Bogorad

Anyway, Prokofiev avoids a lot of the discordant noise of many modern composers, relying instead on good, old-fashioned melody and rhythm. In this regard, the music is quite listenable, if not, as I said, particularly memorable or entirely worthy of repeat listening. Still, the music Prokofiev creates is engaging in its singularity, something I found most entertaining when the turntables were minimally involved, as in the second-movement Adagietto. The third, central movement is notable for its use of human vocal noises. The booklet notes go into detail about the techniques a talented DJ uses to create unique sounds, by the way, something the reader may find at least informative.

Prokofiev also tells us that when he first thought about writing his turntables concerto he was hesitant about it. He thought it might be too gimmicky and too much an obvious attempt to fuse elements of classical and rock in order to bring in a younger audience. But he thought better of it and gave it his best shot. I guess he succeeded because it’s had several recordings now and been played by orchestras all over the world. Still, his first thoughts may have been right. I found it more than a little gimmicky, though entertaining in the moment. I wonder what Leroy Anderson and his cats, clocks, and typewriters or Arthur Honegger and his steam train or even Mozart and his sleigh ride would have thought of it? 

The disc’s coupling is more conventional, Prokofiev’s Cello Concerto, featuring cellist Boris Andrianov. Prokofiev wrote it in 2012, the third and most traditional concerto the composer says he’s written, given that the first two were ones for turntables. Being a rather traditional fellow myself, I found it more satisfying than the turntables concerto. Here, we find influences of Prokofiev’s grandfather, which I found a good thing. The Cello Concerto is witty, clever, dynamic, lyrical, and reflective by turns, yet with a decidedly modernist sensibility.

The only thing I found questionable about the album was the decision of Signum Classics to use a fold-over cardboard case with the CD fitting into one of the sleeves. I found the disc quite hard to remove without getting my fingers on the playing surface and without possibly scratching it on the cardboard on its way in and out.

Producer and engineer Jakob Handel recorded both pieces at Sverdlovsk Philharmonic Hall, Yekaterinburg, Russia in August 2018. Check your volume level before playing because the music begins with a very loud bass note, and the bass continues at an unusually high level throughout much of the album. As for the rest of the sound, it’s rather like a pop recording in that it’s fairly close, detailed, and flat. However, it is neither bright or hard. Indeed, it is nicely smooth and round, like real-life sounds, and even the quietest notes are well defined.

JJP

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click below: