Gabriel Prokofiev
, grandson of
Sergei
, vacillated between classical music and DJ culture, finally making the excellent decision to combine the two. This 2024 release has a specific agenda but could also serve as an introduction to his unique style.
Pastoral 21
takes as its point of departure
Beethoven
's
Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 ("Pastoral")
, slimmed down in a small string arrangement by
M.G. Fischer
and performed by the
UNLTD Collective
from the Verbier Festival. The five-movement
Pastoral Reflections
offers
Prokofiev
's response to each of
's five movements (all of which could have been included) from a modern perspective, with electronics carrying the message, some of them delivering field recordings
made in the Swiss hills surrounding Verbier (where he was dismayed to find he could not escape traffic noise). His essential idea is that for
and his contemporaries, nature was a source of joy, but now it is perceived as disturbed and threatening. For
's famed thunderstorm movement,
offers (in his own words in the interview-format booklet) "[a] digital storm. We observe climate crisis forest fires, and devastating storms through smartphone and laptop screens -- A new, existential level of anger and danger from nature that we have less and less connection with. Humankind has made the planet more dangerous than ever." Consumer electronics also play a role in the third work on the album,
Breaking Screens
, which lacks the environmental element but uses the same mixture of elements. Nothing if not timely, this release offers a fine example of work by a composer whose work is entirely original. ~ James Manheim