I'm the person who brings in the carts at my local ValuMarket, and since our parking lot has some wide open space, while I'm bringing in the carts, I also periodically do the dance. One time, our local Girl Scout troop were having their usual spring cookie sale, and I saw the smallest girl dancing. I then found a Dance of the Knights video on my phone, and performed it in front of them.
Would absolutely love to see an analysis of the 7th! Not sure how they’d tackle it with a comedic tone like they usually do; that’s some pretty heavy subject matter. But I’d be interested nonetheless!
ok so WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE. you guys are insane. wow. great visuals, important beautiful music, made accessible in a humouristic and down-to-earth manner. whilst providing the context and granting further insight into these fantastic pieces. great work. definitely sharing your videos. keep up the good work
Cannot thank you enough for this comment! This is exactly what we have been striving for, so we are really pleased you feel that - there are many more videos to come. Thanks for your support :)
@@ClassicsExplained you do good work. I feel the western propaganda, and see why he is russian hero against regime. And hear why he is hero to western and eastern music.
I like how the credits are silent even though they are usually accompanied by the voiceover telling us to support the channel and love classical music. It’s consistent with the sombre tone of the end of the video and the later years of Prokofiev’s life. 👍
I know fuck all about classical music, but heard this once as a kid and loved it. It took me years to finally find out what it is called (when I was by now an adult), after a performance of it was sampled in a track by Sia. Wonderful piece of music, so dramatic!
9:50 "The dead can't dance" The Willies in Giselle and the Shades in La Bayadère: am I a joke to you? In all seriousness, the tomb scene has my favorite choreography, especially with how it calls back to the balcony scene. I highly recommend the version with Alessandra Ferri and Angel Corella, it's mesmerizing
I’ve played for several ballet companies, and this is my favorite ballet to play and to listen to. It never gets stale or boring like a lot of ballet music does after you’ve played it for more than a season. Prokofiev’s ballet music for “Cinderella” and Aaron Copland’s magnificent score for “Billy the Kid” tie for 2nd place in my opinion. When you can play a particular musical work multiple times and continue to find new and interesting things about it you know that you’re playing a masterpiece.🎵
Blimey, you're really pushing the content out now! Another great video! Thank you! While it's probably on your list, a really visual piece of music for me is Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz....so yeah...waiting...😂😂 I kid, keep up the good work and me and the kids will keep watching. Cheers!
Romeo And Juliet was set to music also by Tchaikovsky (as a Fantasy Overture), Gounod (as an Opera), Berlioz, (as a Choral Symphony), and Bernstein/ Sondeim (as the Musical West Side Story).
I’m so glad this was recommended to me! I wonder what the story was for Tchaikovsky’s version of Romeo and Juliet... His definitely sounded happier and more passionate
Please read 'Symphony for the City of the Dead'. During the purges Shost slept on the landing of his apartment with packed suitcases. He did not want his family to be disturbed at night when the NKVD came to arrest him. I won't reveal more so that you can enjoy the book.
Omg I can't believe that I found this channel. Thank you much for this!!! This is an amazing work. I love classical music and my husband is a classical composer and we are really enjoying this. He is going to recommend this channel to his university students. Thanks again and keep going!!❤❤❤
The opening scene where Prokofiev was calling Stalin is my favorite scene for no reason at all. Oh, I also have an idea for a video. How about Carmen by Bizet?
Love your videos! Maybe you could do some on Irish classical music, not a lot of people have covered it. I suggest Eithne by Robert O'Dwyer (the first opera entirely in the Irish language), Charles Villiers Stanford's Irish Symphony, or more obvious contemporary stuff like Riverdance by Bill Whelan
@@ClassicsExplained That would be amazing! I forgot to mention his Irish Rhapsodies as well. Maybe you could go a special at some point about composers who were influenced by their nations' traditional folk songs?
You ever thought about doing some of the great Japanese orchestral works, including (but not limited to...) -"Godzilla" by Akira Ifukube -Symphony in F Major "Triumph and Peace" by Kosaku Yamada -Symphony #1, "Prima Sinfonia" by Yasushi Akutagawa -"Inu Yasha" by Kaoru Wada
One of the best videos of your channel, funny and beautiful. It would be great that you do one this videos with Verdi's Requiem. It would be interesting.
I TH-camd “Prokofiev comments Romeo” and I got this. More than I bargained for. Hats off to Rocky & Bullwinkle. I knew this wonderful work must have had some imagery (that must have been apparent) but this was way more. Nice work.
if you plan on returning to Prokofiev, it'd be cool to dive into his film scores - like his best, ALEXANDER NEVSKY! (pretty sure Lloyd Webber got some of his notes from NEVSKY!)
I died laughing when I saw the Capulette’s mouths all on the floor with the speech bubble, “NO TIKTOK FOR YOU!!!!” 😂😂😂 This is my favorite channel!! ❤️
Would love to see Vivaldi Glorias, Handels Messiah, or Miserere me Dius (psalm 51 - not sure who the composer was for that last one!). These are informative and a lot of fun! Keep up the great work!
5:02 that never sounded "amourous" to me, haha, I have to say...I didn't know the program until now, I mean...was perhaps my favorite Prokofiev suite, the Romeo and Juliet suite, but apart from the titles of some of the mouvements/numbers, etc, I had no idea what individual instruments, etc, represented...but that never sounded "amourous" to me...
Thanks for your comment! It's just our interpretation - don't take our word for it. There are many emotions and ideas you can ascribe to the different instruments :)
It's worth noting that Prokofiev and Stalin died on the same day, March 5, 1953. Few people attended Prokofiev's funeral because Stalin's was a state occasion. Who's more warmly remembered now?
@@sidharthcs2110 People outside of Europe do listen to classical music, y'know. In America, the "Montagues and Capulets" number from "Romeo and Juliet" has been used and sampled in all kinds of media. Billy Joel even name-checked Prokofiev in his #1 hit song "We Didn't Start the Fire".
If I had a nickel for every ballet based off of Romeo and Juilliet by a Russian composer during the era of Stalin I’d have 2 nickels. It isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.
The thing about socialist realism you have to remember, Stalin was a fucking BOOMER okay. A cranky old conservative man who dislike the gays and banned abortion, despite his radical origins. Pre-stalin USSR was teaming with all sorts of highly experimental and down right odd experiments in modern art of various types. People were excited for the dawn of a new era, the fact that regular people had some level of democratic rights for the first time in Russian history. And this was reflected in the media. But things changed when Stalin took power. Look up socialist realist art. It looks like a bunch of Norman Rockwell paintings, and it had a lot of the same themes too. A celebration of respectable conformity, a nationalistic pride, the mood of "LOOK HOW GREAT EVERYTHING IS. EVERYTHING ONE IS HAPPYONE IS," and a good old touch of ol fashioned "fAmiLy VaLuEs." Of course, you can't write all of this off as "Mustache Man Bad! >:-( " Because even the most unhinged dictator is only as powerful as the support he gets from other powerful people. This was a social phenomenon that swept the whole country for a variety of reasons. A lot of it had to do with the ever-present menace of Nazi Germany. With hittler going on and on about how he hated commies and jews and slavs and was totally going to invade kick all their asses one day. was compounded by the fact that revolutions in other parts of the world had been squashed by capitalist governments thus far, and the USSR didn't exactly have a lot of allies to back them up. They say about Stalin, "He was famous for his unhinged paranoia." LMAO, of course he was fucking paranoid. Everyone was. It's no wonder they were hunting for fascists and capitalists under every rock, building a massive surveillance state, and trying to stamp out any possible threat in the media and in art. Was there a better way they could have handled this? Absolutely. But we can't pretend this came out of no where for no reason.
Interesting comment thanks for this. It is often said that in the period just after the Revolution, Soviet Russia really was optimistic about this new utopian path that they were building. Some of the great constructivist and suprematist art around that time is pointing towards a brighter future. But the position was very diffferent with the nation in the midst of a civil war and the power vacuum after Lenin's death. Socialist realism is a very difficult movement to get one's head around. It ossified painting and sculpture for the following thirty years. There was indeed a culture of paranoia. Moreover, so many of the great experimentalists from the immediate post-Revolution period decided to emigrate to other art centres like Berlin, Paris and London come the 1930s
It's interesting that the Soviet regime didn't allow for Prokofiev's happy ending when in productions if Swan Lake under Stalin had to change the ending to make it so that Odette and Seigfried *didn't* die at the end. This is actually the bad ending, because it's through the lovers' sacrifice that breaks the spell on everyone in the original; in the Soviet version, killing Rothbart just saves themselves and not the other bewitched swans
I was not aware how much of a struggle and political shitshow the creation of this Ballet was. All I know is that it is the best Ballet since "Sleeping Beauty".
@@ClassicsExplained Indeed. And not all the decisions of the cultural bureau were bad. Forcing Prokoviev and the Choreographer back to the original ending was the best thing that could have happened. Nothing defeats the purpose of this story more than having Rome and Juliet live at the end.
Thank you so much for your kind words - we really appreciate all of them! Do spread the word (we still have a long way to go to bring music appreciation to the masses!) and, should you wish, please do support us on Patreon :) Keep watching - next one out soon!
Just be careful with those political words, I know some channels that have been severely punished for just mentioning or having on the screen the words Stalin, communism, socialist, halocaust, etc. Even small history channels must be careful, the algorithm gets to everyone.
To be clear, I'm glad you make these videos and I hope they bring new audiences to classical music, but the music itself can barely be heard which-partially at least-defeats the purpose.
Thanks for your comment. The aim is not, of course, for audiences to watch one of these purely for the music - we do encourage, at the end of each video, people to listen to the piece in full (and are happy to make suggestions as to what we regard are the best recordings). Other than that, we do try our best to get the levels right between voiceover and snippets of music that we are talking about. The purpose is to give those who want to learn a bit more about classical music some of the tools for them to go off and listen to these pieces themselves.
@@ClassicsExplained personally i think the way you guys are doing it is excellent, assuming one of your goals is also keeping the videos shorter. Amazing job so far, regardless. This channel is TH-cam's best kept secret but i hope it stops being a secret soon!
Thank you :) Originally Ukrainian, but undeniable link with Russia though, particularly in the way the popularity of borscht and shchi spread through the Soviet Union
That was your worst video so far. Political regime, red plague, to mention but a few... Obviously you aren’t in favour of communism but no need to tell us about it here when we talk about music. You really got to know history and understand inner politics to be able to see what was happening in this difficult time. Throwing cliches is easy.
Thank you! I suppose the fact that one of us is Russian and the other has studied Russian history and politics means we clearly don’t understand what we are talking about. Prokofiev’s music cannot be separated from the politics of the era - music from that period and in that country were inextricably intertwined because of formalism, socialist realism etc. We are not here to make any political statements whatsoever so I don’t know why we are personally dismissing communism. We are simply retelling the stories of great pieces of music which, where appropriate, engage with the socio-political background of the time of composition. if you’d like more pointers, we could suggest some reading material for you.
![BOWKYLION - วิงวอน (ex-change) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cLdnZWDaO-w/mqdefault.jpg)
"I don't want to pay taxes"
I feel you Juliet
BAhAhahAhahaHahaHahaHAhahAhaha
Well, she doesn’t need to pay takes anymore now that she killed herself
I can loan it to you,.
We all feel that way 😂
Royalty be like that
'fun fact': Prokofiev died on the exact same day as Stalin...
*not so fun fact
kinda creepy, ALL DEATH COINCIDENCES ARE CREEPY
Shostakovich showed up on Prokofiev's funeral instead of Stalin's. Truly a man of respect.
@@Smin-f3hthere is also a joke:the death did the coreect thing after shotovish wrote his 9th symphony
And the were no flowers left for him.
@@ievgend87no flowers for Stalin or Prokofiev?
Dance of the knights is an absolute banger. Also star crossed means doomed to fail not perfect match
I Did The Whole Dance For The Co-op Talent Show
I'm the person who brings in the carts at my local ValuMarket, and since our parking lot has some wide open space, while I'm bringing in the carts, I also periodically do the dance. One time, our local Girl Scout troop were having their usual spring cookie sale, and I saw the smallest girl dancing. I then found a Dance of the Knights video on my phone, and performed it in front of them.
Very nice ! How about shostakovich's 7th Symphony, or Prokofiev's 'War and Peace' next ?
Great suggestions! Adding to the list :) Thank you!
Would absolutely love to see an analysis of the 7th! Not sure how they’d tackle it with a comedic tone like they usually do; that’s some pretty heavy subject matter. But I’d be interested nonetheless!
@@sophiatalksmusic3588 Interesting and Engaging doesn't necessarily have to be funny. We'll do our best!
i would like to see harry potter animated
I'd love seeing shosty 7! I'm even doing a project on it for school! Also, Prokofiev wrote something based on "war and peace?"
ok so WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE. you guys are insane. wow. great visuals, important beautiful music, made accessible in a humouristic and down-to-earth manner. whilst providing the context and granting further insight into these fantastic pieces. great work. definitely sharing your videos. keep up the good work
Cannot thank you enough for this comment! This is exactly what we have been striving for, so we are really pleased you feel that - there are many more videos to come. Thanks for your support :)
@@ClassicsExplained can you do Bolero in the future?
Daaamn!
Finding the historic and personal details of the composers brings so much understanding to the piece!
Thanks!
14:06 i love how you used that music for tybalts death for prokofiev's ultimate tragedy
wtf? i just noticed how many views this video has. you're so underrated, keep up the good work!
Well, this video has just been uploaded, so no surprise with the views, but yes, we need more shares! Help us spread the word!
@@ClassicsExplained you do good work. I feel the western propaganda, and see why he is russian hero against regime. And hear why he is hero to western and eastern music.
I like how the credits are silent even though they are usually accompanied by the voiceover telling us to support the channel and love classical music. It’s consistent with the sombre tone of the end of the video and the later years of Prokofiev’s life. 👍
I couldn’t pick a single moment, the whole video is wildly entertaining! Shame on you, algorithm, for only sharing this now.
haha - thank you so much :)
I know fuck all about classical music, but heard this once as a kid and loved it. It took me years to finally find out what it is called (when I was by now an adult), after a performance of it was sampled in a track by Sia. Wonderful piece of music, so dramatic!
Love this - so good
9:50 "The dead can't dance"
The Willies in Giselle and the Shades in La Bayadère: am I a joke to you?
In all seriousness, the tomb scene has my favorite choreography, especially with how it calls back to the balcony scene. I highly recommend the version with Alessandra Ferri and Angel Corella, it's mesmerizing
And I thought the happy ending would be nice
But ghosts can!
I’ve played for several ballet companies, and this is my favorite ballet to play and to listen to. It never gets stale or boring like a lot of ballet music does after you’ve played it for more than a season. Prokofiev’s ballet music for “Cinderella” and Aaron Copland’s magnificent score for “Billy the Kid” tie for 2nd place in my opinion. When you can play a particular musical work multiple times and continue to find new and interesting things about it you know that you’re playing a masterpiece.🎵
Thanks for your comment - yes, its endlessly fascinating. I too love Cinderella. Billy the Kid is also good
Blimey, you're really pushing the content out now! Another great video! Thank you! While it's probably on your list, a really visual piece of music for me is Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz....so yeah...waiting...😂😂 I kid, keep up the good work and me and the kids will keep watching. Cheers!
Your wish will come true very soon :) We're glad you like what we do! Keep watching! :)
@@ClassicsExplained That is actually so exciting 😂😁I can't wait!! Thank you! 😁
Would be fun to see the marriage of figaro😁
thanks for the suggestion! adding to the list
@@ClassicsExplained don’t forget The Barber of Seville!
Romeo And Juliet was set to music also by Tchaikovsky (as a Fantasy Overture), Gounod (as an Opera), Berlioz, (as a Choral Symphony), and Bernstein/ Sondeim (as the Musical West Side Story).
for musical,there is also a Romeo et juliette french musicle ,that Damien Sargue as Romeo!
Excellent work ! Thank you for bringing some joy to me during this terrible time.
I’m so glad this was recommended to me! I wonder what the story was for Tchaikovsky’s version of Romeo and Juliet... His definitely sounded happier and more passionate
Thanks :)
Please do a video on Shostakovich. Would be really interesting to hear how he fared in the Soviet Union and how it affected his music.
Please read 'Symphony for the City of the Dead'. During the purges Shost slept on the landing of his apartment with packed suitcases. He did not want his family to be disturbed at night when the NKVD came to arrest him.
I won't reveal more so that you can enjoy the book.
Do one on Symphony No. 10!!
same
omg NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE TALK ABOUT ROMEO AND JULIET BUT ITS MY FAVORITE THANK YOU SO MUCH
I'm loving the videos!
Thank you!
Omg I can't believe that I found this channel. Thank you much for this!!! This is an amazing work. I love classical music and my husband is a classical composer and we are really enjoying this. He is going to recommend this channel to his university students. Thanks again and keep going!!❤❤❤
The opening scene where Prokofiev was calling Stalin is my favorite scene for no reason at all. Oh, I also have an idea for a video. How about Carmen by Bizet?
Thanks :)
And keep tuned for your suggestion ...;)
Huzzah!
I love this series!!! I have enjoyed each one more than the last. Keep it coming.
So great to hear! Thank you!
Yessss🤩
:)
Love your videos! Maybe you could do some on Irish classical music, not a lot of people have covered it. I suggest Eithne by Robert O'Dwyer (the first opera entirely in the Irish language), Charles Villiers Stanford's Irish Symphony, or more obvious contemporary stuff like Riverdance by Bill Whelan
Thanks so much! What a great suggestion - I'd love to do CVS; much-overlooked!
@@ClassicsExplained That would be amazing! I forgot to mention his Irish Rhapsodies as well. Maybe you could go a special at some point about composers who were influenced by their nations' traditional folk songs?
You ever thought about doing some of the great Japanese orchestral works, including (but not limited to...)
-"Godzilla" by Akira Ifukube
-Symphony in F Major "Triumph and Peace" by Kosaku Yamada
-Symphony #1, "Prima Sinfonia" by Yasushi Akutagawa
-"Inu Yasha" by Kaoru Wada
Let's hope the channel eventually deepens in some of these
Fun fact: Prokofieff never spelled his name with a "v" as the Germans do. Look at his autograph. Always spelled "ff".
0:39 - I have doubts if this is such a good decision, Sergei!
I remember over 20 years ago the NFL tried using the dance of the knights for the opening music to their football games...it didn’t last too long.
God these videos are always amazing
Thanks so much :)
Oh my god I love this channel so much
You seriously need more views and subscribers!
Thanks - we try! Hope this can get out to more and more people! Thanks for your support :))
One of the best videos of your channel, funny and beautiful. It would be great that you do one this videos with Verdi's Requiem. It would be interesting.
Thank you so much! And for your suggestion :)
Wow, this is so amazing video. I'm so excited, I've found your channel
❤️
That chicken playing the horn is one of the best things I've ever seen.
Amazing content thankyou!
Thank YOU for your support :)
I TH-camd “Prokofiev comments Romeo” and I got this. More than I bargained for. Hats off to Rocky & Bullwinkle. I knew this wonderful work must have had some imagery (that must have been apparent) but this was way more. Nice work.
if you plan on returning to Prokofiev, it'd be cool to dive into his film scores - like his best, ALEXANDER NEVSKY! (pretty sure Lloyd Webber got some of his notes from NEVSKY!)
Prokofiev also wrote Classical Symphony, Peter and the Wolf, The Prodigal Son, Cinderella, & film scores to Lieutenant Kije & Alexander Nevsky.
Lol all the ballet men have bulges and Tybalt reaches up and touches Romeo's, a great moment in ballet.
Can you do the classical music pieces for these stories?:
Sleeping Beauty
Cinderella
The Nutcracker Prince
Peter and the Wolf
Plz make more videos like that.
wow, I loved it! this video is really cool!
Thank you! What did you like most about it? (as opposed to other videos)
@@ClassicsExplained I loved the funny side of your narration, it makes the video more interesting, more understandable ;)
@@johannsebastianb4ss Thank you! That was the intention :)
I'd love to see an episode on Tosca or Carmen
Carmen!
I died laughing when I saw the Capulette’s mouths all on the floor with the speech bubble, “NO TIKTOK FOR YOU!!!!” 😂😂😂 This is my favorite channel!! ❤️
Its also my favorite channel😁
"Not the slipper!" Stop it! 🤣🤣🤣
Please, a vídeo explaining Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet
Hey there, I don't know if you will ever read this, bus the don quixote ballet would be nice to look at! Thanks for all the wonderful videos
This goes well with my name
superb channel! I hope someday you talk about Bartók... maybe The Miraculous Mandarin? cheers,
Thanks - and wonderful suggestion :)
1:00, downright cree-PAY!
Would love to see Vivaldi Glorias, Handels Messiah, or Miserere me Dius (psalm 51 - not sure who the composer was for that last one!). These are informative and a lot of fun! Keep up the great work!
Thanks so much - and for your suggestions
i was just watching my hero academia romeo and juliet version then this pop up on my notificarion thank you i lile to learb this for school
flies, as a rule, are not mistaken
Man, no wonder Romeo and Juliet was such a dark story.
Sergei and Stalin both died on March 5th, 1953.
Hey classics can you do Mozart's k310 in a minor please ?
I definitely feel Juliet about coming of age
I love how Prokrofiev called Stalin directly
and the last phone call should him arrested lol
could you make something about Chopin? maybe about his ballades
Thanks - love the ballades
5:02 that never sounded "amourous" to me, haha, I have to say...I didn't know the program until now, I mean...was perhaps my favorite Prokofiev suite, the Romeo and Juliet suite, but apart from the titles of some of the mouvements/numbers, etc, I had no idea what individual instruments, etc, represented...but that never sounded "amourous" to me...
Thanks for your comment! It's just our interpretation - don't take our word for it. There are many emotions and ideas you can ascribe to the different instruments :)
Ah, yes, true...it's subjective, I suppose...
It's worth noting that Prokofiev and Stalin died on the same day, March 5, 1953. Few people attended Prokofiev's funeral because Stalin's was a state occasion. Who's more warmly remembered now?
Great observation
Fun fact: Shostakovich was actually one of the people who attended Prokofiev's funeral!
Depends on who you ask.
I don't think people outside of the "west" don't even know who Prokofiev is
@@sidharthcs2110 People outside of Europe do listen to classical music, y'know. In America, the "Montagues and Capulets" number from "Romeo and Juliet" has been used and sampled in all kinds of media. Billy Joel even name-checked Prokofiev in his #1 hit song "We Didn't Start the Fire".
@@sophiatalksmusic3588 They weren't close friends, but they knew each other. Both had had their music temporarily banned by Stalin a few years before.
If I had a nickel for every ballet based off of Romeo and Juilliet by a Russian composer during the era of Stalin I’d have 2 nickels. It isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.
shostakovich symphony 11 pls
Mahler 2nd?
Would love too - just got quite a backlog of works at the moment to complete! But hang in there!
10:49 and The Netherlands is gone
cornet , good choice
The thing about socialist realism you have to remember, Stalin was a fucking BOOMER okay. A cranky old conservative man who dislike the gays and banned abortion, despite his radical origins. Pre-stalin USSR was teaming with all sorts of highly experimental and down right odd experiments in modern art of various types. People were excited for the dawn of a new era, the fact that regular people had some level of democratic rights for the first time in Russian history. And this was reflected in the media.
But things changed when Stalin took power. Look up socialist realist art. It looks like a bunch of Norman Rockwell paintings, and it had a lot of the same themes too. A celebration of respectable conformity, a nationalistic pride, the mood of "LOOK HOW GREAT EVERYTHING IS. EVERYTHING ONE IS HAPPYONE IS," and a good old touch of ol fashioned "fAmiLy VaLuEs."
Of course, you can't write all of this off as "Mustache Man Bad! >:-( " Because even the most unhinged dictator is only as powerful as the support he gets from other powerful people. This was a social phenomenon that swept the whole country for a variety of reasons. A lot of it had to do with the ever-present menace of Nazi Germany. With hittler going on and on about how he hated commies and jews and slavs and was totally going to invade kick all their asses one day. was compounded by the fact that revolutions in other parts of the world had been squashed by capitalist governments thus far, and the USSR didn't exactly have a lot of allies to back them up. They say about Stalin, "He was famous for his unhinged paranoia." LMAO, of course he was fucking paranoid. Everyone was. It's no wonder they were hunting for fascists and capitalists under every rock, building a massive surveillance state, and trying to stamp out any possible threat in the media and in art. Was there a better way they could have handled this? Absolutely. But we can't pretend this came out of no where for no reason.
Interesting comment thanks for this. It is often said that in the period just after the Revolution, Soviet Russia really was optimistic about this new utopian path that they were building. Some of the great constructivist and suprematist art around that time is pointing towards a brighter future. But the position was very diffferent with the nation in the midst of a civil war and the power vacuum after Lenin's death. Socialist realism is a very difficult movement to get one's head around. It ossified painting and sculpture for the following thirty years. There was indeed a culture of paranoia. Moreover, so many of the great experimentalists from the immediate post-Revolution period decided to emigrate to other art centres like Berlin, Paris and London come the 1930s
Do you think that in the future, there will be ballets based on Star Wars or the Marvel comics?
2:04 where's not the slipper from?
Fun fact: Prokofiev and Shakespeare were born on April 23, different times obviously.
9:05 You drew the contrabassoon upside down.
Funny
Cartoon mercucio (sp?) got CAKE
What about Strauss's alpine symphony?
Where did you get the "not the skipper" part?
truly the tragedy of romeo and juliet
And then Stalin died and Prokofiev was finally freed from his oppressor... Oops, no...Prokofiev dies on exactly the same day as Stalin.
It's interesting that the Soviet regime didn't allow for Prokofiev's happy ending when in productions if Swan Lake under Stalin had to change the ending to make it so that Odette and Seigfried *didn't* die at the end. This is actually the bad ending, because it's through the lovers' sacrifice that breaks the spell on everyone in the original; in the Soviet version, killing Rothbart just saves themselves and not the other bewitched swans
I thought the good ending for Romeo and Juliet would be nice if it weren’t for Stalin!
Another famous ballet from the Soviet Union is Khachaturian's Gayane with its Sabre Dance.
I was not aware how much of a struggle and political shitshow the creation of this Ballet was.
All I know is that it is the best Ballet since "Sleeping Beauty".
Fascinating, isn't it? Glad it enlightened!
@@ClassicsExplained Indeed. And not all the decisions of the cultural bureau were bad.
Forcing Prokoviev and the Choreographer back to the original ending was the best thing that could have happened.
Nothing defeats the purpose of this story more than having Rome and Juliet live at the end.
Oh happy dagger...
could you make a time stamp where all the song are in this video name?
For that we will probably need to publish the whole script with all the time codes. Let us see what we can do...
@@ClassicsExplained ok
this has a criminally low view count
I once played the play and i hated it
uh i thought its suppose to be prince escalus not the duke of verona
Glad you enjoyed :)
Yes, he is alternatively Escalus, Prince of Verona - same person
@@ClassicsExplained but why duke insted of prince escalus is there any reason lots people heard that name but its ok its only my opinion😊
Wagner, Wagner, we ask for another Wagner, please
Noted! :)
@@ClassicsExplained I forgot to thank you for your videos. I love all of them :)
Thank you so much for your kind words - we really appreciate all of them! Do spread the word (we still have a long way to go to bring music appreciation to the masses!) and, should you wish, please do support us on Patreon :)
Keep watching - next one out soon!
@@lucialeporati5887 Thank you!!! That's the greatest reward for us!
Für algorhtymen
2:38 ...nobody wants...! ;-)
Just be careful with those political words, I know some channels that have been severely punished for just mentioning or having on the screen the words Stalin, communism, socialist, halocaust, etc. Even small history channels must be careful, the algorithm gets to everyone.
Geez, it's almost like history is repeating itself....
@@theproplady XD
Thanks for this advice! tough times...
Hungarian Dance 5
Curious that Stalinist Communism was so insistent on retaining the purity of Shakespeare
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This would have been a great video without baseless cold war-esque propaganda.
You cant really ignore the soviets role in creating a hell for composers. It's no secret that they were a horrible country whilst they lasted
Why would you almost completely talk over the music? Like, that's the focus. You could have used subtitles.
To be clear, I'm glad you make these videos and I hope they bring new audiences to classical music, but the music itself can barely be heard which-partially at least-defeats the purpose.
Thanks for your comment. The aim is not, of course, for audiences to watch one of these purely for the music - we do encourage, at the end of each video, people to listen to the piece in full (and are happy to make suggestions as to what we regard are the best recordings).
Other than that, we do try our best to get the levels right between voiceover and snippets of music that we are talking about. The purpose is to give those who want to learn a bit more about classical music some of the tools for them to go off and listen to these pieces themselves.
@@ClassicsExplained personally i think the way you guys are doing it is excellent, assuming one of your goals is also keeping the videos shorter. Amazing job so far, regardless. This channel is TH-cam's best kept secret but i hope it stops being a secret soon!
This video is great!! But... borshch isn't Russian dish and has no common with Russian culture
Thank you :)
Originally Ukrainian, but undeniable link with Russia though, particularly in the way the popularity of borscht and shchi spread through the Soviet Union
That was your worst video so far. Political regime, red plague, to mention but a few... Obviously you aren’t in favour of communism but no need to tell us about it here when we talk about music. You really got to know history and understand inner politics to be able to see what was happening in this difficult time. Throwing cliches is easy.
Thank you! I suppose the fact that one of us is Russian and the other has studied Russian history and politics means we clearly don’t understand what we are talking about.
Prokofiev’s music cannot be separated from the politics of the era - music from that period and in that country were inextricably intertwined because of formalism, socialist realism etc.
We are not here to make any political statements whatsoever so I don’t know why we are personally dismissing communism. We are simply retelling the stories of great pieces of music which, where appropriate, engage with the socio-political background of the time of composition.
if you’d like more pointers, we could suggest some reading material for you.
So this is "it"
@@ClassicsExplained well, how lucky is that I’m Russian and know the history of my country too.
Obviously you are in favour of communism then? and you agree with the oppression , censorship by Stalin?
0:50 Kidnapping.
In Soviet Russia ballet performs you