Commitment Factor: About 30 minutes.

Vital Statistics: Modern Period. One of Prokofiev’s most popular and listenable works.

What to Listen For: The first movement has a sonata-allegro feel to it, but without elaborate thematic development. Listen for the amazing toccata-like piano passage that introduces the recapitulation: it will reappear at the very end of the movement as the coda. The middle movement, a series of often frenetic variations on a graceful theme, seems to conclude on a dark note, but the darkness is all melodrama — Dracula rather than King Lear. The third movement is a lopsided rondo in which the main theme accelerates with each appearance until it almost spins out of control. Listen for those frothy piano glissandi toward the end. In between statements of the main theme, you’ll hear one of Prokofiev’s loveliest melodies.