Anyone who’s a music lover should check out the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major.

It’s an outstanding composition whose first movement gets feverish as well as lightheartedly lovely, whose second movement is strikingly jaunty, and whose third movement is poignant and highly melodic.  It may be the best thing Prokofiev ever wrote.

For pared-down strings, I recommend Leos Janacek’s String Quartet No. 1 (inspired by the Tolstoy story, “The Kreutzer Sonata”)–just as rich and accessible as the Prokofiev piece.

English: Sergei Prokofiev playing his 3d Piano...

English: Sergei Prokofiev playing his 3d Piano Concerto with the Orchestre Symphonique de Brussel under Désiré Defauw pencil on paper 22.8 x 16.9 cm signed l.l.: HW signed by performer l.r.: Serge Prokofieff February 1936 Palais de Beaux-Arts, Brussel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)