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PROKOFIEV: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 5

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Sergey Sergeyevich Prokofiev (1891 - 1953) Symphony No.1 in D major, Op. 25 "Classical" Symphony No.5 in B flat major, Op.100 Lieutenant Kije,...

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Sergey Sergeyevich Prokofiev (1891 - 1953)

Symphony No.1 in D major, Op. 25 "Classical"

Symphony No.5 in B flat major, Op.100

Lieutenant Kije, Suite, Op. 60

March from The Love for Three Oranges, Suite, Op. 33bis

Sergey Prokofiev belongs to the generation of Russian musicians who completed their studies before the Communist Revolution of 1917. His early education had been at home, where he had tuition from Gli�re, before entering the St.

Petersburg Conservatory on the advice of Glazunov at the age of thirteen. For whatever reason, whether of character, age or as the only child of his parents, he was to prove a recalcitrant student, finding little to his taste either in the composition class of Lyadov or in the orchestration class of Rimsky-Korsakov, but meeting encouragement, at least, from Nikolay Myaskovsky and Boris Asaf'yev, fellow students nearer his own age.

In 1909 Prokofiev graduated in the composition class but decided to continue at the Conservatory as a student of the piano, acquiring a new sense of technical discipline under some duress and completing these studies in 1914.

Military service was to be avoided by enrollment as an organ student. Throughout his time at the Conservatory he had written music that often impressed his contemporaries and shocked his elders, an effect that was doubtless achieved by design.

For some years after 1917 Prokofiev was to live abroad, winning increasing success as a composer and as a pianist. The Soviet authorities, who had given him leave to travel, encouraged him to maintain connection with Russia through return visits, rewarded in foreign currency, and finally welcomed his return to live permanently in his native country in 1936, in the words of Shostakovich "to fall like a chicken into the soup".

The year 1936 brought the first official attack in Russia on formalism and modernism in music, attacks to be renewed in 1948, when Prokofiev was condemned by name. The effect was socially and artistically traumatic, and unfortunately, since he died on the same day as Stalin in 1953, he was never to experience the partial relaxation that then took place.

In his Classical Symphony Prokofiev deliberately attempted a modern approximation of the style of Haydn, at the same time experimenting with composition away from the piano. The result was a work of idiosyncratic charm, clear in its formal neoclassical outline and demanding all the meticulous attention to detail that the eighteenth century was able to give. The first performance took place in St. Petersburg in the early months of 1918, when he was heard by the new People's Commissar for Education, a representative of the Bolsheviks, who had seized power the preceding November. It was in part the success of this work that enabled Prokofiev to carry out his intention of leaving Russia with official permission. The Classical Symphony re-interprets the eighteenth century with wit and elegance. The lyrical slow movement is followed by a wayward Gavotte, its principal melody with a strange twist in the tail, and a final movement of great brilliance.

The fifth of Prokofiev's seven symphonies, discounting two very early attempts at the genre, was written in 1944, culminating, as he suggested, a long period in his creative life. The Fourth Symphony, which uses material from the ballet The Prodigal Son, had been completed in 1930. The new work, which bears some resemblance in thematic material to the Flute Sonata of the previous year, is in four movements, grandiose and unified in conception.

Its first performance coincided with the advance of Russian troops over the Vistula into Germany and, the first symphony that Prokofiev had written since his return to Russia, expressed the feelings of the time. The work, in short, proved acceptable to its first audience, who greeted it with enthusiasm, and to the authorities.

The first movement couples considerable strength with unexpected twists of melody that are highly characteristic of the composer. The scherzo that follows has an equally characteristic melody over a constant accompanying pattern, with a touch of that other condemned formalist Khachaturian about its trio. The Adagio is a movement of sustained lyricism, with a fiercely dramatic middle section, and the final movement, with its initial reminiscence of the opening of the symphony, brings the work to an ebullient and triumphant close.

The well known music for Lieutenant Kije was written in 1933 for a film, the first of a number of highly successful film-scores that Prokofiev was to write during the next ten years. Directed by Alexander Feinzimmer and based on a story by Yuri Tynyanov, the film is a satire on official stupidity and subservience, set in the time of Tsar Paul, son of Catherine the Great. A clerical error adds a non-existent officer to a list presented to the Tsar, who then singles out this man, Lieutenant Kije for special notice. The officials are too afraid to reveal the true state of affairs, and the fictitious lieutenant goes on from honour to honour, interrupted only by temporary disgrace and exile to Siberia, subsequent pardon and promotion to the rank of general. He is finally buried in an empty coffin. Prokofiev arranged the Suite from Lieutenant Kije in 1934.

The opera The Love for Three Oranges, is based on a play by the 18th century Venetian writer Carlo Gozzi, originally designed as a riposte to his rival Goldoni. Prokofiev wrote his own libretto, based on a Russian version given him by its co-author Vsevolod Meyerhold in Petrograd, and completed the work in 1919. It was first staged, after some two years delay, at the Chicago Opera in 1921. The story is of an opera in which initial attempts to induce the melancholy Prince to laugh are thwarted by Fata Morgana. His first sign of mirth, when the wicked fairy stumbles, leads to her curse, condemning him to search for three oranges, guarded by a bass giantess. The oranges are found in a kitchen, taken to the desert and opened to reveal inside a beautiful maiden. The first two die of thirst, but the third is saved by timely intervention of the stage audience with a bucket of water. She becomes the Prince's bride, although momentarily turned into a rat, before the happy conclusion of the piece. The present excerpts include the well known March.

The Slovak Philhannonic Orchestra

The Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra has benefited considerably from the work of its distinguished conductors. These include Vaclav Talich (1949 -1952), Ludovit Rajter, Ladislav Slovak and Libor Pesek. Zdenek Kosler has also had a long and distinguished association with the orchestra and has conducted many of its most successful recordings, among them the complete symphonies of Dvořak.

During the years of its professional existence the Slovak Philhannonic has worked under the direction of many of themost distinguished conductors from abroad, from Eugene Goossens and Malcolm Sargentto Claudio Abbado, Antal Dorati and Riccardo Muti. The orchestra has undertaken many tours abroad, including visits to Gennany and Japan, and has made a large number of recordings for the Czech Opus label, for Supraphon, for Hungaroton and, in recent years, for the Marco Polo and Naxos labels. These recordings include works by Gli�re, Spohr, Respighi, Rubinstein, Bax, Suchonand Miaskovsky and have brought the orchestra a growing international reputation and praise from the critics of leading international publications.

Stephen Gunzenhauser

Stephen Gunzenhauser, a graduate of Oberlin College and the New England Conservatory, served Igor Markevich and Leopold Stokowski as assistant conductor before becoming executive and artistic director of the Wilmington Music School in 1974. In 1979, he became conductor and music director of the Delaware Symphony Orchestra. He records exclusively for Naxos and Marco Polo and his recordings include works of Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Dvořak, Vivaldi, Mozart, Gli�re, and Liadov. In 1989/90 he recorded all nine Dvořak symphonies with the Slovak Philharmonic, as well as the three Borodin symphonies with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Czecho-Slovak State Philhannonic Orchestra (Kosice)

The East Slovakian town of Kosice boasts a long and distinguished musical tradition, as part of a province that once provided Vienna with musicians. The State Philharmonic Orchestra is of relatively recent origin and was established in 1968 under the conductor Bystrik Rezucha. Subsequent principal conductors have included Stanislav Macura and Ladislav Slovak, the latter succeeded in 1985 by his pupil Richard Zimmer. The orchestra has toured widely in Eastern and Western Europe and plays an important part in the Kosice Musical Spring and the Kosice International Organ Festival.

For Marco Polo the orchestra has made the first compact disc recordings of rare works by Granville Bantock and Joachim Raff. Writing on the last of these, one critic praised the orchestra for its competence comparable to that of the major orchestras of Vienna and Prague. The orchestra has contributed many successful volumes to the complete compact disc Johann Strauss II and for Naxos has recorded a varied repertoire.

Andrew Mogrelia

Andrew Mogrelia is Conductor-in-Residence at the Birmingham Conservatoire and from 1992 to 1994 was Co-Music Director of the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam. He has worked extensively in the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe, in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands in particular. His recordings include a number of releases for Naxos, Donau, Lydian and Marco Polo and he has conducted recent concerts with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and with the Residentie Orchestra in The Hague, as well as with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia.

Disc 1

Symphony No. 1 in D major, Op. 25, "Classical"

(more info)

Performed by: Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra
Composed by: Sergey Prokofiev
Conducted by: Stephen Gunzenhauser
Recording date: 3-5 February 1989
Produced by: Appenheimer, Gunter

I. Allegro - 4:16
II. Larghetto - 4:03
III. Non troppon allegro - 1:27
IV. Molto vivace - 4:22

Symphony No. 5 in B flat major, Op. 100

(more info)

Performed by: Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra
Composed by: Sergey Prokofiev
Conducted by: Stephen Gunzenhauser
Recording date: 3-5 February 1989
Produced by: Appenheimer, Gunter

I. Andante - 14:08
II. Allegro marcato - 9:01
III. Adagio - 13:33
IV. Allegro giocoso - 10:41

Lieutenant Kije, Op. 60

(more info)

Performed by: Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra
Composed by: Sergey Prokofiev
Conducted by: Stephen Gunzenhauser
Recording date: 20-29 November 1989
Produced by: Hentsel, Rudolf

I. The Birth of Kije - 4:10
II. Romance - 4:49
III. Kije's Wedding - 2:57
IV. Troika - 3:05

The Love for Three Oranges Suite, Op. 33bis: No. 3: March

(more info)

Performed by: Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra
Composed by: Sergey Prokofiev
Conducted by: Andrew Mogrelia
Recording date: 3 - 5 February 1989
Produced by: Appenheimer, Gunter

The Love for Three Oranges Suite, Op. 33bis: No. 3: March - 1:31

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Flash 9 required. Click to download.

Composer(s):
Prokofiev, Sergey

Conductor(s):
Gunzenhauser, Stephen; Mogrelia, Andrew

Orchestra(s):
Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra; Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra

Label: Naxos Classics
UPC: 730099421829
Item Number: 8553218
Release Date: Feb 8, 1995