Sergei Prokofiev wrote his Symphony No. 5 in B major, Op. 100, in the Soviet Union in the summer of 1944.
Background From 1925 onward, Prokofiev’s status as a composer grew, with his 1942 Piano Sonata No. 7 receiving the Stalin Prize (Second Class). Prior to composing his Fifth Symphony, Prokofiev relocated to Moscow as a result of his increasing reliance on financial support from the Soviet Union and their threat of revoking their contributions.
The creation of the Fifth Symphony can be traced to musical ideas explored during the composition of Prokofiev's earlier work, particularly the Symphony No. 4 in C major composed fourteen years prior. Prokofiev incorporated these musical motifs into a piano score over less than a month during his stay at The Composers' House in Ivanovo, under the background of the Soviet Union’s involvement in World War II.
He gave out in a statement at the time of the work's premiere that he intended it as "a hymn to free and happy Man, to his mighty powers, his pure and noble spirit."Schwarz, Music and Musical Life in Soviet Russia, p.196, cited in Preston Stedman, The Symphony, p.290 He added, "I cannot say that I deliberately chose this theme. It was born in me and clamoured for expression. The music matured within me. It filled my soul."
Movements
The piece is in four movements, lasting 40–45 minutes:
I. Andante The first movement is in a tightly argued sonata form: its exposition presents two themes, one calm and sustained, the other soaring with tremolo accompaniment from strings, which are then involved in an elaborate and climactic development section. The movement is wrapped up with an electrifying coda punctuated by a roaring tam-tam and low piano tremolos. 1st theme, mm. 1–7
mm. 8–10
mm. 29–30
2nd theme, mm. 54–64
mm. 74–77
Closing theme, mm. 83–86
II. Allegro marcato The second movement is an insistent scherzo in Prokofiev's typical toccata mode, framing a central theme in triple time. mm. 3–10
mm. 56–58
mm. 112–115
mm. 120–127
mm. 154–157
III. Adagio The third movement is a dreamy slow movement, full of nostalgia, which nevertheless builds up to a tortured climax before receding to a quiet end. mm. 4–8
mm. 55–62
mm. 82–84
"tortured climax" mm. 125–131
IV. Allegro giocoso The finale starts with a brief introduction consisting of a fragmented melody in the woodwinds, followed by a cello choir recalling the first theme of the first movement. This is interrupted by the violas, launching into the movement proper, a rondo. The playful ("giocoso") main theme is contrasted with two calmer episodes, one introduced by the flute, the other a chorale in the strings. Just as the movement is striving to end with a victorious tone, the music degenerates into a frenzy (rehearsal mark 111), which is stripped down to solo strings playing staccato "wrong notes" (rehearsal mark 113) with rude interjections from low trumpets, making the ultimate orchestral unison on B sound all the more ironic. mm. 3–6
Theme from first movement, mm. 15–22
mm. 29–36
mm. 37–38
mm. 54–55
mm. 83–90
mm. 164–172
Instrumentation The work is scored for the following:
Woodwinds Piccolo 2 Flutes 2 Oboes Cor anglais E clarinet 2 Clarinets Bass clarinet 2 Bassoons Contrabassoon Brass 4 Horns 3 Trumpets 3 Trombones Tuba
Percussion Timpani Bass drum Snare drum Cymbals Triangle Tambourine Tam-tam Wood block
Keyboards Piano
Strings Harp
Violins (1st and 2nd) Violas Cellos Double basses
Premiere The symphony was premiered on January 13, 1945, in the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory by the USSR State Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Prokofiev himself.
As he took the stage, artillery fired. He paused until it finished. This left a great impression upon the audience, who upon leaving the Great Hall learned the gunfire marked the Red Army's crossing of the Vistula into Germany. The premiere was very well received, and the symphony has remained one of the composer's most popular works.
Then, in November of that year, Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra introduced the score to America and recorded it in Boston's Symphony Hall on February 6 and 7, 1946, for RCA Victor, using an optical sound film process introduced by RCA in 1941; it was initially issued on 78-rpm discs and later on LP and CD. The symphony's rapid insertion into the repertoire was alluded to by Dennis Dobson in his review of the 1951 Edinburgh Festival for Music Survey, where he panned the work as "noisy, uncouth" and a "falling off in maturity" from works such as Chout and the Piano Concerto No. 3 and went on to say, "that this work is well thought of and much played in both America and the Soviet Union speaks sociological and cultural volumes".Edinburgh Festival, 1951, Dennis Dobson. Music Survey, vol. IV, no. 2, February 1952, p. 425.
Notable recordings
OrchestraConductorRecord companyYear of recordingFormatPhilharmonic Symphony Orchestra of New YorkArtur RodzińskiColumbia Records1946LP/CDBoston Symphony OrchestraSergei KoussevitzkyRCA, Dutton1946LP/CDPhiladelphia OrchestraEugene OrmandyColumbia1958LPUSSR Radio Symphony OrchestraLeopold StokowskiPristine Audio1958CDCleveland OrchestraGeorge SzellSony1959CDBoston Symphony OrchestraErich LeinsdorfTestament1963CDLeningrad Philharmonic OrchestraEvgeny MravinskyRussian Disc, Leningrad Masters1968CDLeningrad Philharmonic OrchestraGennadi RozhdestvenskyBBC1971CDBerlin PhilharmonicHerbert von KarajanDG1977CDBavarian Radio Symphony OrchestraKlaus TennstedtProfil1977CDOrchestre National de FranceMstislav RostropovichErato1988CDBerlin PhilharmonicSeiji OzawaPresto CD1990CDNational Symphony Orchestra of UkraineTheodore KucharNaxos1995CDRussian National OrchestraVladimir JurowskiPentaTone2007SACDCincinnati Symphony OrchestraPaavo JärviChandos2008CDSão Paulo State Symphony OrchestraMarin AlsopNaxos2012CDFinnish Radio Symphony OrchestraSakari OramoOndine2012CDMariinsky OrchestraValery GergievMariinsky2012SACDBergen Philharmonic OrchestraAndrew LittonBIS2015CDDeutsches Symphonie-Orchester BerlinTugan SokhievSony2016CDRoyal Concertgebouw OrchestraMariss JansonsRCO2016SACDNetherlands Radio PhilharmonicJames GaffiganChallenge2017SACDOslo PhilharmonicVasily PetrenkoLAWO2018CDCleveland OrchestraFranz Welser-MöstCleveland Orchestra2021download
References
External links