Friday October 9, 2009

Longmont Symphony Orchestra
Robert Olson, conductor
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 in B flat major, Op.100 (4/19/03)
Also, Charley anticipates the Colorado Chamber Players concert this Sunday.
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: "Allegro, vivo e schietto" (1st movement) from Guitar Quintet, Op.143
Colorado Chamber Players (Masakazu Ito, guitar; Jerilyn Jorgensen, Paul Primus, violins; Barbara Hamilton-Primus, viola; Katharine Knight, cello)
KVOD Performance Studio 9/30/09 MS

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953): Symphony No. 5 in B flat major, Opus 100
I. Andante
II. Allegro marcato
III. Adagio
IV. Allegro giocoso

``I regard the Fifth Symphony as the culmination of a long period of my creative life,'' wrote Prokofiev. ``It was intended as a hymn to free and happy Man, to his mighty powers, his pure and noble spirit. I cannot say that I deliberately chose this theme. It was born in me and clamored for expression. The music matured within me. It filled my soul.''
The Fifth Symphony was written in the space of a single month during the summer of 1944 at the Composers' House near Ivanovo, whence the authorities had spirited Prokofiev and other composers during the war.
Prokofiev played through the new work on August 26. ``For some reason the composer was extremely nervous,'' recalled Dmitri Kabalevsky. ``He talked a great deal about irrelevant matters and seemed anxious to put off as long as possible the moment when he would have to sit down and play for us. When he did play, however, he played marvelously well, contriving to suggest the full spectrum of the orchestra on the piano. The symphony made a profound impression on all of us and we congratulated him. He was very pleased, for he always considered the Fifth Symphony one of his best compositions.''
The Fifth was first played at the Moscow Conservatory's Grand Hall on January 13, 1945. Before Prokofiev conducted the work, an announcer came on stage and declared: ``In the name of the Fatherland there will be a salute to the gallant warriors of the First Ukrainian front, who have broken the defenses of the Germans! Twenty volleys of artillery from 224 guns!'' At that very moment, the Soviet Army was crossing the Vistula River into Poland.
After the noise of the guns came the Fifth Symphony, whose effect was electric. According to Prokofiev's biographer, Israel Nestyev, ``Prokofiev's compelling music perfectly suited the mood of the audience. The critics commented on this in their glowing reviews of the new composition. Kabalevsky, extolling the Symphony as the embodiment of man's courage, energy and spiritual grandeur, also made a special note of its profoundly national character.''
Another biographer, Harlow Robinson, writes: ``What is most striking about the Fifth Symphony...is its epic scale and character....The long first movement begins with a heroic but supple theme, free of chromatic alteration and ironic leaps....Few themes in Prokofiev's oeuvre can match it for power and expansiveness. The second theme, announced by oboes and flutes, is more chromatic, but in the optimistic `classical' idiom....The slow third movement reveals Prokofiev's debt to Shostakovich, particularly to his Fifth Symphony....Like Shostakovich, Prokofiev balances the gloomy power of the third movement with the high spirits of the two movements which precede and follow it. The second movement contrasts a gently tongue-in-cheek martial theme with a free-falling one hinting at modality, while the concluding movement is playful and jaunty, with the quirky off-beat rhythms and sour dissonances that are the composer's trademarks....In the Fifth Symphony, Prokofiev finally succeeded...in finding a language sufficiently accessible and optimistic, one appropriate to `Soviet reality,' and yet highly individual.''
The Fifth Symphony is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 3 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 2 trombones, bass trombone, tuba, harp, piano, timpani, cymbals, triangle, tam-tam, bass drum, military drum, and strings.