Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 & Myaskovsky Symphony No. 21

LAWO / 2020

Prokofiev described his Fifth Symphony, his first composition in this genre for sixteen years, as “…the culmination of an entire period in my work. I conceived it as a symphony on the grandeur of the human spirit.” He regarded this symphony, composed in the summer of 1944, as his finest work.

Nikolai Myaskovsky (1881–1950) was certainly one of the most prolific symphonic composers of the twentieth century. He was born in Novo-Georgievsk, which was then part of the Polish territories of the Tsarist empire.

He took private tuition with Gliere in Moscow, then, having decided to devote himself to composition, studied with Rimsky-Korsakov and Lyadov at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, while establishing what would prove to be a life-long friendship with Prokofiev.  His earliest composition was a group of piano preludes (1896-8) but it was not until 1908 that he wrote the first of his twenty-seven symphonies.

Myaskovsky’s Symphony No. 21, sub-titled Symphony-Fantasy in F sharp minor, dates from 1940, composed in response to a commission from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary.

SERGEI PROKOFIEV (1891–1953): Symphony No. 5, Op. 100
Andante
Allegro marcato
Adagio
Allegro giocoso
NIKOLAI MYASKOVSKY (1881–1950): Symphony No. 21, Op. 51 – Symphony-Fantasy in F sharp minor

Andante sostenuto – Allegro non troppo, ma con impeto – Tempo I

“There can be no doubt what really matters here – a powerful and revelatory take on a masterpiece, Prokofiev’s Fifth. Its schizoid nature – epic and parody in alarming alternation – is highlighted by first and third movements stretched almost to breaking point, but with dynamic and textural detail keeping expressiveness and pathos afloat, the sonic extremes superbly handled in another engineering triumph by Lawo. The grotesquerie and the menace have never been better done..” – BBC Music Magazine *****