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Prokofiev

Symphonies Nos. 1 & 5

THOMAS SØNDERGÅRD ROYAL SCOTTISH NATIONAL ORCHESTRA 1

Credits Tracklist Programme note Biographies

Prokofiev

Symphonies Nos. 1 & 5

THOMAS SØNDERGÅRD ROYAL SCOTTISH NATIONAL ORCHESTRA

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Recorded in Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, UK, on 24 & 25 June 2019

Assistant Engineer Robert Cammidge

Design stoempstudio.com

Recording Producer & Engineer Philip Hobbs

Post-production Julia Thomas

Cover Image Photograph of Thomas Søndergürd by Nikolaj Lund

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Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953)

THOMAS SØNDERGÅRD conductor ROYAL SCOTTISH NATIONAL ORCHESTRA

Symphony No. 1 in D major ‘Classical’, Op. 25 1

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Allegro 4:16

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Larghetto 4:11

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Gavotte: Non troppo allegro 1:29

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Finale: Molto vivace 4:05

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

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Andante 12:20

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Allegro marcato 8:53

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Adagio 11:21

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Allegro giocoso 9:39

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Sergei Prokofiev

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Symphonies Nos. 1 & 5

Sergei Prokofiev was just 26 when he conducted the premiere of his First Symphony, on 21 April 1918 in the hall of the former Court Chapel in Petrograd. But he was already something of an enfant terrible. His violent Scythian Suite and biting Sarcasms, not to mention his First and Second Piano Concertos, had all scandalized musical traditionalists. And indeed, he viewed the apparently traditioncherishing nature of his first attempt at symphonic form as just the latest of his provocations, writing rather gleefully in his diary: ‘When our Classically minded musicians and professors hear this symphony, they will be bound to scream in protest at this new example of Prokofiev’s insolence. Look how he will not let even Mozart lie quiet in his grave, but must come prodding at him with his grubby hands, contaminating the pure Classical pearls with horrible, Prokofiev-ish dissonances!’

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The idea for a symphony that dallied with the Classical styles of Mozart and especially Haydn had been born in the conducting classes that Prokofiev took with Nikolai Tcherepnin at the St Petersburg Conservatoire. Tcherepnin focused heavily on the Classical masters, and while Prokofiev initially rebelled, insisting he would rather tackle the hot-headed opulence of Scriabin, he quickly found revelations in the Classical composers’ clean lines and economical orchestration.

He headed to the countryside in the summer of 1917, with the aim of discovering ‘some green spot where I could both work and walk’, as well as setting himself the challenge of composing without a piano. By 10 September the First Symphony was complete, and Prokofiev himself supplied its Classical title – ‘first, because it was the simplest thing to call it; second, out of bravado, to stir up a hornet’s nest; and finally, in the hope that should the Symphony prove itself in time to be truly “classic”, it would benefit me considerably’, he explained in his 1946 book Autobiography.

Indeed, the work lives up to its Classical moniker in its use of conventional, four-movement form (with two fast outer movements, a slow movement, and a movement in the form of a dance – in this case a Gavotte rather than the conventional Minuet), as well as in its scoring for slimmed-down forces more usual for an eighteenth-century work.

The first movement deploys a miniature version of sonata form, opening with a conscious evocation of a well-known classical

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formula, the so-called ‘Mannheim Rocket’, an explosively ascending arpeggio made famous by the German city’s crack court ensemble (it returns to close the movement). The second movement is a study in elegance and wit, its main theme a stratospheric melody in the violins, with a more animated central section. The third movement, a miniscule but stomping Gavotte, is thought to have been sketched as far back as 1913, and proved so popular that Prokofiev later recycled it in an expanded version in his 1935 ballet Romeo and Juliet – indeed, some conductors import this longer version into the Symphony.

Prokofiev closes with what was his second attempt at a Finale.

The original, he wrote in his diary, ‘seemed to me too ponderous and not characterful enough for a Classical symphony. I composed a new Finale, lively and blithe enough for there to be a complete absence of minor triads in the whole movement, only major ones. I found the movement extraordinarily easy to write, and the only thing I was concerned with was that its gaiety might border on the indecently irresponsible. I was hugging myself with delight all the time I was composing it!’

The year 1917 was, of course, a momentous one for Russia, though Prokofiev at first seemed relatively untroubled by the violence and instability of the coming Revolution. Following the successful October uprising, however, the Classical Symphony’s planned premiere for 4 November 1917 was postponed until the following spring, by which time Prokofiev had made his decision to flee the country. He

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managed to convince the People’s Commissar for Education, Anatoly Lunacharsky, to grant him the necessary papers to leave, going on to invite Lunacharsky to the premiere of his new Symphony (he was enraptured). On 7 May 1918, however, Prokofiev boarded the Trans-Siberian Express to Vladivostok, from where he would travel to Japan, then on to San Francisco.

Prokofiev was to make a permanent return to the Soviet Union, however, in 1936, following lengthy sojourns in New York and Paris.

The Soviet authorities began a concerted campaign to lure him back in the 1920s, commissioning new works, arranging performances, and promising that he would be free to tour internationally should he return.

Following a last-minute threat that his funding from Soviet sources would be cut off if he hesitated longer, Prokofiev finally agreed.

And his Fifth Symphony, which he composed during the summer of 1944, was the first that he wrote following his return. Prokofiev had been invited by the Soviet Composers’ Union to a ‘House of Rest and Creativity’ (formerly a nobleman’s country estate) at Ivanovo, northeast of Moscow, where he could work in peace, and exchange ideas with fellow guests including composers Reinhold Glière, Dmitri Shostakovich, Dmitri Kabalevsky and Aram Khachaturian. These others seemed content to take advantage of the relative luxury that the accommodation offered, but Prokofiev maintained a rigorous work ethic, rising early and eating breakfast promptly, then composing until lunch, and insisting on daily discussions of the residents’ current 8

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projects. No wonder he managed to get so much done: as well as the Fifth Symphony (in piano score – he completed his orchestration that November), it was at Ivanovo that he composed his Piano Sonata No. 8 as well as his Twelve Russian Folksongs.

If it sounds like Prokofiev was wholeheartedly embracing the creative methods encouraged by the state (and Ivanovo’s residents were watched over by Kabalevsky, a member of the Committee of the Soviet Composers’ Union), the meaning he ascribed to his new Symphony may also seem aimed at pleasing the authorities. ‘In the Fifth Symphony, I wanted to sing the praises of the free and happy man – his strength, his generosity and the purity of his soul’, he wrote in a statement put out at the time of composition. ‘I cannot say I chose this theme. It was born in me and had to express itself.’

Ironically, the man Prokofiev was referring to could have been himself. Despite the Symphony’s genesis in a time of war, this was one of the happiest periods in Prokofiev’s life. He had a fulfilling relationship with his second wife, Mira; he was one of the most famous and respected of all Soviet composers; and the mood in the country was cautiously positive, since the USSR was gradually winning the fight against Hitler’s forces, despite immense wartime privations.

Indeed, the realities of battle were brought home at the Fifth Symphony’s premiere, given by the USSR State Symphony Orchestra conducted by Prokofiev, in the Great Hall of the Moscow 9

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Conservatoire on 13 January 1945. As the great pianist Sviatoslav Richter later remembered, ‘when Prokofiev had taken his place on the podium and silence reigned in the hall, artillery salvos suddenly thundered forth. He waited, and began only after the cannons had stopped.’ It was later announced that the artillery fire had indicated the Red Army crossing the River Vistula into German-controlled territory, part of the Soviet forces’ steady progress towards Berlin.

It is a moot point, in fact, to what extent Prokofiev’s Fifth is a ‘war symphony’. On many levels, it seems to embody Prokofiev’s philosophy on returning to the Soviet Union, which he outlined in Autobiography: ‘It is the duty of the composer, like the poet, the sculptor or the painter, to serve his fellow men, to beautify human life and point the way to a radiant future. Such is the immutable code of art as I see it.’ Certainly, there is plenty of positivity in the Symphony’s leaping, heroic melodies and its abundant creativity, but many commentators have pointed, too, to threats of darkness and violence that seem to lurk below the work’s surface. Nonetheless, Prokofiev’s Fifth epitomizes his knack of combining memorable, singing melodies with quirky, pungent harmonies, and jagged dissonances that resolve just as quickly as they have appeared.

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The main theme of his sonata-form first movement is a case in point. It is first heard striding upwards on flute and bassoon, before the second theme, sung high on flute and oboe, makes its appearance. A blaring brass choir announces the return of the opening theme following a lengthy development section, and a long, majestic coda builds to a glorious conclusion.

The satirical second movement is Prokofiev’s sardonic vision of a symphonic scherzo, based around a cheeky melody heard initially on clarinet against an incessant two-note figure in the strings. The brooding slow movement manages to remain elegant and lyrical, despite rising to an impassioned climax in its middle section, before a hushed, hesitant return of its opening melody, as if in shock.

It is the Symphony’s finale, however, that arguably raises most questions about Prokofiev’s intentions. Another perky clarinet theme returns again and again in a rondo structure, but as the movement’s furious, energetic coda builds to its blaze of orchestral colour, a strangely mechanistic element suddenly appears, ultimately taking over entirely.

It makes for a somewhat sinister end to all the movement’s apparent merriment.

Despite any dark undertones, however, the Fifth Symphony was rapturously received at its Moscow premiere, and went on to become one of Prokofiev’s most popular works in the Soviet Union, later winning him a Stalin Prize. But it was also to mark the 11

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highpoint in his relationship with the Soviet state. Three years later, the Politburo issued an official note accusing Prokofiev, Myaskovsky and Khachaturian of the dreaded ‘formalism’. Eight of Prokofiev’s works were formally banned. And to be on the safe side, many concert halls and opera houses stopped performing any of his music at all.

© David Kettle, 2020

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Thomas Søndergård

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conductor

Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård is Music Director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, following six seasons as Principal Guest Conductor. He served as Principal Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales from 2012 to 2018, and prior to this, as Principal Conductor and Musical Advisor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra for three seasons.

He has conducted many leading orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouworkest, London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Bamberger Symphoniker, Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony and Seattle Symphony.

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Søndergård’s opera projects include Turandot at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Die Zauberflöte at the Norwegian Opera House, Scartazzini’s Edward II at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Tosca and Dialogues des Carmélites at the Royal Swedish Opera and The Trial, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Le nozze di Figaro, La bohème, The Cunning Little Vixen and Il viaggio a Reims at the Royal Danish Opera.

© Sally Jubb

Commercial recordings with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales include Sibelius’ Symphonies Nos. 1, 2, 6 and 7, and an album of his tone poems and theatre music (all on Linn). His first release with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra features Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier Suite and Ein Heldenleben (also on Linn). Other noteworthy recordings include the Lutosławski and Dutilleux cello concertos with Johannes Moser and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin on Pentatone, Vilde Frang’s celebrated debut album for EMI, and Poul Ruders’ Piano Concerto No. 2 on Bridge Records, which was nominated for a Gramophone Award in 2011.

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Royal Scottish National Orchestra

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra is one of Europe’s leading symphony orchestras. Formed in 1891 as the Scottish Orchestra, the company became the Scottish National Orchestra in 1950, and was awarded Royal Patronage in 1977. Many renowned conductors have contributed to its success, including Sir John Barbirolli, Walter Susskind, Sir Alexander Gibson, Neeme Järvi, Walter Weller, Alexander Lazarev and Stéphane Denève.

The Orchestra’s artistic team is led by Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård, who was appointed RSNO Music Director in 2018, having previously held the position of Principal Guest Conductor. Hong Kongborn conductor Elim Chan succeeds Søndergård as Principal Guest Conductor. Junping Qian completes the artistic team in the role of Assistant Conductor.

The RSNO performs across Scotland and appears regularly at the Edinburgh International Festival, the BBC Proms at London’s Royal Albert Hall and the St Magnus Festival, Orkney. The Orchestra also regularly tours internationally, most recently to the United States of America, China, and across Europe.

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The RSNO has a worldwide reputation for the quality of its recordings, receiving two Diapason d’or de l’année awards (Denève/Roussel 2007; Denève/Debussy 2012) and eight Grammy Award nominations. Over 200 releases are available, including Thomas Søndergård conducting Strauss (Ein Heldenleben, Der Rosenkavalier Suite) on Linn, the complete symphonies of Sibelius (Gibson), Prokofiev (Järvi), Glazunov (Serebrier), Nielsen and Martinů (Thomson), Roussel (Denève) and the major orchestral works of Debussy (Denève).

The RSNO’s pioneering learning and engagement programme, Music for Life, aims to engage the people of Scotland with music across key stages of life. The team is committed to placing the Orchestra at the centre of Scottish communities via community workshops and annual residencies across the length and breadth of the country. www.rsno.org.uk

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first violin Maya Iwabuchi Leader Lena Zeliszewska Tamás Fejes Patrick Curlett Barbara Paterson Lorna Rough Elizabeth Bamping Susannah Lowdon Caroline Parry Alan Manson Ursula Heidecker Allen Jane Reid Fiona Stephen Kirstin Drew Gillian Risi Colin McKee ◯

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second violin Xander van Vliet Principal Jacqueline Speirs Marion Wilson Barbara Zdziarska Paul Medd Robin Wilson Nigel Mason

Michael Rigg Sophie Lang Christopher Ffoulkes Wanda Wojtasinska Anne Bünemann Helena Quispe Julie Reynolds ◯

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Arthur Boutillier William Paterson Rachael Lee Sarah Digger Miranda Phythian-Adams Susan Dance Feargus Egan Anne Brincourt ◯

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viola Tom Dunn Principal Hannah Shaw Asher Zaccardelli Susan Buchan Lisa Rourke David Martin Claire Dunn Katherine Wren Maria Trittinger Francesca Hunt Rik Evans David McCreadie

double bass Roberto Carrillo-Garcia Guest Principal

Michael Rae Paul Sutherland Sally Davis Tom Berry Paul Speirs Kirsty Matheson Christopher Sergeant ◯

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cello Betsy Taylor Associate

flute Katherine Bryan Principal Helen Brew Janet Richardson Principal

Principal

Piccolo

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Kennedy Leitch 17

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oboe Adrian Wilson Principal Peter Dykes Kirstie Logan Cor anglais

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trumpet Christopher Hart Principal Marcus Pope Jason Lewis Robert Baxter

harp Pippa Tunnell

trombone Dávur Juul Magnussen

Symphony No. 5 only

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clarinet Francesco Paolo Scola Guest Principal

Jordi Juan-Perez Robert Digney Duncan Swindells Principal ◯

Bass Clarinet

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horn Christopher Gough Principal Alison Murray Andrew McLean David McClenaghan Martin Murphy ◯

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piano Lynda Cochrane ◯

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Lance Green Alastair Sinclair Principal Bass ◯

Trombone

bassoon David Hubbard Principal Luis Eisen Paolo Dutto Principal Contrabassoon

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tuba John Whitener Principal

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timpani Tom Hunter Guest Principal percussion Simon Lowdon Principal John Poulter Stuart Semple Philip Hague Martin Willis

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Also available on Linn

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CKD 510 Thomas Søndergård, Royal Scottish National Orchestra Strauss: Ein Heldenleben, Der Rosenkavalier Suite

CKD 616 Rory Macdonald, Royal Scottish National Orchestra Thomas Wilson: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4

CKD 528 José Serebrier, Eliot Fisk, Royal Scottish National Orchestra Beaser: Guitar Concerto

CKD 545 José Serebrier, Royal Scottish National Orchestra José Serebrier Conducts Samuel Adler

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CKD 510

CKD 616

CKD 528

CKD 545

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