Prokofiev: Complete Symphonies

The relative paucity of recordings of Prokofiev’s symphonies is, I suppose, a fair reflection of the degree to which they have been overshadowed by Shostakovich’s cycle in recent years. In the last five years alone, record companies have completed or embarked upon at least five Shostakovich cycles; Valery Gergiev’s new Prokofiev survey is the first such series since Theodore Kuchar’s 1990s Naxos cycle.

The recordings were taped live during what must have been an exhausting series of concerts in May of last year (the whole cycle was done in a week). The unappealing acoustic of the Barbican is really too cramped for several of these works, the heaviest passages of the Fourth and Sixth Symphonies definitely need more space around them than they get here, but the sound is perfectly liveable-with, and the phenomenal accuracy and commitment of the LSO’s playing deserves to be preserved on disc.

Gergiev plainly adores these works, and performs them often. In a recent interview, he pinpointed what is so unique about them: “These symphonies are immensely theatrical, and it’s this combination of symphony and theatre that makes this repertoire so special for me; I have always felt that Prokofiev was very close to this fantastic Russian tradition of Liadov, Rimsky-Korsakov, and even Glinka, in being able to bring you to some kind of fairytale world where your mouth drops open in awe and you feel like a small child again”. It’s partly Gergiev’s concern for the fantastical element in these works that makes them so compelling. In his hands, the music hardly ever sounds overscored, and he pays especial attention to the often delicate instrumentation, he ensures that the harp writing is always audible, for instance.

Even the massively-scored Second Symphony, usually treated by conductors as an exercise in headbanging, has never sounded so alluring on record, indeed, I’ve never heard a better performance of it anywhere. The Sixth is another tremendous performance, although Neeme Järvi’s SNO recording isn’t outclassed (and the City Halls, Glasgow is a far better recording venue than the Barbican). Like Järvi, he includes both versions of the Fourth Symphony (I much prefer its original, cheeky-chappie incarnation to its bloated revision), and, unlike most conductors, he prefers the quiet, equivocal ending of the Seventh Symphony (once again, so does Järvi, although he also includes the conventional jolly ending as a comparison).

In general, Järvi’s cycle remains competitive, his set includes one of the best accounts of the Classical Symphony in the business, but the extra frisson of one-off, live performances probably makes Gergiev the best bet for newcomers to this repertoire.