Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5

Vladimir Jurowski is one of today’s most exciting young conductors. He gained extensive opera experience in the early stages of his career and has conducted many of the world’s top orchestras. In September this year he became principal conductor of the LPO, and he has worked frequently with the Russian National Orchestra with whom he recorded this Prokofiev disc.

Pentatone’s recording sounds superb, which is an immediate plus point when comparing this performance with that of Gergiev and the LSO in their Gramophone award-winning survey of the complete Prokofiev symphonies. Decca’s engineers coped impressively with the difficulties presented by the Barbican, but compared to this new recording (made in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory) the Decca sound is too close-miked and slightly oppressive. The sound of the orchestras is also markedly different, the LSO’s blended tones contrasting with the edgy strings, burnished brass and characterful wind sound of the Russians.

Gergiev’s and Jurowski’s readings of the work are remarkably similar; Gergiev has perhaps the more cohesive view of the work, whereas Jurowski occasionally lingers, but this new recording is certainly full of drama. The symphony is written very much in the language of Romeo and Juliet (indeed, the opening of the Scherzo uses material left over from that work). The tension builds and subsides in the first movement, with deceptively innocent opening melodies changing radically into menacing militaristic themes and the percussion threatening to overwhelm at the end of the movement. Jurowski’s handling of the Scherzo sounds just a little more contrived than that of Gergiev, but the Adagio is full-blooded and dramatic. The final movement, built around a jolly Soviet galop, gives Jurowski ample scope to display the range of orchestral colour at his disposal.

The other work featured, Ode to the End of the War, is something of a rarity, hardly surprising, considering it is scored for the unlikely combination of 8 harps, 4 pianos, wind orchestra, percussion and 8 double basses. It’s a dark-hued work, with a heavy, oppressive first section giving way to much more lyrical music before harsher, more powerful themes take over and ultimately triumph. It’s certainly not empty bombast, and it’s good that we’ve been given the chance to hear it, again in splendid sound.