Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5

Album review

Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5 in B flat major, Op. 100, has been a hit since day one. In the Soviet Union, it was premiered in January of 1945, when it was clear the war was won, and its relatively conservative tonal palette drew the approval of Stalin's cultural enforcers. However, it was popular in the U.S. as well; the Cleveland Orchestra first performed it in 1947 under George Szell, and it has frequently been back since. That experience, and conductor Franz Welser-Möst's 21 years with the orchestra, show clearly in this 2023 release, very nicely recorded at Severance Hall in Cleveland. The performance dates to the orchestra's reopening in late 2021 after its pandemic closure, and there is arguably a special intensity here. The real highlight is the orchestral work; this is a performance that brings multiple details on each new hearing in a work that, in Welser-Möst's hands, emerges as quite complex despite its friendly exterior. Indeed, the rather acerbic second-movement Scherzo and the finale, humanistic rather than triumphal, hint at undercurrents that don't quite fit the traditional narrative. This is pure Welser-Möst, never revolutionary but rich and well crafted in the extreme.
© James Manheim /TiVo