Artist: The Cleveland Orchestra, Franz Welser-Möst
Album: Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5
Genre: Classical
Release Date: 2023
Audio Format:: FLAC (tracks) 24 bit, 96 kHz
Duration: 42:53
Total Tracks: 4
Total Size: 790 MB

Tracklist:

1. The Cleveland Orchestra – I. Andante (13:29)
2. The Cleveland Orchestra – II. Allegro marcato (08:31)
3. The Cleveland Orchestra – III. Adagio (11:57)
4. The Cleveland Orchestra – IV. Allegro giocoso (08:55)

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Written during the final months of World War II, Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 was described by the composer as “a symphony of the greatness of the human spirit, a song of praise of free and happy mankind.” While these words must be taken with a grain of salt — more likely to have been generated by an apparatchik than Prokofiev himself — melody, rhythmic invention, and unfettered delight abound within this beloved work.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