Program
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 – 1908)
Scheherazade, a symphonic suite, Op. 35 (1888)
I. The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship
Largo e maestoso – Lento – Allegro non troppo – Tranquillo
II. The Story of the Kalendar Prince
Lento – Andantino – Allegro molto – Vivace scherzando – Moderato assai – Allegro molto ed animato
III. The Young Prince and the Young Princess
Andantino quasi allegretto – Pochissimo più mosso – Come prima – Pochissimo più animato
IV. Festival at Baghdad. The Sea. The Ship Breaks against a Cliff Surmounted by a Bronze Horseman. Conclusion.
Allegro molto – Lento – Vivo – Allegro non troppo e maestoso – Tempo come I
Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953)
Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major, Op. 100 (1944)
I. Andante
II. Allegro marcato
III. Adagio
IV. Allegro giocoso
Performers:
musicAeterna orchestra
conductor: Teodor Currentzis
Details
“According to his own words, Rimsky-Korsakov conceived the orchestral piece on the plot of some episodes from the Scheherazade in the winter of 1887–1888, and wrote and orchestrated it in just a month spent in the summer at the country house in Nezhgovitsy. The composer prefaced the handwritten score with an explanatory programme quoting the beginning of the famous fairy tales collection “The Arabian Nights”, and gave the titles to four parts of the suite: “The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship”, “The Story of the Kalendar Prince”, “The Young Prince and the Young Princess”, “Baghdad Holiday. The Sea. The Ship Breaks against a Cliff Surmounted by a Bronze Horseman. Conclusion”. In order to stop the search for references to specific fairy tales, the composer removed the titles and explanations in the printed editions of the score. However, even without the programme, “Scheherazade” remained in history as the most narrative and most picturesque orchestral work of the leading figure of the 19th century St. Petersburg school of composition.
Prokofiev composed the Symphony No. 5 in Ivanovo near Moscow after returning from evacuation in parallel with the orchestration of the ballet “Cinderella” and the work of an urgent commission – music for the movie “Ivan the Terrible”. There is no direct reaction to the events of the World War II in music, but there is an indirect response to the challenge of time. Prokofiev wrote about the Symphony No. 5: “I conceived it as a symphony of the magnitude of the human spirit.” The traditional four-part cycle opens with a heroic-epic first part, continues with a grotesque toccata and a gloomy lyrical-tragic Adagio, and ends with a monumental apotheosis affirming the joy of life.