Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 in B flat major, Op. 100 - CD

“Oramo invests the expansive opening andante [of the Fifth] and intense, emotional adagio with rare power and authority...[He] guides us through its devastated landscape with clarity and compassion.” The Observer, 16th September 2012

“Aided by a clean and unfussy recorded acoustic, Oramo and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra bring out the work's remarkable colours and character. In the second movement one senses the Symphony's deliberate hesitations, and those moments where certainties are undermined by a curdled harmony or a baleful brass fanfare.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2012 ***

“the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra and its conductor Marin Alsop held my attention as never before...The Fifth Symphony comes up trumps in a dramatic yet highly polished performance...I was particularly impressed by how Alsop brings out the first movement's characteristic power with a purposefulness that prevents it from seeming merely ponderous...Altogether, this first volume of Prokofiev is an outstanding achievement.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2012 *****

“I don't know if Alsop thinks this is great music, but she conducts as if it is...[Her] first movement has plenty of sweep...Of drama there is no shortage either...there's a sincerity here that keeps the music from seeming merely overbearing...this is one of the most gorgeously engineered orchestra CDs to come my way in some time...Even if you have several Prokofiev Fifths, you need to make room for this one.” International Record Review, June 2012

“The performance of the symphony is one of considerable power, more expansive than some but conceived with a judicious balance between emotional weight and structural cohesion...the São Paulo has a great deal to offer in terms of energy, atmosphere, humanity and also technical accomplishment in those passages (notably in the finale) where Prokofiev taxed an orchestra’s togetherness.” The Telegraph, 13th July 2012

“Alsop, the Sao Paolo Symphony’s new principal conductor, directs a perfectly serviceable account, advertising a disciplined but slightly colourless ensemble.” Financial Times, 27th July 2012 ***

“this is the best recording of [The Year 1941] that I have heard...Alsop’s performance should go some way towards bringing it to the public’s attention. She injects the first movement with sufficient drama and the second movement - my favorite of the three - is poignant and touching. The orchestra sounds world class both here and in the symphony.” MusicWeb International, August 2012

“Ha-Na Chang gives a mesmerising performance of the Symphony-Concerto. Robert Irving's 1957 account of the Cinderella Suite hardly betrays its age, and Rattle's 1992 recording of Symphony No. 5 remains highly competitive” BBC Music Magazine, April 2011 ****

“A Prokofiev Fifth as vibrant, intelligent and meticulously prepared as you'd expect from this partnership." And they found the Scythian Suite no less worthy of praise: “Rattle's coupling is a pretty stunning Scythian Suite, combining foundation-threatening pagan spectacle and heart-stopping beauty in ideal equilibrium” Gramophone Magazine

“Karajan's 1968 Prokofiev Fifth is a great performance.
Whenever one compares it with later versions inevitably the DG account holds its place at the top of the list. The analogue recording was uncommonly good for its time.
With the advantage of the Jesus-Christus Kirche acoustics, the sound is full and spacious, naturally defined and balanced; there's a slightly leonine quality to the strings and a natural bloom on woodwind and brass. Karajan lived with the work for a decade before he recorded it and this is immediately apparent in the way the first movement unfolds so inevitably.
The ironic opening of the Scherzo with its flawless BPO articulation brings a splendid but unexaggerated bite, and in the more lyrical central section every subtle detail of colour comes over. The passionate string threnody of the Adagio (what playing, what intensity!) is superbly underpinned by darker wind murmurings; the tangibly hushed close leads naturally to the mellower opening of the essentially upbeat finale with its throbbing horns and instant echoes of Romeo and Juliet.
Karajan's Rite of Spring came a decade later and is more controversial. Stravinsky had been sarcastically scathing about the conductor's earlier 1964 account, even describing one section as 'tempo di hoochie-koochie'. So, Karajan let the work rest, and when he re-recorded it in January 1977 it was done in one single uninterrupted take.
The result has less visceral excitement than some but it's still very rewarding, combining both the symphonic and balletic aspects of this extraordinary score, with the BPO providing much sheer beauty of sound, as in the ravishing melancholy of the opening of Part II and the haunting 'Evocation des ancêtres', although other versions find more pungent drama when the horns enter later.
The Philharmonie sound is excellent and both CD transfers are expertly managed to retain the full character of the originals.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010