Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 in B flat major, Op. 100 - download (MP3 & FLAC)

“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

“Jurowski keeps a clear head and focuses bright sonorities without ever letting the Russian players harden their tone. In the Symphony his intensive approach to detail is always evident, especially in the fierce or sarcastic accents which cut across even the work's more smoothly epic moments. I've never heard the three snapping trumpets in the Scherzo or the nagging repeated notes in the finale more incisively handled.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2008 *****

“His intensive approach to detail is always evident” BBC Music Magazine, June 2010

“….Jurowski offers something fresh, exposing layer upon layer of orchestral colour, unravelling this cryptic symphony easefully but purposefully…..The sound balances and stage depth effects here are very good, with woodblock and piano in sharp focus in the Symphony.” Hi-Fi News, October 2008

“Taken at a hard lick, as it too often is, Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony can be seen as a coarse wartime brute. Vladimir Jurowski, working with the superb Russian National Orchestra, knows better. He shapes with thoughtfulness and feeling; speeds are controlled….A magnificent recording; and the neglected Ode to the End of the War makes a tasty extra.” The Times, 11th December 2007 *****

“This performance of Prokofiev’s Fifth is the greatest I have heard, either live or on record…It is breathtakingly magnificent throughout…This is the finest performance of this symphony any of us is ever likely to hear.” (International Record Review)