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Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6 & Waltz Suite / Alsop, Sao Paulo Symphony
Naxos

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6 & Waltz Suite / Alsop, Sao Paulo Symphony

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Details

Composer
PROKOFIEV, SERGEI
Artist
Alsop
Format
CD
Label
Naxos
Released
Aug 12, 2016
Catalog #
8573518
UPC
747313351879

About

This fifth volume of the Prokofiev’s complete symphonies joins a series of acclaimed recordings from the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra with its principal conductor and music director Marin Alsop. Critics have warmly welcomed each release of this edition, from volume 1 with the Fifth Symphony from 2010, which “comes up trumps in a dramatic yet highly polished performance… an outstanding achievement” (BBC Music Magazine), to the “unfailingly good string playing, often more sensitively nuanced than that of her rivals…” (Gramophone) of volume 4’s Third Symphony.

REVIEWS:

Marin Alsop turns up with an excellent reading of the Sixth almost in spite of herself. Something in the work speaks, if not to her, then to the orchestra, which plays with fervor and intensity fully befitting the music and with considerable sensitivity to the many shades of darkness that Prokofiev here puts on display. Alsop seems more to be carried along with the music than to shape it—her overly fast finale, indeed, almost derails the movement’s effectiveness. But the performance as a whole turns out to be very successful indeed, with the gradations of Prokofiev’s anti-triumphalist writing coming through clearly and the sectional stability of the orchestra allowing the symphony’s many themes and unusual balances to emerge to fine effect. The reality must be that Alsop is responsible for shaping this very fine performance, but it almost feels as if the orchestra is playing without a conductor, with suppleness and sectional sensitivity that bring forth, all in all, a very impressive reading.

Alsop seems a stronger presence in the six-movement and altogether lighter Waltz Suite, in which Prokofiev recycled three pieces from Cinderella, two from War and Peace and one from an abandoned film project, Lermontov, into a half-hour suite that explores three-quarter time from a wide variety of angles and with numerous emotional high and low points. Again the orchestra delivers first-rate playing, and the result is a highly interesting juxtaposition of a 1945–47 symphony that is very serious indeed with a 1946–47 suite that remains determinedly on the frothy side.

– Infodad.com



Marin Alsop and the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra continue their Prokofiev series for Naxos with his sixth symphony, written as an elegy for the victims of the second world war but condemned as anti-Soviet and banned in 1948, a year after its completion. Alsop and her players handle the great climactic moments with elan but the central threnody lacks the compassion of, for example, Sakari Oramo’s recording with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. The vibrant Waltz Suite, however, really swings, with some stylish solo playing in all sections of the orchestra.

– Guardian

Tracklist 9 tracks

  1. 1 I. Allegro moderato 13:23
    Track
    1
    Title
    I. Allegro moderato
    Duration
    13:23
    Composer
    Sergei Prokofiev
    Ensemble
    Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo
    Conductor
    Marin Alsop
  2. 2 II. Largo 14:14
    Track
    2
    Title
    II. Largo
    Duration
    14:14
    Composer
    Sergei Prokofiev
    Ensemble
    Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo
    Conductor
    Marin Alsop
  3. 3 III. Vivace 11:20
    Track
    3
    Title
    III. Vivace
    Duration
    11:20
    Composer
    Sergei Prokofiev
    Ensemble
    Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo
    Conductor
    Marin Alsop
  4. 4 I. Since We Met (from War and Peace) 06:18
    Track
    4
    Title
    I. Since We Met (from War and Peace)
    Duration
    06:18
    Composer
    Sergei Prokofiev
    Ensemble
    Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo
    Conductor
    Marin Alsop
  5. 5 II. Cinderella in the Palace (from Cinderella) 05:39
    Track
    5
    Title
    II. Cinderella in the Palace (from Cinderella)
    Duration
    05:39
    Composer
    Sergei Prokofiev
    Ensemble
    Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo
    Conductor
    Marin Alsop
  6. 6 III. Mephisto Waltz (from Lermontov) 03:27
    Track
    6
    Title
    III. Mephisto Waltz (from Lermontov)
    Duration
    03:27
    Composer
    Sergei Prokofiev
    Ensemble
    Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo
    Conductor
    Marin Alsop
  7. 7 IV. End of the Fairy-Tale (from Cinderella) 04:58
    Track
    7
    Title
    IV. End of the Fairy-Tale (from Cinderella)
    Duration
    04:58
    Composer
    Sergei Prokofiev
    Ensemble
    Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo
    Conductor
    Marin Alsop
  8. 8 V. Waltz for the New Year's Ball (from War and Peace) 05:40
    Track
    8
    Title
    V. Waltz for the New Year's Ball (from War and Peace)
    Duration
    05:40
    Composer
    Sergei Prokofiev
    Ensemble
    Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo
    Conductor
    Marin Alsop
  9. 9 VI. Happiness (from Cinderella) 03:22
    Track
    9
    Title
    VI. Happiness (from Cinderella)
    Duration
    03:22
    Composer
    Sergei Prokofiev
    Ensemble
    Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo
    Conductor
    Marin Alsop