# Symphony No. 5 (Prokofiev)

Sergei Prokofiev wrote his Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, Op. 100, in the Soviet Union in one month in the summer of 1944.

## Background

From 1925 onward, Prokofiev’s status as a composer grew, with his 1942 Piano Sonata No. 7 receiving the Stalin Prize (Second Class). Prior to composing his Fifth Symphony, Prokofiev relocated to Moscow as a result of his increasing reliance on financial support from the Soviet Union and their threat of revoking their contributions.
The creation of the Fifth Symphony can be traced to musical ideas explored during the composition of Prokofiev's earlier work, particularly the Symphony No. 4 in C major composed fourteen years prior. Prokofiev incorporated these musical motifs into a piano score over less than a month during his stay at The Composers' House in Ivanovo, under the background of the Soviet Union’s involvement in World War II.
He gave out in a statement at the time of the work's premiere that he intended it as "a hymn to free and happy Man, to his mighty powers, his pure and noble spirit." He added, "I cannot say that I deliberately chose this theme. It was born in me and clamoured for expression. The music matured within me. It filled my soul."

## Movements

The piece is in four movements, lasting 40–45 minutes:
* Andante (in B-flat major)
* Allegro marcato (in D minor)
* Adagio (in F major)
* Allegro giocoso (in B-flat major)

### Movement I

The first movement is in a tightly argued sonata form: its exposition presents two themes, one calm and sustained, the other soaring with tremolo accompaniment from strings, which are then involved in an elaborate and climactic development section. The movement is wrapped up with an electrifying coda punctuated by a roaring tam-tam and low piano tremolos.

#### 1st theme, mm. 1–7

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#### mm. 8–10

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#### mm. 29–30

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#### 2nd theme, mm. 54–64

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#### mm. 74–77

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#### Closing theme, mm. 83–86

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### Movement II

The second movement is an insistent scherzo in Prokofiev's typical toccata mode, framing a central theme in triple time.

#### mm. 3–10

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#### mm. 112–115

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#### mm. 120–127

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#### mm. 154–157

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### Movement III

The third movement is a dreamy slow movement, full of nostalgia, which nevertheless builds up to a tortured climax before receding to a quiet end.

#### mm. 4–8

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#### mm. 55–62

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#### mm. 82–84

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#### "tortured climax" mm. 125–131

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### Movement IV

The finale starts with a cello choir playing a slow introduction recalling the first theme of the first movement, which then launches into the movement proper, a rondo. The playful ("giocoso") main theme is contrasted with two calmer episodes, one introduced by the flute, the other a chorale in the strings. Just as the movement is striving to end with a victorious tone, the music degenerates into a frenzy (rehearsal mark 111), which is stripped down to a string quartet playing staccato "wrong notes" (rehearsal mark 113) with rude interjections from low trumpets, making the ultimate orchestral unison on B-flat sound all the more ironic.

#### mm. 3–6

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#### Theme from first movement, mm. 15–22

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#### mm. 29–36

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#### mm. 37–38

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#### mm. 54–55

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#### mm. 83–90

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#### mm. 164–172

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## Instrumentation

The work is scored for the following:
| Woodwind Piccolo 2 Flutes 2 Oboes Cor anglais E-flat clarinet 2 Clarinets Bass clarinet 2 Bassoons Contrabassoon | Brass 4 Horns 3 Trumpets 3 Trombones Tuba | Percussion Timpani Bass drum Snare drum Cymbals Triangle Tambourine Tam-tam Wood block | Keyboard Piano Strings Harp Violins (1st and 2nd) Violas Cellos Double basses |

## Premiere

The symphony was premiered on January 13, 1945, in the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory by the USSR State Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Prokofiev himself.
As he took the stage, artillery fired. He paused until it finished. This left a great impression upon the audience, who upon leaving the Great Hall learned the gunfire marked the Red Army's crossing of the Vistula into Germany. The premiere was very well-received, and the symphony has remained one of the composer's most popular works.
Then, in November of that year, Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra introduced the score to America and recorded it in Boston's Symphony Hall on February 6 and 7, 1946, for RCA Victor, using an optical sound film process introduced by RCA in 1941; it was initially issued on 78-rpm discs and later on LP and CD. The symphony's rapid insertion into the repertoire was referenced by Dennis Dobson in his review of the 1951 Edinburgh Festival for Music Survey, where he panned the work as "noisy, uncouth" and a "falling off in maturity" from works such as Chout and the Piano Concerto No. 3 and went on to say, "that this work is well thought of and much played in both America and the Soviet Union speaks sociological and cultural volumes".

## Notable recordings

| Orchestra | Conductor | Record company | Year of recording | Format |
| Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of New York | Artur Rodziński | Columbia Records | 1946 | LP/CD |
| Boston Symphony Orchestra | Sergei Koussevitzky | RCA, Dutton | 1946 | LP/CD |
| Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra | Erik Tuxen | Decca | 1952 | LP/CD |
| Philadelphia Orchestra | Eugene Ormandy | Columbia | 1958 | LP |
| Philharmonia Orchestra | Thomas Schippers | Angel, Medici Masters | 1957 | LP/CD |
| Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire | Jean Martinon | RCA | 1959 | LP |
| Cleveland Orchestra | George Szell | Sony | 1959 | LP/CD |
| Boston Symphony Orchestra | Erich Leinsdorf | RCA | 1963 | LP/CD |
| New York Philharmonic | Leonard Bernstein | Sony | 1966 | LP/CD |
| Berlin Philharmonic | Herbert von Karajan | Deutsche Grammophon | 1968 | LP/CD |
| Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra | Evgeny Mravinsky | Russian Disc, Leningrad Masters | 1968 | CD |
| Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra | Gennadi Rozhdestvensky | BBC | 1971 | CD |
| Concerts Colonne Orchestra | Jascha Horenstein | Vox | 1972 | CD/LP |
| Orchestre National de France | Jean Martinon | Vox | 1974 | LP/CD |
| Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra | Gennadi Rozhdestvensky | Melodiya | 1975 | LP |
| Philadelphia Orchestra | Eugene Ormandy | RCA | 1975 | CD (Japan only) |
| London Symphony Orchestra | Walter Weller | Decca | 1976 | CD |
| Czech Philharmonic Orchestra | Zdeněk Košler | Supraphon | 1979 | CD |
| Israel Philharmonic Orchestra | Leonard Bernstein | CBS Masterworks | 1980 | CD |
| Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra | Leonard Slatkin | RCA | 1984 | LP/CD |
| Concertgebouw Orchestra | Vladimir Ashkenazy | Decca | 1985 | CD |
| Scottish National Orchestra | Neeme Järvi | Chandos | 1985 | CD |
| Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra | André Previn | Philips | 1986 | CD |
| Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra | Mariss Jansons | Chandos | 1987 | CD |
| Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra | Dmitri Kitajenko | RCA | 1987 | CD |
| Orchestre National de France | Mstislav Rostropovich | Erato | 1988 | CD |
| Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra | Stephen Gunzenhauser | Naxos | 1989 | CD |
| Berlin Philharmonic | Seiji Ozawa | Deutsche Grammophon | 1990 | CD |
| Philadelphia Orchestra | Riccardo Muti | Philips | 1990 | CD |
| Atlanta Symphony Orchestra | Yoel Levi | Telarc | 1991 | CD |
| St. Petersburg Philharmonic | Yuri Temirkanov | RCA | 1991 | CD |
| London Symphony Orchestra | Michael Tilson Thomas | Sony Classical | 1991 | CD |
| Chicago Symphony Orchestra | James Levine | Deutsche Grammophon | 1992 | CD |
| City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra | Simon Rattle | EMI | 1992 | CD |
| National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine | Theodore Kuchar | Naxos | 1995 | CD |
| London Symphony Orchestra | Valery Gergiev | Philips | 2004 | CD |
| São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra | Marin Alsop | Naxos | 2011 | CD |
| Bergen Symphony Orchestra | Andrew Litton | BIS Records | 2014 | SACD |
| Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra | Kirill Karabits | Onyx Records | 2014 | SACD |
| Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin | Tugan Sokhiev | Sony Classics | 2014 | CD |
| Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra | Mariss Jansons | RCO Live | 2014 | SACD |
| Royal Scottish National Orchestra | Thomas Søndergård | Linn Records | 2019 | CD |
| London Symphony Orchestra | Gianandrea Noseda | LSO Live | 2022 | SACD |
| The Cleveland Orchestra | Franz Welser-Möst | The Cleveland Orchestra | 2023 | SACD |