Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 & Ode to the End of the War Vladimir Jurowski & Russian National Orchestra

• Sergei Prokofiev (1891 - 1953): Symphony No. 5 in B-Flat Major, Op. 100:
• 1 Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 in B-Flat Major, Op. 100: I. Andante 13:28
• 2 Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 in B-Flat Major, Op. 100: II. Allegro marcato 08:37
• 3 Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 in B-Flat Major, Op. 100: III. Adagio 11:45
• 4 Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 in B-Flat Major, Op. 100: IV. Allegro giocoso 09:20
• Ode to the End of the War, Op. 105:
• 5 Prokofiev: Ode to the End of the War, Op. 105 14:17
• Total Runtime 57:27

Info for Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 & Ode to the End of the War

Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony is extraordinary music, but typical of the composer in its blend of lyric and rhythmic elements. Conductor Vladimir Jurowski grasps all facets of the Russian composer's music, and the fine Russian National Orchestra responds to his direction splendidly. The flittering rhythms of the second movement are mercurial in a Russian way, and the long lines of the main melody in the third are lyrical to a fault. The strings sound rich and play virtuosically; the brass can be mellow, yet snarl when asked to do so. It all adds up to a five-star recording of this work, and the recording helps. It's spacious yet detailed, with good stereo separation up front and just the right amount of rear ambience. One easily perceives the stage depth: the woodwinds are center and back a little, the brass and percussion behind them, yet all have equal presence. The Symphony 5 was recorded in concert, with patches inserted later to replace passages marred by applause. The recording of the Ode to the End of the War (referring to World War II) was made without audience, and does a great job of conveying Prokofiev's exotic scoring for wind band, eight double basses, eight harps, four pianos, and percussion. The percussion have a field day, the engineers accurately documenting every solid thud of bass drum, every shimmer of struck cymbal, every entrance of the deliberately intrusive snare. It is, in short an ideal recording that I don't think anything could improve.

"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)

"….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)

"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)

Russian National Orchestra
Vladimir Jurowski, conductor

Vladimir Jurowski was born in Moscow, but in 1990 moved with his family to Germany, where he completed his musical studies at the High Schools of Music in Dresden and in Berlin. In 1995 he made a highly successful debut at the Wexford Festival conducting Rimsky-Korsakov’s May Night, which launched his international career. Since then he has been a guest at some of the world’s leading opera houses such as the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opéra Bastille de Paris, Welsh National Opera, Dresden Semperoper, Komische Oper Berlin and Metropolitan Opera, New York.

In January 2001 Vladimir Jurowski took up the position as Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera and in May 2006 was also appointed Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He also holds the title “Principal Artist” of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and from 2005 to 2009 served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Russian National Orchestra.

Vladimir Jurowski is a regular guest with many of the world's leading orchestras including the Berlin and Oslo Philharmonic orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouw, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, and the Dresden Staatskapelle, and in the US with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra. Highlights of the 2010/11 season and beyond include his debuts with the Vienna Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony and Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and return visits to the Chicago Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Dresden Staatskapelle and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

His operatic appearances have included Jenufa, The Queen of Spades andHansel und Gretel at the Metropolitan Opera, Parsifal and Wozzeck at the Welsh National Opera, War and Peace at the Opera National de Paris, Eugene Onegin at La Scala Milan, andIolantaat the Dresden Semperoper, as well as Die Zauberflöte, La Cenerentola, Otello, Macbeth, Falstaff, Tristan und Isolde, Don Giovanni, The Rakes’ Progress and Peter Eötvös’Love and Other Demons at Glyndebourne Opera. Future engagements include new productions of Die Meistersinger and The Cunning Little Vixen at Glyndebourne, Die Frau ohne Schattenat the Metropolitan Opera and Ruslan and Ludmilaat the Bolshoi Theatre.


Russian National Orchestra
The Russian National Orchestra has been in demand throughout the music world ever since its 1990 Moscow premiere. Of the orchestra's 1996 debut at the BBC Proms in London, the Evening Standard wrote, "They played with such captivating beauty that the audience gave an involuntary sigh of pleasure." More recently, they were described as "a living symbol of the best in Russian art" (Miami Herald) and "as close to perfect as one could hope for" (Trinity Mirror).

The first Russian orchestra to perform at the Vatican and in Israel, the RNO maintains an active international tour schedule, appearing in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Guest artists performing with the RNO on tour include conductors Vladimir Jurowski, Nicola Luisotti, Antonio Pappano, Alan Gilbert, Carlo Ponti and Patrick Summers, and soloists Martha Argerich, Yefim Bronfman, Lang Lang, Pinchas Zukerman, Sir James Galway, Joshua Bell, Itzhak Perlman, Steven Isserlis, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Simone Kermes and Renée Fleming, among many others. Popular with radio audiences worldwide, RNO concerts are regularly aired by National Public Radio in the United States and by the European Broadcasting Union.

The RNO is unique among the principal Russian ensembles as a private institution funded with the support of individuals, corporations and foundations in Russia and throughout the world. In recognition of both its artistry and path-breaking structure, the Russian Federation recently awarded the RNO the first ever grant to a non-government orchestra.

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