Prokofiev worked on both his Fifth and Sixth Symphonies in 1944. The energetic Fifth was a great success. The emotionally complex Sixth cost the public more trouble. Prokofiev said the following about it: 'We may celebrate victory, but each of us also has wounds that will not heal. One has lost loved ones, another his health. This we must not forget. This message did not go down well with the Soviet
… government, which had, after all, defeated the enemy right up to Berlin. In 1948, Prokofiev's symphony was one of the many artistic expressions officially condemned for 'formalism'. Prokofiev, however, could speak from his own experience. Not long after the premiere of the Fifth he fainted and fell down a flight of stairs. He would never recover from that fall, which is why the conductor Mravinsky conducted the premiere in 1947. This release is the second and last by Vasily Petrenko and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra combining Prokofiev and Mjaskovsky. Both composers were friends, both suffered under government censorship. (HJ)more
