Prokofiev declared that his Fifth Symphony would “sing of mankind free and happy”. Given it’s a Soviet work composed in 1944, most conductors search for trepidation or sarcasm beneath the surface, but Andrew Litton takes the sentiment to heart and gives us a straight-up, breezy Prokofiev Five. In many ways, it is typical Litton: wholesome and unguarded, often good fun and refreshing in repertoire that’s customarily loaded with innuendo. There’s great momentum and some nice colour from the Bergen orchestra, but whether the performance works for you will depend on just how pummelled you want to be by your wartime Prokofiev. For me, it doesn’t access dark enough places, and by consequence not enough truly exalting places, either. If the adagio’s climax isn’t laced with deep pain, how can the redemptive theme that follows feel properly saturated with relief? Bizarrely, there’s more bite in the Scythian Suite, a 1914 ballet score whose jovial kind of menace seems to suit Litton better than the Fifth’s ambiguous murk.
