Prokofiev’s earthy Scythian Suite has its origins in Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. In 1915, the young composer was commissioned to write for the Ballet Russes in Paris, the company that had created such a sensation with Stravinsky’s revolutionary work. Alas, the resulting ballet was thought too similar to be staged. Instead, Prokofiev fashioned his score into a four-movement concert suite, captured here in all its excitable glory, Tugan Sokhiev urging his Berlin players into something of a frenzy. It’s worth hearing for the mighty closing crescendo alone. The Fifth Symphony dates from 1944 and, like Shostakovich’s Seventh, appears on the surface to embody the defiance of wartime Russia, but as this performance amply suggests, it is no mere piece of propaganda but a blazing hymn to the enduring spirit of all humanity.
