Octo_Russ

Prokofiev - Symphony 6 [Previn-Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra] 

The first Prokofiev Symphony of my Blog, and it's the Sixth, a strange Symphony, my favourite is the Fifth, and in many ways the Sixth is similar soundwise, however the Fifth is in the brighter key of B Flat Major, whereas this Symphony is in the darker and obscure key of E Flat Minor, it's darkness is compounded by ideas that are more vague, the Symphony doesn't seem to settle anywhere, plus it's in the unconventional three movement structure, but i've always had a soft spot for it.

Andre Previn is now 82, he was born in Germany, but became an American citizen, he made this recording in 1987, the front cover photo is by Suzie Maeder, a nice sharp photo of Previn, very well lit, showing nice contours and light and shade.

The first movement sounds like it's a huge theme and variations, but very loosely tied together, the Symphony starts off in the key of E Flat minor, but the last movement moves into E Flat Major, a sweeter resolution to the darker opening, and it's this third movement that i really liked, sounding very much like something that drifted from the Fifth Symphony, it starts off with gaily skipping violins, punctuated by piano and timpani stutters, and solo woodwind coming in with the secondary tune, there's a jaunty little duet between the cor anglais and the tuba [1:44-2:19], very atmospheric and effective indeed, the themes come round again and again, Prokofiev is a master of throwing in little nuggets of sound, usually by a couple of odd instruments playing novel ideas, a quick little delicious 'soundbite' and the Symphony moves on to something else, the brass blast out the main theme with some nice power [6:32-6:59], and soon afterwards the whole orchestra explodes into power, with a strong and glorious version of the main tune [7:12+], the movement almost comes to a standstill with a bassoon solo [8:50-9:20], going very deep into its bass, out of this false ending comes the plangent oboe tune from the first movement [9:22-10:33] now sounding forlorn, and turns into a flute solo towards the end, a double volcanic eruption of violence [10:59 & 11:13] of the whole orchestra with tamtam smashes, the very end has the brass braying and bleating [11:54-12:05], with the tamtam again signalling an abrupt end to the Symphony.

Here's Gustavo Ubeda conducting the last movement on YouTube.