Prokofiev
Symphony No. 5
London Symphony Orchestra/Gianandrea Noseda
LSO Live LSO0379-D (digital) 44:02 mins
The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) has form in Prokofiev’s most popular big symphony – before this, under Previn, Tilson Thomas and Gergiev. It’s valuable that Gianandrea Noseda’s performances have come under the aegis of a complete cycle like Gergiev’s; the former is altogether more probing and, in this work, atmospheric. I tend to think of Noseda as a scherzo-ish conductor, and so he is in the incisiveness of the second and fourth movements, but he gives full breadth and space for between-the-lines ambiguity, like Tilson Thomas, in the first movement. LSO woodwind are shyly bucolic at the start – going on to give some lovely solos in the finale, which only makes the first theme’s steady arming in the brass all the more tragic. Trumpet work is brilliant here and, most crucially, as the scherzo gears up for a grim whirlwind at its return. If the third movement is more Andante con moto than Adagio, Noseda’s restraint with soft dynamics and what’s behind them makes it moving as well as keeping it on the move – an asset when the central rites can falter in a patchwork of ideas; not here, where the funeral march steals in quietly, as it should. The giant machine that mashes up the finale’s optimism at the end is typically hard-hitting, though the live recording in the Barbican sounds a little cowled on this (so far) digital-only release. All the more reason for bringing it out on CD, along with the rest; Noseda’s Prokofiev 6 live was superlative. David Nice
