Prokofiev Symphony No. 5

Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast

Joshua Weilerstein

Clarinet, Timpani, Performing, Trombone, Cello, Trumpet, Bassoon, Classicalmusic, Performing Arts, Arts, Violin, Flute, Piano, Conductor, Music, Weilerstein

4.9 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2022

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s very easy to compare Sergei Prokofiev to Dmitri Shostakovich. They are the two most famous representatives of Soviet and Russian music of the 20th century, they lived around the same time, and their music even has some similarities, but at their core, you almost couldn’t find more different people than Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Shostakovich was neurotic, nervous, and timid. Prokofiev was confident and cool. Shostakovich was tortured by the Soviet government, and while Prokofiev certainly had his runins with Stalin and his crones , his life wasn’t so inextricably linked to the Soviet Union, besides the fact that he had the bad luck to die on the same day as Joseph Stalin, which made it so that there were no flowers available for his funeral. Prokofiev was able to travel, and see the world, generally without nearly as much interference as Shostakovich faced. These two lives are reflected in two very different musical approaches. Shostakovich's wartime symphonies are full of terror and violence, whlie Prokofiev wrote that his 5th symphony was a hymn to the human spirit. We don't know how much that reflects his true feelings, but its undeniable that there is a certain "optimism" to this symphony that both thrills and unsettles listeners to this day. It is also filled with traademark Prokofiev cynicism and sarcasm, and so we are left, as always, with a contradiction. What did Prokofiev mean with this symphony? Join us as we try to find out!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Sticky Notes, the Classical Music Podcast. My name is Joshua Weilerstein,
0:10.0	I'm a conductor, and I'm the Music Director of the Phoenix Orchestra of Boston. This
0:14.0	podcast is for anyone who loves classical music, works in the field, or is just getting
0:18.5	ready to dive into this amazing world of incredible music.
0:22.0	Before we get started, I want to thank my new Patreon sponsors, Pete, Daniella, and
0:25.5	Martin, and all of my other Patreon sponsors for making season eight possible. If you'd
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0:42.1	greatly appreciated.
0:45.4	So I've got a really interesting episode for you this week, and I wanted to give you a
0:48.2	little bit of a pre-introduction to it since I've been thinking a lot about this piece
0:51.9	Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony, and this show this week. This is actually an older episode
0:56.8	when I wrote three or four years ago, and I'm now re-uploading.
1:00.6	Prokofiev's Fifth is always a piece that I've seen is quite complicated, actually. It
1:04.4	has a mix of music that could be seen as Soviet World War II propaganda, along with music
1:09.0	that could be seen as mocking that same propaganda. Prokofiev, as I say on the show, is not
1:14.5	a case like Shostakovich, who seemed to embed his true feelings into his music through
1:19.2	codes and hidden messages. Prokofiev was very, very different, and that it is very rare
1:24.0	that one can hear any political context at all in his music. But this piece is different.
1:29.5	You could easily listen to this Fifth Symphony and see it as a work glorifying not only the
1:34.0	Soviet War effort, but maybe even the Soviet Union itself. But you could also see it as I
	...

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