- EDITOR’S CHOICE
- 2008 · 4 tracks · 14 min
Symphony No. 1 in D Major
For most composers, producing a first symphony is a serious business: a declaration to the world that you are ready to follow in the footsteps of the mighty Beethoven. Prokofiev, however, never played things by the book. His First Symphony is scored for a modest orchestra; is laid out on a Classical, late-18th-century plan; and lasts barely 15 minutes. At face value, it looks as though Prokofiev was anticipating the ironic, irreverent Neoclassicism of the Parisian group "Les Six", but for Prokofiev this wasn’t a sendup but an act of homage. He wanted, he said, to create the kind of music Haydn might have written if he’d lived in the 20th century. The music is full of vitality, brilliance and colour, but elegantly "contained", as in many of the finest Classical-era symphonies. There are touches of courtly elegance, even a few moments of tender pathos, but in the end good humour prevails. Perhaps Prokofiev needed an escape. At the time he wrote the symphony (1916-17), his home city, St Petersburg, was becoming increasingly unruly, and it wouldn’t be long before full-fledged revolution would erupt. But there are no ominous echoes in this music, and although Prokofiev may present himself in something like Haydn’s clothes, at the same time he is fully, joyously himself.