Release date: 24-12-2007 (recording in 1959)

2008 German Speakers Corner Edition, High quality pressing on 180 virgin vinyl, with Audiohpile Mastering. Recording: November 1959 at the Northrop Memorial Auditorium, Minnesota, USA, by Robert Eberenz. Production: Wilma Cozart-Fine and Harold Lawrence. Sealed & Stickered.

Tracks:
symphony no. 5 in b dur op. 100

Prokofiev was extremely proud of his Fifth Symphony which he regarded as his most important work and referred to as celebrating »the grandeur of the human spirit and a hymn to free and joyful humanity«. But even without this emphatic acknowledgement of the Soviet ideological social system, his work was well accepted by the public and not long after its Moscow premiere was performed to great acclaim in Europe and further afield.
The composition is written in a traditional, four-movement form and is filled with highly expressive, lyrical themes, which are broadly expanded and make full use of the orchestra’s registers and sound colouring. The outer movements act like a cyclical framework, with the theme of the first movement reappearing in the last movement where it is combined with new material and taken to a final boisterous apotheosis. Antal Dorati leads his orchestra through the depths of the score with a sure and steady hand, cautiously allowing them to revel in the often brittle melodies during moments of repose. In doing so the maestro amalgamates the work’s powerful dynamic force with its tremendous instrumental