This major release launches the Mariinsky label’s projects to honour the 125th anniversary of Prokofiev’s birth. A long-time champion of the music of Prokofiev, Valery Gergiev conducts Symphonies Nos 4, 6 & 7, coupled with Piano Concertos Nos 4 and 5. The result is a 2-SACD set programmed to showcase some of Prokofiev’s finest works written before and after the Second World War.
Prokofiev began his 4th Symphony in 1929, drawing from the musical material of his ballet ‘The Prodigal Son’. The Symphony was premiered the following year, though he substantially revised the work 17 years later. Symphony No. 6 was written in 1947 as an elegy to the tragedies of World War II. Speaking of the Symphony, Prokofiev said, “Now we are rejoicing in our great victory, but each of us has wounds which cannot be healed. One man’s loved ones have perished, another has lost his health. This must not be forgotten.”
