Early in his career as a pianist,
Vladimir Ashkenazy was a champion of the music of his countryman
Sergey Prokofiev, so it's no surprise that as a conductor
Ashkenazy offers idiomatic and insightful performances of
Prokofiev's orchestral music. This disc includes the composer's two most popular symphonies, the First "Classical Symphony," and the Fifth. The
Sydney Symphony, of which
Ashkenazy assumed artistic leadership in 2009, has the heft and finesse of a world-class orchestra. The heft might be considered a liability in the First Symphony, written for an orchestra sized for
Haydn, but
Ashkenazy and his players demonstrate that the piece can be a roaring success with plenty of fleetness, vitality, and sly wit, even if sound of the strings is bigger than is usual for this work. There's something exhilarating, like the danger of a rollercoaster, particularly in the fast movements, as the strings swoop giddily through the composer's utterly odd but utterly graceful lines, which don't quite deliver the same visceral thrill when the string sound is more modest.
Ashkenazy capitalizes on the extremes of dynamics he can get from the contrast between the sections that are scored for a handful of instruments and those for the full ensemble, to terrific effect.