Tag Archives: Sergei Prokofiev

In concert – Inmo Yang, CBSO / Dima Slobodeniouk: Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky & Martinů

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Inmo Yang (violin), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Dima Slobodeniouk (above)

Martinů Memorial to Lidice H296 (1943)
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35 (1878)
Prokofiev Symphony no.6 in E flat minor Op.111 (1945-47)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Thursday 18 June 2026 2:15pm

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Picture of Dima Slobodeniouk (c) Marco Borggreve

If not quite an all-Russian sequence or, indeed, one centred on the Second World War, this was still a cohesive and satisfying programme that played to the collective strengths of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra along with this afternoon’s conductor Dima Slobodeniouk.

Just over eight decades since a first hearing in Prague (83 years following its premiere in New York), Memorial to Lidice has lost little of its fervency and pathos – qualities often present in the music of Martinů’s maturity yet seldom so graphically as here. The CBSO’s playing duly ensured a performance of sustained eloquence, with Slobodeniouk lightening the mood in its central section so that the return of the opening music – with its allusions to the St Wenceslas Chorale and the motto of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony – left a tangibly cathartic impression.

Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto received a far less cordial reception at its premiere in Vienna, but soon afterwards established a place in the repertoire as has never been challenged. Early audience may have found its first movement protracted, but Immo Yang ensured a seamless follow-though with due characterization of its subtly contrasted main themes. Imaginatively articulated, the cadenza was pointedly developmental as to make the wistful reappearance of the first theme the more affecting. Nor was there any lack of emotional depth in the ensuing Canzonetta – its musing uncertainty the counterweight to a finale which, after its (rightly) jarring introduction, found the right balance between impetuosity and plaintiveness on route to a coda no less uproarious for all its knife-edge coordination between soloist and orchestra.

Acclaimed at its Leningrad premiere, Prokofiev’s Sixth Symphony was a victim of political intrigues such as hampered any wider dissemination (its first hearing in Birmingham came as late as 1980) or recognition as its composer’s finest and most finely achieved such piece. Slobodeniouk undoubtedly had its measure, not least that opening Allegro moderato whose diverse and even disparate ideas – which might be described as speculative, mesmeric then desperate – melded with an assured sense of where this disquieting movement was headed. In particular, the lengthy development proceeded with truly remorseless intensity toward a pulverizing climax – one whose bitter after-tones persisted through a summary reprise then on to a conclusion whose embrace of the major key could hardly have felt less affirmative.

If this movement finds Prokofiev at his most questing, then the Largo finds him at his most empathetic such as its searing introductory bars then heartfelt main theme are drawn into a powerfully focussed design leaving no doubt as to its composer’s awareness of the ‘human cost’ or this conductor’s conveying of what was at stake. Not that the final Vivace was at all pre-empted, the forced jocularity of its main theme offset by ambivalent episodes prior to a coda whose teetering on catastrophe seemed hardly allayed by those fateful closing gestures.

Taken as a whole, this proved an impressive conceived and realized performance that, having occurred ‘‘many years since my last visit’’ (to quote the conductor), was such as to make one hope that Slobodeniouk’s next appearance with this orchestra might not be so long in coming.

To read more about the CBSO’s 2026/27 season, visit the CBSO website. Click on the name to read more on conductor Dima Slobodeniouk and violinist Inmo Yang

Published post no.2,925 – Monday 22 June 2026

On this day 90 years ago – the first performance of Prokofiev’s ‘Peter and the Wolf’

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by Ben Hogwood. Image courtesy of Wikipedia

On this day in 1936, the first performance took place of Prokofiev’s much-loved Peter and the Wolf. This piece was commissioned by the Central Children’s Theatre in Moscow, and given its first performance on May 2 in the Large Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. Prokofiev dedicated the work to his children.

You can enjoy the witty and touching setting below, in an arrangement for chamber ensemble at the Royal College of Music, narrated by Lucy Hollins and conducted by Sam Scheer:

Published post no.2,875 – Saturday 2 May 2026

In Concert – Carolin Widmann, CBSO / Tianyi Lu: Habibi, Korngold & Prokofiev

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Carolin Widmann (violin, below), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Tianyi Lu

Habibi Zhiân (2023)
Korngold Violin Concerto in D major Op.35 (1945)
Prokofiev Symphony no.5 in B flat major Op.100 (1944)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Wednesday 25 February 2026, 2:15pm

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Picture of Tianyi Lu (c) Marco Borggreve

This afternoon’s concert saw the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in action with the Chinese-born New Zealand conductor Tianyi Lu, and a programme that prefaced established works from the mid-20th century with a recent piece by an Iranian-born Canadian composer.

Its title translating not only as ‘Life’ in Kurdish but as ‘indignant’ or ‘formidable’ in Persian, Iman Habibi’s Zhiân takes its cue from Iranian government repression in response to protests after the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody. Although not directly programmatic, there is a discernible trajectory from the initial explosion of violence, through a sequence of more ambivalent yet increasingly consoling episodes – during which solo instruments (notably the oboe) come into focus, towards a culmination of unalloyed fervour. Such a statement could easily have descended into overkill, but Habibi gauges its progress with audible sureness of intent; abetted here by the conviction of the CBSO’s response. Little heard as yet in the UK, Habibi is clearly a composer with something worth saying and the means by which to say it.

Those with longer memories may remember when Korngold’s Violin Concerto was far from being the concert staple it is today, its uninhibited romanticism held in check by orchestration as fastidious as it is sophisticated along with a formal concision that ensures this work never outstays its welcome. It was such a balance between effusiveness and discipline which came across most clearly in Carolin Widmann’s playing, by turns tensile and expressive so that the music retained its focus throughout. Even she could not quite prevent the finale from veering towards bathos, as Korngold’s otherwise judicious recourse to earlier film-scores rather gets the better of him, yet as its uproarious closing bars surged onwards, there was little doubting the sheer effectiveness of this work taken as a whole or of Widmann’s ease when realizing it.

The stage was set for a memorable performance of Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony which, in the event, was no more than decent. Not that this was because of technical failings, yet the initial Andante never quite recovered from a sluggish opening such that the strenuous development was unduly hectoring then the climactic restatement of the main theme sounded turgid rather than implacable. The scherzo’s central phase had appealing insouciance, but its outer sections lacked impetus with little emphasis on the ‘marcato’ designation to ensure the necessary edge.

The ensuing Adagio was the sure highlight, Lu’s preference for leisurely tempos and gradual accumulation of tension coming into its own not least with a seismic climax which subsided towards a coda of melting pathos. The finale opened enticingly, but progress here was again undermined by a lack of momentum; without which, its ostensibly genial themes never took flight. This was most evident with a denouement, among the most hair-raising in symphonic literature, whose seeming matter-of-factness rather left the whole work hanging in abeyance.

A pity so relatively lacklustre an interpretation ended David Powell’s final concert as CBSO sub-principal cello. Your reviewer remembers his engaging presence from four decades ago, and is glad an overt dislike of Mahler did not end his 45-year tenure almost before it began.

To read more about the CBSO’s 2025/26 season, visit the CBSO website. Click on the names for more on conductor Tianyi Lu, violinist Carolin Widmann and composer Iman Habibi

Published post no.2,812 – Saturday 28 February 2026

On this day 80 years ago – world premieres of Britten’s ‘Peter Grimes’ & Prokofiev’s ‘War & Peace’

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by Ben Hogwood Picture from the current Welsh National Opera production of Peter Grimes

Eighty years ago today, two landmark operas of the 20th century received their world premieres.

Britten’s Peter Grimes, given its first performance at Sadler’s Wells under Reginald Goodall on 7 June 1945, is a breakthrough work in his output, one that would tie his music indelibly to the Suffolk coast. Telling the story of Grimes, the outcast fisherman, it captures the mysterious North Sea in rare clarity. You can read more about the opera’s history at my Good Morning Britten site, dedicated to the composer. The video links below are to a complete performance of the opera, with the Royal Opera conducted by Colin Davis:

Meanwhile the famous 4 Sea Interludes extracted from the work, Britten’s remarkably pictorial orchestral suite, are below – where you can follow the score:

Prokofiev‘s War and Peace is an altogether different beast – a mammoth project which first reached the public in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory on 6 June 1945, where nine scenes from the opera were performed.

The finished opera is an epic dramatisation of Leo Tolstoy’s novel, which occupied Prokofiev from 1941 right up to the year of his death, 1953. Here is a famous recording conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich:

Published post no.2,557 – Saturday 7 June 2025

On this day – the world premiere of Prokofiev’s Second Symphony in 1925

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by Ben Hogwood Picture from the Bain Collection, Library of Congress

This day marks the centenary of the premiere of one of Prokofiev‘s most remarkable works, the Second Symphony. It was first performed in Paris on 6 June 1925, under the baton of Serge Koussevitsky.

It is difficult to imagine a work of greater contrast to the first symphony in the composer’s output, the much-loved ‘Classical’. Where that was a masterly updating of the classical style, bursting with good tunes, the Second initially impacts as a cacophony of noise and seemingly devoid of melody.

Listen more closely, however, and you will hear some distinctive themes beyond the bluster, some innovative orchestration and a highly original approach to form drawing initially from Beethoven’s 32nd and final piano sonata. Perhaps inevitably these qualities were lost on the first audience, who recoiled from the piece. Their reaction gave Prokofiev serious doubts about his ability as a composer.

Yet time has treated this piece relatively well, with no less a composer than Christopher Rouse showering it with praise. Listen below and see what you think:

Published post no.2,556 – Friday 6 June 2025