The Art of Listening

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 7 in c-sharp;
Stravinsky: Symphony in C.

Two very different symphonies, the Stravinsky dating from 1940; the Prokofiev from 1952.

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The last of Prokofiev’s seven symphony was written a year before his death in 1953. Like the Stravinsky it follows the established symphonic order of movements except it espouses the variant that reverses the order of the middle two movements i.e. the scherzo’s followed by the slow movement.

Commissioned by the Children’s Division of Russian State Radio, it occupies a very different world to the ‘cubist’ Symphony in C. The ailing composer, having been previously heavily censured by the Soviet state apparatus, produced a work that starts in melancholy nostalgia and ends (at least at the beginning of the end) in the circus ring.

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 7 in c-sharp

01:01 Moderato
11:04 Allegretto
19:25 Andante espressivo
25:28 Vivace

Score

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Generally acknowledged as one of his most successful neo-classical works, the Symphony in C was, like the Symphony of Psalms, written for one of the major American orchestras (the Symphony of Psalms for Boston, the Symphony in C for Chicago).

The work’s overall outline conforms to the traditional symphonic pattern: a fast first movement, followed by a Larghetto, Scherzo and – after a slow introduction – an alla Breve finale). But, as a commentator has pointed out, it’s like listening to a ‘classical’ symphony (by Haydn, for instance) through the sonic equivalent of a distorting mirror, a musical version of Picasso’s cubist portraits.

Stravinsky: Symphony in C

00:00 – Moderato alla breve –
Tempo agitato senza troppo accelerare – Tempo 1
11:00 – Larghetto concertante – Doppio movimento – Doppio valore
17:27 – Allegretto
22:26 – Largo – Tempo giusto, alla breve

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