Prokofiev

Symphonies Nos 2 & 4

Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra/james Gaffigan

Challenge Classics CC 72779 (hybrid CD/ SACD) 73:36 mins

This is not déjà vu. The first release of James Gaffigan’s Prokofiev Symphony cycle with the Netherlands Radiophilharmonic Orchestra included the original 1930 version of the Fourth Symphony. Now he gives the revised 1947 version, which, at nearly half as long again, is such a different work that Prokofiev gave it a new opus number, declaring it essentially a distinct symphony in its own right. Throw in the close musical relationship with the ballet The Prodigal Son, as well as the complicated biases on both sides for a work that straddled the iron curtain, and it is easy to see why this symphony struggled for acceptance. Except that, heard without any aesthetic and political baggage, the music is simply marvellous.

Though not as hard-driven as Gergiev or Karabits, Gaffigan is relatively brisk, avoiding slackness, but at the expense of some nuance and opportunities for characterisation, notably in the third movement. This is exacerbated

by occasionally muddy textures, a trait that is a mild frustration here, but which in the Second Symphony makes the thicker passages of orchestration seem turgid, even with the benefit of surround sound.

There are some striking moments in that Symphony, such as the shiver of strings early in the second movement’s second variation, or the fourth variation’s dispassionate intertwining duet between trumpet and oboe. Nonetheless, while this earlier work may be an especially brash exemplar of the relatively young Prokofiev flashing his modernist credentials, it is hard to warm to this hard-bitten, yet toofrequently mushy performance. Christopher Dingle PERFORMANCE ★★ RECORDING ★★★