Riccardo Chailly conducts Prokofiev

Film music, ballets, symphonies – Prokofiev could write absolutely anything and was rarely at a loss for catchy melodies. Riccardo Chailly has given the orchestral wizard pride of place on this programme featuring the captivating cantata Alexander Nevsky , in which the Concertgebouw Orchestra joins forces with two large choirs and celebrated mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Semenchuk. Prokofiev’s adventurous, far too rarely performed Symphony No. 4 is programmed before the interval.

Alexander Nevsky was the result of an extraordinary collaboration between the composer Sergey Prokofiev and the film director Sergey Eisenstein, who had great admiration for each other. Prokofiev took the best parts of the film score to forge a floridly orchestrated cantata, with songs brimming with tragedy, suspense and folk melodies.

In his Symphony No. 4 dating from 1930, Prokofiev reused material from an unfinished ballet. Riccardo Chailly conducts the second, much improved, version from 1947. The second movement in particular is one of the finest hidden gems in the orchestral repertoire.