Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6 / Myaskovsky: Symphony No. 27

The Oslo Philharmonic. Prokofiev and Myaskovsky Symphonies, CD 2 in series with same pairing of composers.

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) composed his Symphony No 6 in E flat minor, Opus 111 between 1945 and February 1947, though his sketches date from 1944 - before his completion of the Fifth Symphony. The scoring is for large orchestra includ­ing piccolo, cor anglais, E flat clarinet, contrabassoon, harp, piano, celesta and an array of percussion. Although the key of E flat minor is extremely rare in the symphonic literature, Myaskovsky also wrote a sixth symphony in that key.

Nikolai Myaskovsky (1881-1950) completed the last of his symphonies - in C minor, Opus 85 - in November 1949. His twenty-seven works in this genre are so remarkably diverse in character that it is almost impossible to define the "typical" Myaskovsky symphony. No 27 is often described as one of his most popular, but actually we would be very fortunate to find any of his symphonies, or any other compositions, programmed in a concert-hall outside Russia.