Prokofiev’s Third Symphony doesn’t get the same amount of attention as the Fifth, Sixth, or God knows the First, but it’s a great work all the same, moody, garish, gripping, and really unlike anything else by anyone else. This is an excellent performance, one to rank with the best of the competition from the likes of Muti, Chailly, and Järvi. Alsop is a touch quicker in the outer movements than some, and just a hair slower in the creepy third movement scherzo, all to the good. The interpretation has individuality and character. She has the orchestra on its collective toes throughout and she’s very well recorded.
One moment puzzled me. Right after the march-like start of the finale, the orchestra races away with frantic strings and big, splashy swats on the tam-tam. Alsop captures the moment magnificently, but if she can do it here, why couldn’t she do it in the coda of the first movement of the Fifth Symphony, which asks for very similar sounds from the percussion section? It’s maddening, and at the end of the day a question of consistency. But there it is.
Anyway, the program also includes Autumn, a rather uninteresting but happily short piece, and the Scythian Suite, which Alsop tears into excitingly, especially in the first two movements. Truth be told, I prefer slightly slower tempos here, combined with more sheer power and heavier accents to give the music a true, primal punch in the gut, but Alsop’s view is perfectly valid and some listeners may well prefer it. Certainly The Enemy God and the Dance of the Spirits of Darkness finds the orchestra on impressive form, especially as Alsop makes sure that the brass section doesn’t fake it. All in all this is a very fine effort, and certainly worth a listen for the Third Symphony particularly.
