Program Notes for Virginia Symphony Orchestra Classics #8 - 24-26 ...

timpani, solo piano and strings.
Symphony No. 5 in B-flat, Op.100
Sergei Prokofiev
Born 23 April, 1891 in Sontzovka, Ukraine, Russia
Died 5 March, 1953 in Moscow
Happy you conducting American premiere my Fifth Symphony. Work very close to my
heart. Sending sincere friendly greetings you and all members your magnificent orchestra.
–Telegram, Prokofiev to Serge Koussevitzky, 6 November 1945
‘Work very close to my heart.’ So consumed was Prokofiev by this symphony that he put
off the celebrated film director Sergei Eisenstein, because he was so immersed in composing.
“Now I’m busy with work on my Fifth Symphony, and my composition is flowing along in such
a way that I can’t interrupt and switch over to [Eisenstein’s film] Ivan the Terrible. I’m sure
you’ll understand me,” he wrote apologetically to Eisenstein on 31 July 1944. Prokofiev
promised to devote himself to the film score the next month, when he would return to Moscow
from his summer home, Ivanovo. By then, he had completed the symphony.
Just a few months later, Prokofiev was on the podium when the Fifth Symphony was first
performed in Moscow on 13 January 1945. It proved to be his swan song as a conductor.
Within four months, Europe and America were celebrating V-E day. Victory in the