Thomas Søndergård & RSNO - Prokofiev: Symphonies 1 & 5 - Hi-Fi News

Start with the 'Classical' Symphony and you are struck by the finesse of the playing under Søndergård - it's an exemplary version, as the engaging note says mixing Haydn with Prokofiev's cocking-a-snoot attitude as a young man. No 5 has always fared well in recordings, from the 1946 Koussevitzky/RCA inwards. Søndergård takes a measured, somewhat distant approach, clarifying every strand - the Scottish Orchestra makes a great sound at the end of (i). I'd have liked a more personal thrust, though, in both outer movts, and Prokofiev's sudden 'mechanistic' finale coda doesn't set the pulse raising as it can be.