Sony Music Prokofiev: Symphonies 1 & 2/Sinfonietta

The first release in Kirill Karabits and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra s Prokofiev Symphony cycle Symphonies Nos 3 & 7 set the bar very high, and their second instalment has been eagerly awaited. Here are some of the reviewers comments for ONYX4137: 'I can hardly wait for the next instalment' The Financial Times 'Altogether this is a highly auspicious start to what should be a keenly collected series' 5 stars. The Daily Telegraph '..The rich, dark Russian sound and nimble virtuosity he [Karabits] gets from the band are vivid successes of his Bournemouth regime' The Sunday Times Album of the Week Volume 2 charts Prokofiev s development as a symphonist through the charming but undervalued 'Sinfonietta', a close cousin to the First Symphony known as the Classical, to the strident , modernistic Second, composed in Paris in 1924 . This work was to be as hard as iron and steel the composer said. Closing this disc is the early symphonic poem 'Autumnal Sketch' Op.8 from 1910, revised in 1915 and again in 1934, sounding rather like a blend of Richard Strauss and Scriabin - a world away from Paris and the 2nd Symphony! Review Classic FM Drive Album of the Week 'As with the first album in the series, Karabits gets an authentically Russian kind of darkness out of the orchestra for the second Symphony, counterbalanced by the vivid, bright and lightness of touch for the first.' --John Brunning Classic FM, 3rd November 2014 ***** 'The performances here identify closely with style and idea, illuminating the scores with sensitivity and panache and, in the case of the First Symphony, refreshing a well-known work with ear-catching spark.' --Geoffrey Norris The Telegraph, 10th November 2014 IRR OUTSTANDING RECORDING 'this disc is most enthusiastically recommended, the more so as the recording quality is so good that one is soon seduced by its quality as to be able to concentrate entirely on the outstanding performances' --Robert Matthew-Walker, International Record Review, February 2015