Moscow, 1945: when Sergey Prokofiev stepped up to conduct the premiere of his Fifth Symphony, he was interrupted by the sound of an artillery barrage. Forged in a time of war and tyranny, Prokofiev said that the symphony embodied ‘the greatness of the human spirit’.

@Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
For the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s Music Director, Vasily Petrenko, it’s one of the supreme 20th-century masterpieces. Tonight, he sets it in a strikingly original context – alongside the primary colours and all-American optimism of Copland’s Appalachian Spring, and the bold, swinging postwar rhythms of George Walker’s Trombone Concerto. Peter Moore (‘magical’ – The Times) is the soloist in this striking contribution to our season-long focus on instruments that don’t always get their due.
Programme
- Aaron Copland, Appalachian Spring – suite (24 mins)
- George Walker, Trombone Concerto (17 mins)
- INTERVAL
- Sergei Prokofiev, Symphony No. 5 in B flat major (46 mins)