Symphony No. 4 (Prokofiev)

The Symphony No. 4 in C Major by Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev exists in two versions:

• Opus 47, composed in 1929-1930, premiered on 30 November 1930 by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sergei Koussevitzky.
• Opus 112, the 1947 revised and expanded edition, premiered on 11 March 1950 by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Adrian Boult.

Both versions are based on the motivic and thematic short ballet premiered in Paris in 1928-1929 and created on May 21, 1929 half-hour The Prodigal Son. Due to the immediate, but not long-term, the success of the stage works of the composer decided to process discarded sketches to a symphonic work. The first version of the Fourth was taken critically benevolent, Prokofiev, however, was not satisfied because he had the impression that it has not made ​​enough of the material used. In fact, the duration of Opus 47 is a good ten minutes less than those of the ballet, whereas Opus 112 (now the most played version) takes a few minutes longer.

The revisions from 1947 also had the consequence that the first movement of Opus 112 for the longest ever written by Prokofiev.

Opus 112 may Prokofiev skillfully art contribution to the genre Neoclassicism. The long transition from the reprise to the coda in the sonata main_proposition -structured header is next to the transitions from the 3rd to the 4th movement of Symphony No. 5 by Ludwig van Beethoven and the Symphony No. 4 by Robert Schumann one of the most tense places of its kind in the Music dar.

In the ( relatively sparse ) Discography the work is usually merged with the Third Symphony. In fact, both plants are the same basic key C and a similar history of a previous stage work, but the third party works with problematischerem because prior unperformed gebliebenem, material.