At the end of his first season as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1963, Erich Leinsdorf observed the 10th anniversary of the death of Sergei Prokofiev by making him the focus of the Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood. Then, the following fall, Leinsdorf began a series of Prokofiev recordings that intermittently continued until a year before he left the orchestra in 1969. Among the standouts were the present symphonies and orchestral suites.
Leinsdorf played in concert five of the seven Prokofiev symphonies and recorded four of them (excluding the most popular First). His penchant for aerated textures served all the music well, but, more important, his interpretations of the period often had a mordant, driven quality ideally suited to the scores’ tensions. Having collected all the earlier recordings of the Second, Third and Sixth, I can unreservedly recommend the Leinsdorf accounts, which are more tightly controlled than even his concert performances I heard live and from broadcast tapes. Forty years later, the Sixth is still the blackest of available versions; and the Second and Third excel most others in contained wildness.
For “Romeo and Juliet,” Leinsdorf turned to the complete ballet to fashion his own suite, as Leopold Stokowski and Charles Munch did on records in the decade before him. Leinsdorf’s was, however, the longest compilation, particularly valuable insofar as no complete stereo recording of the ballet then existed. His distinctively personal touch is evident in “Kije,” too, which in two movements has the baritone part Leinsdorf already had restored from the film score for his earlier Capitol recording. The performances of both suites have feeling and wit ruled by sophistication.
All but the first of Leinsdorf’s Boston recordings were marred by RCA Victor’s Dynagroove sound, intended to make LPs reproduce better on modest equipment. CD reissues on RCA’s “High Performance” series showed how good undoctored BSO recordings really were, and the Prokofiev would have benefited from the same remastering.
Testament reveals their detail and wide dynamic range, but the high-volume transfer exaggerates bite. Even so, the performances show close identification with some of Prokofiev’s deepest expressions and testify to the BSO’s long association with the composer.
