Fanfare 4
*****
Wonderful performances in great sonics.

PROKOFIEV Symphony No. 6; SILVESTROV Quiet Music  Dmitry Matvienko, cond; Aarhus SO  OUR 8.226936 (50:54) Reviewed from a WAV download: 44 kHz/24-bit
Dmitry Matvienko, born in Belarus, has been Chief Conductor of the Aarhus SO since the 2024/25 season. At the time of this writing, there have been no recordings of his reviewed here. He has a healthy list of conducting dates with many orchestras world-wide. This appears to be his first wide-scale recording release and it is a very fine debut.
Prokofiev completed his Sixth Symphony in post-war 1947. Unlike the Fifth Symphony, this symphony is a three-movement work (40:54 in this performance) It is a wonderful and engaging work second only to his magnificent Fifth Symphony in impact and melodic profile. Matvienko and company deliver a very fine recording of the Sixth. In the first movement (marked Allegro moderato) Matvienko doesn’t dawdle but keeps the music flowing forward. Here, his performance is similar to Järvi and Litton in their respective recordings on Chandos and Bis but unlike Gergiev’s more drawn-out first movement on his Mariinsky release. Gergiev goes for maximum drama but Matvienko strives for coherency and achieves it nicely. In the second movement Largo Matvienko takes the music at a faster clip than the other recordings I know (14:17) yet nothing seems excessively rushed. Here, Järvi clocks in at 15:24, Litton takes 15:58 and Gergiev takes a whopping 16:57. This comes down to interpretive license and I find Matvienko finds a good thematic syntax for the movement even if it is a little faster than I might prefer. The Finale (marked Vivace) takes 12:04 which is similar to Järvi, Litton and Weller while Gergiev comes in at a faster clip at 11:34 (unsurprising in the hands of such a willful conductor). Matvienko does a great job of balancing the orchestral sections (there’s a lot going on in this movement). The “side theme” from the first movement makes a return in the Finale to bring the music full circle. The well-written booklet note mentions that Matvienko likens the two big orchestral explosions near the end of the movement to be musical depictions of the two atomic bombs loosed on Japan near the end of WWII. The recorded sound is very fine allowing for the sometimes buried piano to be heard when it is contributing.
The release concludes with Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov’s Quiet Music composed in 2002. This 10-minute, three-movement piece scored for chamber-sized orchestral strings and is replete with gorgeous melodies and consonant harmonies. The music is wistful and calm and played with great beauty. It’s a wonderful coda to the program. The booklet also contains a list of performers for both works including a picture of the entire orchestra in their Aarhus concert hall where this music was vividly recorded. Recommended. Mark Novak