English Commentary by Sergio Cánovas

Prokofiev’s Symphony No.3 was composed in 1928, based on the music of the expressionistic opera «The Fiery Angel». The composer worked intermittently on the project between 1919-27, and a production was announced for the 1927-8 season at the Berlin State Opera conducted by Bruno Walter, but this was dropped. In June 1928 an abbreviated version of Act Two was played in concert under Koussevitzky. Not wanting the music to languish in obscurity, Prokofiev initially devised extracting numbers like a standard symphonic suite, but his friend Nikolai Myaskovsky remarked that the music was properly fitted to be developed like in a symphony. 

Once finished, the work was premiered on May 17 of 1929, performed by the Symphonic Orchestra of Paris conducted by Pierre Monteux, with Myaskovsky as the dedicatee. It had a moderate reception, but was better received in Moscow a few years later. The opera itself it was deemed too disjointed and episodic to be produced, and it wouldn’t be staged until 1955, by then two years after the composer’s death. The symphony is one of Prokofiev’s most complex, raging, and avant-garde works. In its four movements, the composer unleashes an almost unrestrained energy, in which only the second movement emerges as a truly contrasting island of tranquillity. To quote the famous Russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter: «I had never before felt anything similar when listening to music. It felt to me like an apocalypse.»

«The Fiery Angel» is based on the 1908 symbolist novel of the same name by Valery Bryusov. Prokofiev stumbled across this novel during his nomadic years spent wandering between America, France and the Bavarian region of Pfaffenwinkel. After facing insurmountable difficulties in getting it produced, Prokofiev considered burning the score, as Gogol had done with the second volume of «Dead Souls». The setting is Medieval Germany. A teenage girl, Renate, begins seeing visions of an angel clothed in fire. She enters a convent, persuades the other nuns there that her visions are real, and is burned at the stake for her heretical beliefs. Along the way we find black magic, hallucinations, hysterics, obsessive behaviour, exorcisms, knights-errant, and lurid goings-on in a nunnery.

The first movement is structured in sonata form, based on the leitmotivs of the opera’s main characters Renata and Ruprecht. It begins with apocalyptic and dissonant chords on full orchestra. A dramatic and passionate main theme is presented by strings and horns, which unfolds in a dark and expressive way. After a transition, a deeply melancholic second theme is introduced by bassoon and undulating strings, offering great contrast. The development is launched with rhythmic fragments of the main theme. As the material is developed, the music becomes increasingly strenuous, fierce and dissonant, culminating in an expressionistic climax that directly segways into the recapitulation of the themes. An even more intense climax is reached with the second theme, followed by a grotesque polytonal march. A substantial and ominous coda combines the themes before the moderato with the main theme dissolving in the silence.

The second movement is written in ternary form, based on music from the opera’s last act after the heroine has sought the peace of a convent. It begins with a serene and lyrical main theme, taking the form of a chorale presented by low strings, then blissfully taken by woodwinds as it unfolds in a series of variations. The central section is contrasting in nature, with a brooding and chromatic second theme on woodwinds, which is Faust’s theme from Act IV. The main theme is then recapitulated in a varied way, with brief and unsettling reminiscences of the central section before the andante ends with a rather questioning coda.

The third movement is a scherzo in ternary form, being based on the music to which Renate conjures up Count Heinrich, the angel of her imagination in Act II, Scene. It seems Prokofiev also modelled the movement after the finale of Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor. It begins with rushing string figurations, which are the basis of a menacing main theme on strings and brass. Overlapping glissandi divided up to 13 parts on strings, as well as harmonics, serve to evoke an intangible and malevolent atmosphere. A solo flute anticipates the trio section, which introduces a luscious and lyrical second theme on woodwinds and upper strings, offering great contrast. The scherzo is then recapitulated, culminating in a climax with dissonant chords before ending with a brass peroration.