Half Six Fix: Prokofiev 5

The evening

Kick-start your evening with a 60-minute Half Six Fix concert. Introduced by the performers, with screens in the hall to bring you closer to the action.

Composed in the summer of 1944, as World War II raged on, Prokofiev debuted his Fifth Symphony in Moscow amid cannon fire: an ode to freedom, happiness and ‘the grandeur of the human spirit’. The music is steadfastly noble, with a powerfully epic first movement and a central Adagio of almost overwhelming beauty. The heady, exuberant final movement that follows has the feeling of a movie score as it hurtles to its grand conclusion.

Sir Simon Rattle, Conductor Emeritus of the LSO, brings his vibrant energy and meticulous attention to detail to this performance of Prokofiev’s Fifth, with an on-stage introduction to the music.

In the Fifth Symphony I wanted to sing the praises of the free and happy man — his strength, his generosity and the purity of his soul. Sergei Prokofiev