Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, James Gaffigan - Prokofiev: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 5 (2017) [HDTracks 352,8kHz]

Third (and last but one) instalment in James Gaffigan/Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra’s ongoing series of Prokofiev’s complete symphonies.

Nos. 1 and 5 are surely the most famous and beloved of Prokofiev’s symphonies. They were written in a time-span of 27 years (the former in France, the latter in Soviet Union) they display two much different faces of the composer’s musical personality.

The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra (RFO), founded in 1945, is an essential link in the Dutch music life. The RFO performs symphonic concerts and operas in concert, as well as many world- and Netherlands premieres.

Markus Stenz was appointed chief conductor in 2012, after predecessor as Bernard Haitink, Jean Fournet, Willem van Otterloo, Hans Vonk, Edo de Waart and Jaap van Zweden. The RFO has worked with internationally highly regarded conductors such as Leopold Stokowski, Kirill Kondrashin, Antal Dorti, Charles Dutoit, Michael Tilson Thomas, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Mariss Jansons, Peter Etvs, Vladimir Jurowski and Valery Gergiev. The American conductor James Gaffigan is principal guest conductor since the season 2011-2012. Bernard Haitink has connected his name to the RFO as patron.

The RFO has build an extensive CD catalogue, with works by contemporary composers such as Jonathan Harvey, Klas Torstensson, James MacMillan and Jan van Vlijmen, the registration of Wagner’s Parsifal, Lohengrin, die Meistersinger von Nrnberg. Complete symphonies of Bruckner, Rachmaninow, Shostakovich and Hartmann have been released in recent years.

The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Netherlands Radio Choir will be awarded the Concertgebouw prize of 2017.