The first release in Kirill Karabits and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s Prokofiev Symphony cycle – Symphonies Nos 3&7 set the bar very high, and their second instalment has been eagerly awaited. Here are some of the reviewers comments for ONYX4137

‘I can hardly wait for the next instalment’ The Financial Times

‘Altogether this is a highly auspicious start to what should be a keenly collected series’ 5 stars. The Daily Telegraph

‘..The rich, dark ‘Russian’ sound and nimble virtuosity he [Karabits] gets from the band are vivid successes of his Bournemouth regime’ The Sunday Times – Album of the Week

Volume 2 charts Prokofiev’s development as a symphonist through the charming but undervalued Sinfonietta, a close cousin to the First Symphony known as the Classical, to the strident , modernistic Second, composed in Paris in 1924 . This work was to be ‘as hard as iron and steel’ the composer said.

Closing this disc is the early symphonic poem Autumnal Sketch op8 from 1910, revised in 1915 and again in 1934, sounding rather like a blend of Richard Strauss and Scriabin - a world away from Paris and the 2nd Symphony!