Summary: Welcome to this digital edition of Phillip Huscher's Program Notes for upcoming concerts by the CSO May 31 - June 3. Written during World War II, Britten's Sinfonia da requiem is a powerful cry for peace, reaching such tension in the central scherzo that the music seems to explode into angry fragments, from the cooling shards of which arises its serene, hope-filled finale. Prokofiev's breathtaking Fifth Symphony, composed with an Allied victory over Nazi Germany in sight, evokes a waking giant and ends with an exhilarating finale.
