This symphony sometimes carries the nickname, "The Fiery Angel," after Prokofiev's opera of that title. The composer had composed that opera under contract to the Städtische Oper in Berlin and was to have it finished for that company's 1927 - 1928 season. But Prokofiev missed the deadline and, despite further negotiations with other opera companies, failed to attain a performance for the work. Because he had worked on it sporadically for nearly eight years, he was reluctant to let it languish unperformed, especially since he believed it contained some of his finest music. After hearing a Koussevitsky-led concert performance of the opera's second act in Paris, Prokofiev decided that the music might work well as a symphony, and thus embarked on fashioning his Third Symphony in 1928 from the then-unperformed opera, The Fiery Angel.

Like the opera, the Symphony has an otherworldly character about it, with much darkness and ethereality permeating its sound world. While each of the four movements relates to more than one aspect of the opera's twisted story, each is generally dominated by the music of a single character or scene or plot element. For example, the first movement (Moderato) deals mainly with the opera's disturbed main character, Renata, and her obsession with the fiery angel, who appears to her in visions. The music here is violent and dramatic, but mixed with passionately post-Romantic themes, the resulting contrasts providing color and an emotional roller-coaster ride that in the end yields some of Prokofiev's finest music from his middle period.

The second movement (Andante) deals with the solace and serenity of the convent that Renata enters in the opera's last act. While the music is beautiful and eerie in its tranquility, Prokofiev always manages to suggest evil lurking around the corner. This movement, like the two that follow, is short, and its limited moods and grayish colors make it probably the least effective panel in the work.

The third and fourth movements contain music which in the opera deals with the story's darker elements: those of devil possession and witchcraft. The third (Allegro agitato) is said to be inspired by the finale of the Chopin Piano Sonata No. 2, and undeniably the moods of the two works have much in common. Here, the scurrying strings play a theme that doesn't sound like a normal theme in its slithery and gossamer manner and in its soft dissonance and bizarre effects, which are divided into 13 parts! The finale (Andante mosso—Allegro agitato), without doubt, contains the most violent and monstrous-sounding music in the symphony. This is a tour-de-force of horror music, with a brief middle section that recalls a tortured Romantic theme from the first movement.

Until the last decade or so of the twentieth century, the Third Symphony was largely ignored. It is now approaching the fringes of the standard repertory and is generally regarded as one of Prokofiev's strongest compositions from the period. The work was premiered by conductor Pierre Monteux in Paris on May 17, 1929.

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