The student Prokofiev had produced two symphonies by the summer of 1909, but he realized how immature they were and cannibalized them in later works. That summer, however, he started a symphonic work that would ultimately survive, though in heavily revised form. This opus 5 Sinfonietta, inspired by a similar work by Rimsky-Korsakov, was intended as "a transparent piece for small orchestra." It's a light, ebullient five-movement composition evoking the serenades of Mozart as much as anything by Rimsky-Korsakov. Unfortunately, Prokofiev had not yet developed his lyrical gift, and the Sinfonietta's lack of melodic distinction has assured its relative obscurity. Prokofiev revised it twice before republishing it twenty years later as opus 48, but it's likely that even from the beginning the music was bolting off in unexpected harmonic directions, something that would characterize Prokofiev's mature work. The timbral texture, too, was already highly colored by woodwinds, another Prokofiev trademark

The even-numbered movements carry a sprightly 6/8 time signature, providing a rhythmic spryness that gives the entire Sinfonietta a youthful feeling, despite the contrast provided by the ruminative Andante and the fairly gritty Scherzo.

The Sinfonietta begins with a sonata-form Allegro giocoso, featuring a sunny, skipping tune introduced by the woodwinds then quickly taken up by the rest of the orchestra. The second theme is the shadow of a march, but never really establishes a melodic profile. This bouncy second theme provides the rhythmic impetus for and dominates the development section, but the first theme reasserts itself in the recapitulation. The Andante begins with a three-note motif growling in the bassoons, which underlies almost all the movement's first section. A second section is slightly more melodic, but derives its theme from an inversion of the bassoon motif. At the midpoint, the movement essentially retraces its steps back to the material from near the beginning.

Third comes the Intermezzo, a merry, exuberant Vivace movement that at times skips along a bit too noisily for polite company. The ensuing Scherzo, Allegro risoluto, opens with pizzicato strings and then a chattering, descending theme in the woodwinds. This somewhat heckling material passes through the orchestra until a trio section arrives with mock-suspense music intoned by the bassoons; then the first section repeats, this time with a rattling climax.

The Sinfonietta's last movement is an Allegro giocoso-in fact, it's to some degree the same Allegro giocoso that begins the Sinfonietta, except that the A theme is now developed more fully in a boisterous, comic atmosphere that includes a hint of a tarantella.



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