Though usually associated with light-hearted or rousing works, Prokofiev on occasion revealed a darker side after his return to Soviet Russia. The Sixth Symphony, composed very shortly after World War II, is a most striking instance, its baleful brass opening contrasted with a wan and mournful string theme, followed by a haunting, folk-like melody played by oboes and cor anglais. Though the work’s by turns melancholy and menacing qualities come across strongly here, conductor Franz Welser-Möst gives more emphasis than usual on the Sixth’s symphonic qualities. His performance with the Cleveland Orchestra flows purposefully, and the folk-like melody’s return in the finale appears not as a coup de théâtre, but as if a light has been suddenly cast on a never-forgotten character that precludes the finale’s expected triumphant end. As Prokofiev told his first biographer, “Now we are rejoicing in our great victory, but each of us has wounds that cannot be healed.” Yet the heart of the performance, quite rightly, is in the central movement. The sense of a cosmic conflagration with which it opens is stunning, and provides an effective foil to the heart-felt lyricism that follows, played with magnificence and grace by Welser-Möst and his musicians.