Sergei Prokofiev – Alexander Nevsky – Lieutenant Kije (1980)

1. Serge Prokofiev - Alexander Nevsky, op. 78 (I. Russia under the mongol yoke) (3:05)
2. Serge Prokofiev - Alexander Nevsky, op. 78 (II. Song about Alexander Nevsky) (3:31)
3. Serge Prokofiev - Alexander Nevsky, op. 78 (III. The crusaders in Pskov) (6:39)
4. Serge Prokofiev - Alexander Nevsky, op. 78 (IV. Arise, ye russian people) (2:20)
5. Serge Prokofiev - Alexander Nevsky, op. 78 (V. The battle on the Ice) (12:02)
6. Serge Prokofiev - Alexander Nevsky, op. 78 (VI. The field of the dead) (6:01)
7. Serge Prokofiev - Alexander Nevsky, op. 78 (VII. Alexander's entry into Pskov) (4:53)

Elena Obraztsova
London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus 
Claudio Abbado - conductor

8. Serge Prokofiev - Lieutenant Kijé, op. 60 (I. Kijé's birth) (4:12)
9. Serge Prokofiev - Lieutenant Kijé, op. 60 (II. romance) (4:10)
10. Serge Prokofiev - Lieutenant Kijé, op. 60 (III. Kijé's wedding) (2:37)
11. Serge Prokofiev - Lieutenant Kijé, op. 60 (IV. Troika) (2:44)
12. Serge Prokofiev - Lieutenant Kijé, op. 60 (V. Kijé's burial) (5:52)

Adolph Herseth - trumpet
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Claudio Abbado - conductor

At first glance, Soviet music sung by a British Chorus and a Russian Mezzo, played by a British and an American orchestra, conducted by a German trained Italian seems too diverse to succeed, but this recording is not only a success, it's a great success. Of the recordings on this disk, Alexander Nevsky and Lieutenant Kije both started life as score's for films by Sergei Eisenstein and Alexander Faintsimmer respectively and both were later re-cast into the orchestral works contained on this CD. This is where the similarity ends. A great sense of fun pervades the music through Kije and is carried off with great aplomb by Abbado and his players. I still can't decide if I like this recording or Reiner's more, but both are equally good, so it's really a win - win situation, whatever your final choice.

Nevsky however is a very different piece, at the time when it was being written both Prokofiev and the film's director Eisenstein were seriously out of favour with Stalin, Khrennikov and the sham critics of the time, a poor reception for this film could well have seen both of them deported to a Siberian Gulag like so many millions of others and this sense of brooding fear and paranoia pervades the work, but they got lucky, Stalin liked the work and their fortunes revived because of it. Looking back to Nevsky's campaign of 1242, the piece also succeeds in capturing the atmosphere of the Soviet Union in 1938 and looks forward to the horrors that were to come in the years of war that followed. Yet despite this, it is a work of tremendous power and beauty, I have yet to hear the famous "Battle on Ice" performed with more power or "The Field of the Dead" sung so movingly. Elena Obratzova rises to the occasion magnificently. Let no one tell you that Jarvi or Previn's recordings are preferable to this one.

The Scythian Suite was commissioned by Sergei Diaghelev for his Ballet Russe and shows a young Prokofiev showing just what he was capable of. This work ranks with Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and Bartok's Miraculous Mandarin as one of the most barbaric pieces of music ever written and Abbado gives it full voice in this breathtaking reading. ---Jay, amazon.com

download: uploaded yandex 4shared mediafire solidfiles mega filecloudio nornar ziddu

back