Customer Reviews

On Guard for Peace: Music of the Totalitarian Regime

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Both of the composers featured here fell foul of the strict Stalin regime for writing music considered to be too western or questioning in tone. The works recorded here were written in an attempt to get back in favour with the Soviet authorities, and both works earned the composers the distinction of winning the Stalin Prize.
The song of the forests, which features first, depicts Stalin as the great gardner who planned to forest the Russian Steppes. This is a large work for tenor and bass soloists with mixed choir, boys' choir, and orchestra. The music is both lyrical, passionate and powerful, and the performers on this album give a very sensitive and well balanced performance. My only criticism is that some of the tempi (most notably in the fourth movement) are a little rushed.
The title work by Prokofiev depicts the effects of war as seen through the eyes of children. The boys' choir of Glinka College feature prominently in this performance and give a very sensitive rendering of the work. Whilst I have some small reservations about the performance of the Shostakovitch work, I can say without doubt that this performance of On Guard For Peace is the best I have ever heard.

Shostakovich's Song of the Forests is a glorious cantata and certainly one of the best things he ever wrote. (and that's saying something) Please don't dismiss it just because it's propaganda music. Prokofiev's On Guard for Peace is also good but not quite on the same level.