Customer Reviews

Prokofiev: Ivan the Terrible ~ Gergiev / Kirov Opera Chorus

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Prokofiev wrote a lot of garish, at times nearly berserk music for Eisenstein's epic, unfinished trilogy, Ivan the Terrible. The project, begun in 1942, dragged on for years, and the composer lost both inspiration and his health, dying before his music could be shaped into concert form like the wildly successful cantata derived from Alexander Nevsky. The music for Ivan is boisterous, at times steely, lacking in the tragic element, but full of folk choruses and even a few moments of quiet mystical serenity in the midst of a lot of bombast.

To really bring it off you need Russians, and those Russians should be going hell-for-leather. Under Gergiev they do as never before. Despite the Dutch orchestra (which sounds Russian enough to fool the rest of us), the Kirov chorus brings the right Slavic energy, as do the two soloists and of course Gergiev himself. There are moments when you think he's the greatest conductor in the world, especially when sheer dramatic momentum is called for. This CD rises to the top of the list. For those who care about performance editions, this is the long oratorio arranged by Abram Stasevich, minus the (extensive) spoken narration.

The labelling said that this is an oratorio work. Certainly it is dramatic even without any staging. The performance is full of drama, majesty, awe and passion, all in one go.
May be Russian music requires some one with the essential 'Soviet' background knowledge and upbringing to 'reactivate' the spirit and soul behind all the massive sounds.
Certainly Gergiev is the man best-suited to this job. His reading of the work is believably authentic, and deeply moving. At many places he simply makes the listener's hairs stand on their ends.
Even if you do not normally enjoy Russian music, this is a recording that you will raise your eyebrows, suggesting clearly to you what is the 'Russian spirit'!

Prokofiev's vividly colourful music for the Eisenstein film of "Ivan the Terrible" has never sounded quite so bitingly dramatic on disc as under Gergiev-as electrifying as any of his opera recordings with the Kirov Company. Here he has the advantage of excellent sound, recorded in the Rotterdam Hall, De Doelen, with his other orchestra, thrustful and earthy. Like competing versions, this one in based on Abram Stassevich's editing of the music into an "oratorio," but without the spoken narration-hardly necessary on disc, when notes and text are provided. The two soloists, Liubov Sokolova and Nikoai Putilin, vibrantly Slavonic, add to the drama, as do the Kirov Chorus.

This opera is definitely my "discovery of the year"!

I am NOT an opera lover, and actually the operas I like are very few. The first and foremost is uncontestably Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov. Prokofiev's "Ivan the Terrible" has climbed at once to the second place, very close to the first. Among other reasons, its because it is clearly influenced by Boris. The same stunning mixture of Romantic, folk and Orthodox-church musics gives it the very "Russian" flavour of Boris (but Ivan is, of course, more modern-styled).

Gergiev is the right man in the right place. He extracts the best of this work, emphasizes the dramatic elements (but does not exaggerate in that), and, above all - gives it very Russian and very majestic (the singers and orchestra are Russian, too). He touches upon the most minute sensitivities and at the seme time leads the orchestra, chorus and singers sweepingly. You can really sense his charisma through the sounds.

The recording is very good.

I recommend it warmly, even to people who don't like opera.