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28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A breathtaking reading., January 21, 2003
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.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential Prokofiev, February 4, 2001
The cinematic world would be a far more enjoyable place to venture into if we had more composers who could write film music like Prokofiev could. His foray into the movie world (for Eisenstein's films Ivan the Terrible and Alexander Nevsky) must be considered one of the pinnacles of film music. The cantata Alexander Nevsky is built from material from the film of the same name. Unlike most film music it is more than aptly suited to survive on its own, away from the screen. The other two works on this disc are less than masterworks, but still very entertaining. The Scythian Suite is hardly Prokofiev's genius at work. It was written originally as a ballet (in direct competition with Stravinsky's Rite of Spring) for Diaghilev, but was rejected. He salvaged the music and made the Scythian Suite, which is very violent, primitive, brutal and quite entertaining. Lt. Kije is a fun little piece, it's Romance is particularily delightful. I think you would have a lot of trouble finding a better performance of Nevsky than this one, Abbado's talent is at it's peak here, and the LSO can really belt out the loud moments of this music (and they are VERY loud), without losing their clarity. In short, Nevsky is the kind of music that makes Prokofiev one of my all-time favorite composers.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Yet another star in Abbado's "Russian crown", July 19, 2004
Maestro Abbado had done it again. From the bone-chilling bite of the strings (depicting the Russian winter) that open Alexander Nevsky across the Frozen Lake, the LSO under Abbado maintains a dramatic reading of the score. The LSC lacks nothing in the way of Russian idiom and Elena Obraztsova necessarily gives an authentic performance. Her voice is suitably dark. Personally, however, I prefer Anna Reynolds' more haunting lament under Previn...only because Reynolds sounds like a younger woman and to me this is more convincing (and tragic, given the "robbery" of war). Previn also has the added bonus of being recorded in EMI's double-forte Classics series, which also has the complete "Ivan the Terrible" (with brilliant soloists including a more youthful and vocally secure Irina Arkhipova) and Rachmaninov's "The Bells". Nonetheless, I give this recording it's due as a great rendition of what I consider to be Prokofiev's most accessible vocal work.The Scythian Suite begins to delve into what I like less about Prokofiev but what, nonetheless, is his more radical and novel side. My comments are therefore curtailed to say this: I have heard far more impenetrable compositions so it's clearly not beyond appreciation (even from someone like me who dislikes dissonance/atonality). Moreover, Abbado's conducting doesn't convey any notion of sheer chaos, so for those who can better appreciate it, this will likely be a good reading (I'm given to believe more than "good" but given my admitted lack of objectivity on the matter, I wouldn't want to indulge my own ignorance). Lieutenant Kije on the other hand is a lovely little work. Anyone who remembers the soundtrack from "The Gladiator" will recognise the inspiration for some of the film's music (together with Wagner's Gotterdammerung incidentally). Again Maestro Abbado conducts with true feeling and warmth, convincingly conveying the drama. This disc forms an worthy part of any introduction to Prokofiev.
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