Have we forgotten how
much of a player Chandos has been in
the Prokofiev discography? The concertos
and symphonies have been in their lists
since the 1980s as has the piano music.
Jarvi and Berman were the artists in
the Chandos vanguard. Järvi's 1980s
Sixth Symphony with what is now the
RSNO is still highly recommendable and
was an early exemplar of what could
be done with serious scores and digital
sound. It was the first CD I bought.
In this the fiftieth
year since Prokofiev's death Chandos
have been issuing new recordings of
rarities and exotica under Polyansky
(CHAN 10056 Zdravitsa; Autumnal; Hamlet;
Flourish, Mighty Land; Egyptian Nights
and CHAN 10044 On the Dnieper; Songs
of our Days) while at the same time
scrubbing up analogue Melodiya tapes
of the operas Semyon Kotko CHAN10053(3)
and the even more effective The Story
of a Real Man CHAN10002(2).
The present CD set
is the latest revival from Polyansky
and his usual orchestra. This is the
complete music for Eisenstein's Ivan
- all 54 tracks of it. To bring the
Ivan sequence to close to 97 minutes
Russian Orthodox chants and choral pieces
by Bortniansky, Ivanov and Kastalsky
used throughout the film have been included
in their plot-appropriate places. Chandos
are not the first to do this. In 1999
Nimbus issued a 2CD set of the same
music where the conductor was Vladimir
Fedoseyev with the Tchaikovsky Symphony
Orchestra. This was NIMBUS NI 5662/3.
The sound quality is pretty evenly matched.
Fedoseyev's recordings for the Relief
label have been criticised for the opaque
sound quality. However the sound for
Nimbus was quite the opposite - being
full, vital. broad in the soundstage
and deep in perspective. The results
for Chandos are related although the
scales are now weighted towards Chandos
in impact and realism.
You will have come
across recordings of Ivan the Terrible
before. Most will be the version
prepared by Abram Stasevich with the
linkage provided by an orator. That
is still a perfectly viable and commendable
way of getting to hear much of what Prokofiev
wrote. Chandos recorded a Christopher
Palmer version without orator in the
1990s and you can still get that. This
current Chandos issue and the Fedoseyev
on Nimbus present the complete score
in film sequence rather as Temirkanov
did for Prokofiev's other Eisenstein
score - Alexander Nevsky on BMG
- although the results are in Ivan’s
case musically more coherent and possess
a good narrative trajectory.
There are bound to
be those with reservations about film
music even if it was written by Prokofiev.
Those worries may be heightened by the
fact that this is a complete version;
surely a musically sensitive suite grabbing
the plums and gems would be preferable?
After all it is a commonplace that film
music may not work well outside its
visual envelope. This Prokofiev score
is not damaged in that way. The composer
seems to have been driven to write rather
than to have written on bland autopilot
- a criticism that can be levelled at
Bax's music for Oliver Twist (and
I am a staunch Baxian!). The quality
of the writing offsets any fears that
the repetition of material from scene
into another might create boredom. Taking
just one example, the Song of the
Oprichniks is sung by Toptygin.
He and the men of the chorus sternly
and fervently capture the savagery of
the Oprichniks towards the Boyar landowners.
This is music that, in its insistent
pecking impacts, parallels the inspiration
of Carl Orff in Carmina Burana.
Having in the past
upbraided Polyansky for a certain lassitude
in his Glazunov symphonies (also Chandos)
I am pleased to be able to report that
here he is on astounding form. His recording
of the Taneyev symphonies 2 and 4 (again
Chandos) shows him in similar fettle.
In the case of the Ivan music
his singers and players are with him
to a man and woman this version being
red in tooth and claw. The sound captured
by Igor Veprintsev is awesome - a word
I do not use lightly. The quaking depth
of the bass singing is one indicator;
the amplitude of the depth plumbing
bell (always a key player in grand Russian
scores), the abrasive profundity of
the brass, the tortured screaming high
notes of the trumpets and the upwards
and downwards slashes of the strings
at the start - all of these leave me
in no doubt that this is a market leader.
The salacious rasping and wheezing saxophone
and brass pull no punches in the Song
of the Oprichniks (non-choral version
- tr.14 CD2).
While Polyansky avoids
the dangerous extremes indulged by the
likes of Golovanov there is something
of Golovanov's fire in the belly in
Polyansky's leadership and the orchestra's
passionate and brooding response. I
heard recently an Arkadia CD of Golovanov's
way with Rachmaninov 3. The disregard
for iterated convention, the headstrong
astonishing emphases and accents made
this a special experience. The Polyansky
offers similar revelations.
Where the Fedoseyev-Nimbus
set is completely trounced is in the
addition of the 20 minute work Ballad
of an Unknown Boy. The storyline
is that of the revenge of a child whose
mother and sister are killed by the
Nazis. The revenge is the blowing up
of a carload of Nazi officers. The work
proceeds at an implacably determined
walking pace and does so with an air
of brooding resentment.
If we are tempted to
feel superior about these heroics I
suggest we think again, many of us thankfully
not having lived through such times.
The direct language of the poem and
the visionary heroic gleam of the choral
peroration reflects a world that most
of us will not have had to experience.
By all means dislike this music for
its intrinsic musical qualities but
spare us the superiority of a lofty
sneer at soviet heroics. If this is
propaganda it has about it some glory
as well and non-Soviets also have and
have had their ‘exalted’ wartime heroics
such as Vaughan Williams’ Thanksgiving
for Victory (also for narrator,
chorus and orchestra), Walton's Prelude
and Spitfire Fugue, Copland's Lincoln
Portrait and much more.
The Chandos presentation
complements and enhances a very positive
impression. The booklet prints all the
sung texts in Cyrillic, French, German
and English across 18 pages for the
Ivan music and a further nine for the
Ballad. Each Ivan track is listed
with a plot description so that rather
than just following what is sung you
can also follow the plot through stage
by stage whether the human voice is
involved or not.
The slip case and the
CD insert include that striking semi-profile
still of Nikolai Cherkassov (b. 27 July
1903, Leningrad, d. 14 September 1966).
This is the same actor whose fresh good
looks (one source has him as the ‘Soviet
Gary Cooper’) the very antithesis of
Ivan made him a natural for Eisenstein’s
1938 epic Alexander Nevsky. Interestingly
Cherkassov also appeared as Stasov in
Soviet films about the lives of Mussorgsky
and Rimsky in 1950 and 1952 respectively.
Rob Barnett
TRACK LAYOUT AND SCENES FOR IVAN
THE TERRIBLE
Incidental music for the film Ivan Grozny
by Sergei Eisenstein for soloists, choir
and orchestra
COMPACT DISC ONE
Ivan the Terrible, Op. 116 97:24
Part I
Scene 1. Prologue 11:34
1 Overture 2:38
2 Death of Glinskaya 1:06
3 Young Ivan's March 1:42
4 The Ocean - the Sea* 3:19
5 Shuisky and the keepers of the hounds
1:34
6 Death of Glinskaya 1:05
Scene 2. The Coronation 9:44
7 Kyrie eleison 1:11
8 Sofroniev Cherubic Hymn (A. Kastalsky)
5:41
9 May he live forever!† 2:52
Scene 3. The Wedding 6:21
10 Glorification 3:03
11 The Swan 1:08
12 The Simpleton 1:02
13 Riot 1:08
Scene 4. The Conquest of Kazan 11:53
14 Entrance of the Tartars 0:14
15 Cannon are brought to Kazan 1:08
16 Kurbsky's trumpets 0:27
17 Ivan's tent 1:06
18 Tartar steppes 1:43
19 The Artillerymen 0:48
20 The Tartars 1:17
21 Kurbsky's trumpets 0:28
22 Attack 1:03
23 Malyuta's jealousy 0:42
24 Kazan has fallen 0:57
Scene 5. Ivan's illness 8:00
25 O, my soul (liturgical chant) 1:38
26 O, Lord most gracious (liturgical
chant) 0:52
27 O, my soul (liturgical chant) 1:20
28 Ivan's appeal to the Boyars 4:10
Scene 6. The Death of Anastasia 12:00
29 Anastasia's illness 3:44
30 Anastasia is poisoned 2:25
31 Eternal remembrance (liturgical chant)
1:22
32 Rest with the saints (liturgical
chant) 1:20
33 Thou alone (liturgical chant) 1:52
34 Ivan at Anastasia's coffin 1:17
Scene 7. The Oath of the Oprichniks
7:55
35 Oath of the Oprichniks 6:08
36 Come back!‡ 1:47
66:25
COMPACT DISC TWO
Part II
1 Overture 1:31
Scene 8. At the Polish Court 2:53
2 Fanfares 0:32
3 Polonaise 1:47
4 Fanfares 0:34
Scene 9. Lamentation for the executed
Boyars 6:41
5 Do not sob, Mother (F. Ivanov) 3:13
6 It were better for you, Judas 1:55
7 Shuisky and the keepers of the hounds
1:34
Scene 10. The Fiery Furnace (liturgical
drama) 7:09
8 Wondrous is God (D. Bortnyansky) 0:53
9 Song of the boys § 3:15
10 Song about the beaver* 3:01
Scene 11. The Tsar's banquet and The
Cathedral 12:35
11 Chaotic dance and Orderly dance of
the Oprichniks 1:43
12 Song of the Oprichniks¶ 2:03
13 O, my soul (liturgical chant) 1:21
14 Song of the Oprichniks (without choir)
0:48
15 Chorus of the Oprichniks (without
words) 3:55
16 Vladimir's murder 0:22
17 Entrance of Ivan 0:54
18 Finale 1:29
Russian State Symphonic Cappella