It is as if Michail
Jurowski, CPO and Capriccio were working
on a coordinated basis to traverse Prokofiev's
incidental music. CPO are covering the
ballets while Capriccio are handling
the theatrical and cinema music. Capriccio
have already issued CDs of the complete
music for Alexander Nevsky (neither
with Jurowski as it happens) but they
have also recorded with that conductor
Prokofiev's music for Hamlet and
for Boris Godunov (Capriccio
CD 67 058). Now here comes the complete
music for Egyptian Nights (a
Pushkin work that also inspired music
by Arensky). The ballet is a rare visitor
to the studio with only a couple of
suites on offer (Polyansky
on Chandos and Rozhdestvensky on
Olympia if you could track it down).
Egyptian Nights
was a ballet around a theatrical
event which was a hybrid of Bernard
Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra and
Shakespeare’s Anthony and Cleopatra
as well as Pushkin's unfinished tale
of the same name. I last hear this movement
back in 1999 in a BBC Philharmonic
Orchestra Manchester studio concert
conducted by that arch-Russophile Edward
Downes.
There are thirteen
episodes here - ranging from the 43
second Drinking Song for bass
voice and chorus (tr. 6) to the 7 minute
46 second Melodrama (tr. 5).
The music is strong
on tension and atmosphere with spare
rather than sumptuous textures. Everything
is cleanly laid out and one of the hallmarks
is the flute-led chatter of birdsong
and the tensely tremulous bed of strings
creating anticipation. The clarinet
song at 5.09 sings out over a basso
ostinato. The song is taken up by the
violins in pre-echo of the treatment
of a similar theme in Romeo and Juliet.
Coarsely blown fanfares suggest the
barbaric Egyptian court. There is a
beautiful movement with the harp quietly
pattering in an extraordinary evocation
of ancient evenings - The Young Slaves
Play. The mighty and merciless Romans
are suggested by music of colossal weight
and inhumanity - Prokofiev's equivalent
of shock and awe. We hear more of the
same in the thunder and insistent attack
of the warlike Rome (trs. 8 and 11).
There is plenty of work for tam-tam,
percussion, brass - especially trombones
and tuba. Victor Sawaley is the fearful
voice of the eunuchs in tr. 9.
I am partial to melodrama
and hearing Chulpan Chamatova speaking
in Russian with such hooded threat and
seductive promise over Prokofiev's magical
score makes this a disc I will return
to. Chulpan is also the orator on tracks
5 and 12 but Jacob Küf, also speaking
in resonant Russian as Anthony on tr.
7, is also outstanding. I love the Chandos
version of Eugene Onegin but
the words are spoken there in English.
Now if only that production could have
been in the original Russian; better
yet, how about a reissued of the extraordinary
1976 Melodiya set of 2 LPs where the
music is conducted by Kemal Abdullayev
(USSR Central TV and Radio Symphony
Orchestra) and the actors are Konsovskii,
Kibkalo and Milanovich.
The music works extremely
well and Jurowski and his Berlin forces
are sympathetic and idiomatic. Prokofiev's
music works well except that Antony's
Death seems rather matter of fact
- careless almost. All is redeemed by
the imploring, pained and yet still
amorously inveigling voice of Cleopatra;
Chamatova enters fully into the spirit
of this production.
Intriguingly the music
was conducted at the theatre by Nikolai
Medtner's brother Alexander Karlovich
Medtner (1877-1956).
As befits such a significant
set the notes, in German and English,
are thorough, highly detailed and scholarly.
All the words are given
in English, German and French but irritatingly
not in transliterated Russian; after
all, the words are acted out in Russian.
This is a unique recording
and is an essential purchase for any
Prokofiev collector.
Rob Barnett
RIAS-Kammerchor 
for details