Serge PROKOFIEV (1891-1953) Cantata for
the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution (1937) [31:13]
Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975) The Sun Shines over our Motherland
(1952) [12:17]
RSFSR Russian Chorus
Boys Choir of Moscow Choir School
Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra/Kirill Kondrashin
rec. 1965, Moscow
Source used for Transfer: Angel/Melodiya 4-Track Tape
HIGH DEFINITION TAPE TRANSFER HDCD229 [43:30] 
HDTT are at their devastating zenith when working from reel-to-reel tapes.
Things could have gone to hell in a handcart with the first black-hearted
piled high chord in the Prokofiev. However the CD renders the moment with
total fidelity and security. The singing is large, passionate, raw and full
blooded. The choir takes on the massed voice of The People in all its illimitable
power. The brass roar and gallop at 2:38 (tr.1). The sounds are on a seismic
scale and are superbly and naturally rendered in tr. 4 at 5:10. Those machine
gun ratatats and huge rushing sounds emanating from the 500 strong orchestra
and choirs are viscerally exciting. The orchestration is full of incident
including an accordion (tr.4 7.16), siren effects and an over-the-top amplified
narrator. In tr. 5 the quiet-pulsed sweetness of Romeo and Juliet is
referenced in silvery white light. What a shame that Stalin’s Vow (the
original 8th section) is omitted – room for a truly faithful version
in future. It’s just a pity that the nine sections are not fully separately
tracked.
The Shostakovich (also on Melodiya)
is soft-contoured and has very little of the individual DSCH we know. This
is however a passionately fervent performance as with the Prokofiev and there
are some nicely rounded lyrical ideas. The latter are obviously no mean thing
and reflect Shostakovich tackling an idiom he has not addressed before as
in the case of the Second Piano Concerto. The blast furnace ardour returns
when the children’s voices sing of “My Soviet land shine through all corners
of the world.” Grandiloquence or what? Just a bit vacuous? Well, maybe - you
can either wince or revel in the Korngold-style brass.
These two works reflect a political genre beginning with Kastalsky’s Lenin
to the Proletariat and The Year 1905 and continuing through Aleksander
Davidenko and a collective’s The October Path, Schulhoff’s Communist
Manifesto and Alexander Krein’s USSR – Shock Brigade of the World.
If you hanker after more Prokofiev in this grandiloquent vein then Chandos
will oblige with On
guard for peace; Zdravitsa (1939), Flourish
Mighty Land 1947) and Songs
of Our Days.
The words are printed on the insert in English but there’s no transliterated
sung text.
We can deprecate the words if we want an easy sitting target. It’s an aspect
easily accessible if we want to set ourselves obstacles to musical appreciation.
On the other hand how about listening to the music? It’s by no means subtle
but it is not irredeemable and may yet surprise you if you let it. Spectacular
stuff.
Rob Barnett
By no means subtle but it is not irredeemable and may yet surprise you if you let it.