Fine Score For A Great Movie

The film Alexander Nevsky directed by Sergey Eisenstein is a classic of world cinema, helped to a great degree by the brilliant score of Prokofiev. This disk has as its' centrepiece the cantata that Prokofiev produced from the score. It is a work that would repay being programmed much more frequently in concert halls, although it needs quite large resources which might be a disincentive. Here it is performed by The Russian State Symphony Orchestra and Stanislavsky Chorus conducted by Dmitry Yablonsky. Mezzo Irina Gelahova sings the keystone solo The Field of Death which follows on from the climactic Battle on the Ice. The music is full of distinctive Prokofiev touches and it also places him in a very Russian context. There are fillers on the disk of other music written to accompany projected theatrical and cinematic ventures, not all of which came to fruition. Some of these are less impressive more journeyman attempts, such as the music for various Pushkin plays edited by the conductor Rozhdestvensky as Pushkiniana and a dance piece from a poorly received Eisenstein movie Ivan The Terrible. Well worth hearing though is the Ghost of Hamlet's Father from a staging of Shakespeare's play, which like Alexander Nevsky portrays the mood and action evocatively.