Khachaturian: Concerto for violin in Dm; Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky, Op. 78

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
Here's an irresistible bargain: two of the glories of RCA's rich Living Stereo catalog on one midpriced disc. Reiner's performance of the concert work Prokofiev fashioned from his score to Eisenstein's film bristles with focused energy. Although the Russian text is given in English translation--the practice four decades ago when this recording was made--the splendid chorus and mezzo-soprano Rosalind Elias make a powerful impact. The orchestra is outstanding, full of imaginative solo touches and immense power--the Battle on the Ice is overwhelming, especially as captured in spectacular sound as fresh and immediate as anything recorded today. The Khachaturian too, is outstanding. Kogan's silky tone and idiomatic playing get everything there is to get from one of the composer's best works. Monteux and the Bostonians match him with verve in the outer movements and delicacy in the gorgeously sinuous Andante Sostenuto. This disc is a must-have. --Dan Davis

Tracks:

Alexander Nevsky, Op.78: Russia Under The Mongolian Yoke
Alexander Nevsky, Op.78: Song About Alexander Nevsky
Alexander Nevsky, Op.78: The Crusaders In Pskov
Alexander Nevsky, Op.78: Arise, Ye Russian People
Alexander Nevsky, Op.78: The Battle On The Ice
Alexander Nevsky, Op.78: Field Of The Dead
Alexander Nevsky, Op.78: Alexander's Entry Into Pskov
Violin Concerto: Allegro con fermezza - Leonid Kogan
Violin Concerto: Andante sostenuto - Leonid Kogan
Violin Concerto: Allegro vivace - Leonid Kogan

Amazon.com essential recording

Here's an irresistible bargain: two of the glories of RCA's rich Living Stereo catalog on one midpriced disc. Reiner's performance of the concert work Prokofiev fashioned from his score to Eisenstein's film bristles with focused energy. Although the Russian text is given in English translation--the practice four decades ago when this recording was made--the splendid chorus and mezzo-soprano Rosalind Elias make a powerful impact. The orchestra is outstanding, full of imaginative solo touches and immense power--the Battle on the Ice is overwhelming, especially as captured in spectacular sound as fresh and immediate as anything recorded today. The Khachaturian too, is outstanding. Kogan's silky tone and idiomatic playing get everything there is to get from one of the composer's best works. Monteux and the Bostonians match him with verve in the outer movements and delicacy in the gorgeously sinuous Andante Sostenuto. This disc is a must-have. --Dan Davis

Customer Reviews:

mediocre Prokofiev but an excellent Khachaturian.......2007-01-12

I find the performance of Alexander Nevsky here only mediocre; I confess that I can't hear what the other reviewers are so excited about. If it's the Prokofiev score you're most interested in, buy Valery Gergiev's album excellent recording with the Kirov Orchestra instead. THAT performance breathes the right sort of Russian vernacular accent into the score: the chorus has that disctinctly dark Russian timbre (they sing in the original Russian), and Gergiev brings the right kind of tragic pathos to the orchestral playing... his album reminds me of those thoroughly and uniquely Russian performances of the last three Tchaikovsky symphonies by the Leningrad Philharmonic and Evgeny Mravinsky: performances of an authentic, indigenous character that no American orchestra could ever match. With Reiner and Chicago, on the other hand, the Prokofiev here comes off so square and lame. The chorus sounds like a Sunday school with its prim and proper annunciation of the hokey English translation, and for as good as the Chicago Symphony plays they just don't get the style right... it doesn't sound very Russian at all, and I was tempted to wonder if Reinder and the Chicago Symphony might not have brought a bit of contempt to the table for the Russian patriotism celebrated in the libretto, given that this was an American orchestra (and a conductor whose native country had been assimilated into the Soviet Bloc) performing the piece at the height of the Cold War.

Prokofiev's Nevsky film score is a much better composition than even the best of John Williams' film scores, but this performance weak enough that you really don't realize that. I listened to this disc before I did Gergiev's, and I though, hmm... this isn't really better than Jurassic Park, or the Star Wars scores. I realized the next day how wrong I was!

The Khachaturian Violin Concerto makes the disc worth hearing, however. This lesser-known piece is a real gem, lyrical and colored with a gorgeous Eastern modality. The old Boston Symphony under Monteux offer subtle, sophisticated playing with the soloist Leonid Kogan. It's a piece and a performance much more worth your while than the usual violin concerto offerings by whichever batch of young, hotshot virtuosi it is that currently fills the record store shelves.

This Nevsky will kick your butt and cook you breakfast!.......2006-02-16

The probably apocryphal story is that while making Nevsky, they recorded a scratch track with fewer musicians before doing the final recording, played the movie for Stalin, he said "Love it! Don't change a thing!"-- and they were afraid to do the final recording after that, hence the crummy sound that the soundtrack of Eisenstein's film has had ever since. In reality it's probably a perfectly typical recording job for the mid-30s, but if it's how you know Prokofiev's score, this classic recording from less than two decades later-- but a different era in terms of recording technology-- will be a revelation. This is bombast at its finest, an incredibly vigorous and muscular and rousing performance, and after listening to it you'll wonder why Reiner didn't lead his orchestra out of the hall and straight to Russia to overthrow Communism. Especially given its bargain price, this is a great reissue and essential as an example of one of the great orchestra-conductor combos of all time.

Not for the pure music lover.......2005-07-15

Khachaturian's Violin Concerto is one of my favorite concertos but this rendition, in my estimation, is poorly executed by the technical recording people. Here the orchestra is the prominent feature and the violin, which should be prominent, is merely bckground accompaniment and is barely audible.
Perhaps in a film scene, where the prime concentration of the audience is not on the music but on the play itself, it may be adequate as backround. But as a separate selection where the listener wants to enjoy the violin music, it is a failure and I would not recommend it to the pure music lover.

Outstanding recording of a stirring film score.......2001-01-30

The only real question is whether you really should see the film "Alexander Nevsky" first, before listening to this recording. I think so. I saw it perhaps twice, circa 1973-74, when it was featured on PBS. This recording conjured up a host of vivid, often jarring, images from the film that have never really left my consciousness. As great music, the score certainly stands on its own as an exceptional work of art. However, the full effect is achieved only if you also have been exposed to the accompanying images. The opening track on the CD is near the top of my list for most ominous and/or scary passages in music.

In brief, the late 1930's Soviet film recounted a 13th century attempt by the (German) Teutonic Knights to conquer Russia, and their defeat by a Russian army under Alexander Nevsky (who, by the way, is recognized as a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church). Produced before the Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939, it was conceived largely as anti-German propaganda, portraying the Knights as a brutally murderous gang, driven in part by a warped (Western) religiosity (thus also an anti-Christian, especially anti-Western Christian, subtext). Setting aside the historical debate over exactly how bloodthirsty the Knights really were, the film is extremely well-crafted, and the scenes of the Knights' depredations are truly haunting.

In the print that I saw aired on TV eons ago, the musical soundtrack was poorly-recorded. The sound ranged from murky to screeching. Nonetheless, it had a great power that was integral to the story. On this disc you can hear how that score should have sounded.

You might check the packaging of this same work in RCA's Basic 100 Series, Volume 72. As some of the customers reviewing that disc comment, it does seem rather odd that the vocals were done in English translation, rather than in Russian. I find this to be a rather minor issue, given the quality of the voices and the overall effect which transcends what actually is being sung (rather banal lyrics, in any tongue).

The Khachaturian piece is wonderful, and shows a side of the composer that may be unfamiliar to those who just know him from Gayane or Masquerade. If you'd prefer more Prokofiev, consider the Basic 100 pairing with Lt. Kije instead. Either way, you can't go wrong.

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