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What Prokofiev wanted
Orchestra plays "Alexander Nevsky' (3rd review)
Steve Cohen
The wedding of a live orchestra with the film of Alexander Nevsky may be fascinating, but Prokofiev's music really conveys more power when it stands alone, uninterrupted by long pauses for dialogue, sound effects and silent scenes.
The composer recognized as much. Only a few weeks after the film's premiere in 1938, Prokofiev arranged a cantata version for a large orchestra— a version that restored the film's cuts and considerably expanded parts of the score. He conducted the first performance in Moscow in May 1939 in an early celebration of Stalin's 60th birthday.
In their reviews of the Philadelphia Orchestra's recent Nevsky programs, BSR's contributors Andrew Mangravite and Peter Burwasser focused on the film. Let me concentrate on the music.
When he collaborated on the filming, Prokofiev orchestrated his score for a smallish chamber group, which he placed close to microphones. He situated horns (intended to represent the Teutonic Knights) especially close to the microphones to produce a crackling sound. The strings and choral groups were recorded in different studios, and the pieces were later mixed.
Stokowski's connection
No score from the movie version exists today. Prokofiev and the film's director, Sergei Eisenstein, wrote about their work, yet neither mentioned why the manuscripts weren't deposited in a library or archive. That neglect, plus Prokofiev's haste in writing a different version, suggests that the composer considered the music in the film to be inferior.
The cantata was given its American premiere by Stokowski with the NBC Symphony in 1943. Stokowski had a strong connection with Prokofiev: The two musical giants spent time together in Paris in the 1920s and Moscow in the 1950s. As Stokowski explained to me when I was a budding radio host, the Nevsky pieces embodied a unique array of Prokofiev's varied styles.
In the cantata version, these styles follow each other with almost no pauses, so we can appreciate the contrasts. Prokofiev's score fuses melody (as in his Peter and the Wolf) and modernism (as in his Pas d'Acier ballet glorifying Soviet heavy industry). It's atmospheric, moody, gripping, and it includes a stirring patriotic anthem.
Echoes of Jaws
You can also hear a particularly foreboding bass-line that was later stolen by John Williams for the shark's attack theme in Jaws. Prokofiev also wrote fake Latin prayers, sung by the Teutonic Knights, that sound like a mischievous jab at one of the gimmicks used by his rival, Igor Stravinsky, in Symphony of Psalms. Prokofiev disliked Stravinsky because of his "backwards-looking" music and because he chose to remain in the West, whereas Prokofiev's returned to Stalinist Russia.
The enemy German knights are represented by heavy brass instruments, playing in a martial style. The sympathetic Russian forces are represented by folk-like instruments: woodwinds and strings. The piece's climax is a solo for mezzo-soprano that Jennie Tourel described as "monumental, when a girl passes by the field of the dead soldiers."
Tourel, born in Russia, sang the American premiere with Stokowski and they repeated it in a gala concert at Madison Square Garden to sell U.S. war bonds during World War II— a reminder that Alexander Nevsky was explicitly connected to world politics.
Wartime propaganda
The Soviet government intended the 1938 film as propaganda to stir up the Russian populace against Germany and to distract attention from Stalin's Great Purge against alleged internal enemies of his regime. After Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler in August of 1939, the film was withdrawn from exhibition. But after Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the movie and the cantata were resurrected and became immense parts of the Russian war effort.
Winston Churchill had no love for Soviet Russia, but in 1941 he saw the need for an alliance between himself and Hitler's other foe. His immediate problem was how generate sympathy for the Russians among his fellow Britons. To address that problem, Churchill commissioned a BBC broadcast of an English-language version of Alexander Nevsky. Ironically (or fortuitously), the performance was broadcast on December 8, 1941, the day that the U.S. entered the war.
The Philadelphia Orchestra has performed the Nevsky cantata in the past— led by Ormandy, Rostropovich, Muti, and Stokowski at Robin Hood Dell in 1965— but not recently. I'd like to hear its return. William Brohn's re-orchestration of the film score is excellent. Prokofiev's cantata orchestration, performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, would be even better.♦
To read another review by Andrew Mangravite, click here.
To read another review by Peter Burwasser, click here.
The composer recognized as much. Only a few weeks after the film's premiere in 1938, Prokofiev arranged a cantata version for a large orchestra— a version that restored the film's cuts and considerably expanded parts of the score. He conducted the first performance in Moscow in May 1939 in an early celebration of Stalin's 60th birthday.
In their reviews of the Philadelphia Orchestra's recent Nevsky programs, BSR's contributors Andrew Mangravite and Peter Burwasser focused on the film. Let me concentrate on the music.
When he collaborated on the filming, Prokofiev orchestrated his score for a smallish chamber group, which he placed close to microphones. He situated horns (intended to represent the Teutonic Knights) especially close to the microphones to produce a crackling sound. The strings and choral groups were recorded in different studios, and the pieces were later mixed.
Stokowski's connection
No score from the movie version exists today. Prokofiev and the film's director, Sergei Eisenstein, wrote about their work, yet neither mentioned why the manuscripts weren't deposited in a library or archive. That neglect, plus Prokofiev's haste in writing a different version, suggests that the composer considered the music in the film to be inferior.
The cantata was given its American premiere by Stokowski with the NBC Symphony in 1943. Stokowski had a strong connection with Prokofiev: The two musical giants spent time together in Paris in the 1920s and Moscow in the 1950s. As Stokowski explained to me when I was a budding radio host, the Nevsky pieces embodied a unique array of Prokofiev's varied styles.
In the cantata version, these styles follow each other with almost no pauses, so we can appreciate the contrasts. Prokofiev's score fuses melody (as in his Peter and the Wolf) and modernism (as in his Pas d'Acier ballet glorifying Soviet heavy industry). It's atmospheric, moody, gripping, and it includes a stirring patriotic anthem.
Echoes of Jaws
You can also hear a particularly foreboding bass-line that was later stolen by John Williams for the shark's attack theme in Jaws. Prokofiev also wrote fake Latin prayers, sung by the Teutonic Knights, that sound like a mischievous jab at one of the gimmicks used by his rival, Igor Stravinsky, in Symphony of Psalms. Prokofiev disliked Stravinsky because of his "backwards-looking" music and because he chose to remain in the West, whereas Prokofiev's returned to Stalinist Russia.
The enemy German knights are represented by heavy brass instruments, playing in a martial style. The sympathetic Russian forces are represented by folk-like instruments: woodwinds and strings. The piece's climax is a solo for mezzo-soprano that Jennie Tourel described as "monumental, when a girl passes by the field of the dead soldiers."
Tourel, born in Russia, sang the American premiere with Stokowski and they repeated it in a gala concert at Madison Square Garden to sell U.S. war bonds during World War II— a reminder that Alexander Nevsky was explicitly connected to world politics.
Wartime propaganda
The Soviet government intended the 1938 film as propaganda to stir up the Russian populace against Germany and to distract attention from Stalin's Great Purge against alleged internal enemies of his regime. After Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler in August of 1939, the film was withdrawn from exhibition. But after Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the movie and the cantata were resurrected and became immense parts of the Russian war effort.
Winston Churchill had no love for Soviet Russia, but in 1941 he saw the need for an alliance between himself and Hitler's other foe. His immediate problem was how generate sympathy for the Russians among his fellow Britons. To address that problem, Churchill commissioned a BBC broadcast of an English-language version of Alexander Nevsky. Ironically (or fortuitously), the performance was broadcast on December 8, 1941, the day that the U.S. entered the war.
The Philadelphia Orchestra has performed the Nevsky cantata in the past— led by Ormandy, Rostropovich, Muti, and Stokowski at Robin Hood Dell in 1965— but not recently. I'd like to hear its return. William Brohn's re-orchestration of the film score is excellent. Prokofiev's cantata orchestration, performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, would be even better.♦
To read another review by Andrew Mangravite, click here.
To read another review by Peter Burwasser, click here.
What, When, Where
Philadelphia Orchestra: Prokofiev, Alexander Nevsky. Film directed by Sergei Eisenstein; Michelle DeYoung, mezzo-soprano; Stéphane Denève, conductor; Philadelphia Singers Chorale, David Hayes, music director. November 15-17, 2012 at Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center, Broad and Spruce Sts. (215) 893-1999 or www.philorch.org.
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