Release Date: 03 January 2006
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 747313272525
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: PROKOFIEV
Description
Sergey Prokofiev (1891-1953)Alexander Nevsky, Op. 78 Lieutenant Kije Suite, Op. 60 Sergey Prokofiev was born in 1891 at Sontsovka in Ukraine, the son of a prosperous estate manager. An only child, his musical talents werefostered by his mother, a cultured amateur pianist, and he tried his hand at compositionat the age of five, later being tutored at home by the composer Gli?¿re. In1904, on the advice of Glazunov, his parents allowed him to enter the StPetersburg Conservatory, where he continued his studies as a pianist andcomposer until 1914, owing more to the influence of senior fellow-studentsAsafyev and Myaskovsky than to the older generation of teachers, represented byLyadov and Rimsky-Korsakov.Even as a student Prokofiev had begun to make his mark as acomposer, arousing enthusiasm and hostility in equal measure, and inducingGlazunov, now director of the Conservatory, to walk out of a performance of TheScythian Suite, fearing for his sense of hearing. During the war he gainedexemption from military service by enrolling as an organ student and after theRevolution was given permission to travel abroad, at first to America, taking with him the scores of The Scythian Suite, arranged from a ballet originallycommissioned by the impresario Diaghilev, the Classical Symphony and hisfirst Violin Concerto.Unlike Stravinsky and Rachmaninov, Prokofiev had left Russia with official permission and with the idea of returning home sooner or later. By1920, when life in America was proving less immediately rewarding, he moved to Paris, where he re-established contact with Diaghilev, for whom he revised The Tale ofthe Buffoon, a ballet successfully staged in 1921. He spent much of the nextsixteen years in France, returning from time to time to Russia, where his music was still acceptable.In 1936 Prokofiev decided to settle once more in his nativecountry, taking up residence in Moscow in time for the first onslaught on musicthat did not suit the political and social aims of the government, falling, as Shostakovichis said to have remarked, 'like a chicken into the soup'. Twelve years later,after the difficult war years, his name was joined with that of Shostakovichand others in explicit official condemnation, now with particular reference toProkofiev's opera War and Peace. He died in 1953 on the same day asStalin and thus never benefited from the subsequent partial relaxation of officialpolicy on the arts.The cantata Alexander Nevsky is drawn from the musicProkofiev wrote in 1938 for Sergey Eisenstein's film dealing with the 13th-centuryconflict between Russia and the Teutonic crusaders, events which seemed to havea contemporary relevance, with the growing threat to Soviet Russia from NaziGermany. Both Eisenstein and Prokofiev had had experience of Hollywood, thelatter during a visit in 1938, and Prokofiev coupled an interest in the newtechnology with an enthusiasm for the medium, demonstrated in the eight film-scoresthat he wrote. These included a further p
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Zenz:Cathariou:Iacovidou
Zahir Ensemble
Yun-Yi Qin
