Episode 4
Donald Macleod explores Prokofiev's music for stage and screen, focusing on Soviet realism, frothy comedy and a collaboration with the film maker Sergei Eisenstein.
In Thursday's programme, Prokofiev's incidental music for a staged version of Eugene Onegin, in which the composer proves that less can be more; Alexander Nevsky, his first Eisenstein collaboration; his 'Soviet' opera Semyon Kotko, a magnificent score despite the composer's preoccupation with staying 'on message' with the authorities; at the other end of the operatic scale, the light-hearted Betrothal in a Monastery, based on Sheridan's extravagant 18th-century comedy of manners The Duenna or The Double Elopement; and music from the ballet Cinderella, in one of its incarnations for solo piano.
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Music Played
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Sergey Prokofiev
?Peter and the Wolf
Composer: Prokofiev Performer: Neeme Järvi Performer: Scottish National Orchestra
- Chandos 8511.
- 9.
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Sergey Prokofiev
Eugene Onegin
Performer: Timoth West (Narrator) Performer: Terrence Hardiman (Zaretsky) Performer: Samuel West (Eugene Onegin) Performer: Edward Downes Performer: Sinfonia 21
- Chandos 10541(2).
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Sergey Prokofiev
Alexander Nevsky
Performer: Claudio Abbado Performer: London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
- Deutsche Gramophon 419 603-2.
- 5.
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Sergey Prokofiev
?Semyon Kotko
Performer: Tatiana Pavlovskaya (Sofya) Performer: Olga Savova (Frosya) Performer: Mikhail Petrenko (1st Haydamak) Performer: Gennady Bezzubenkov (Tkachenko) Performer: Yuri Laptev (Von Wierhof) Performer: Olga Markova-Mikhailenko (Khivrya) Performer: Ekaterina Solovieva (Lyubka) Performer: Lyudmila Kasianenko, Lia Shevtsova, Zlata Bulycheva (3 women) Performer: Mikhail Nikanorov, Vladimir Zhivopistev (2 villagers) Performer: Grigory Karasev (Old man) Performer: Women’s chorus Performer: Valery Gergiev Performer: Chorus and Orchestra of the Kirov, St Petersburg
- Philips 464 605-2.
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Sergey Prokofiev
Betrothal in a Monastery
Performer: Marianna Tarassova (Clara d’Almanza) Performer: Liubov Sokolova (Rosina) Performer: Anna Netrebko (Louisa) Performer: Valery Gergiev Performer: Orchestra of the Kirov, St Petersburg
- Philips 462 107-2.
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Sergey Prokofiev
?3 Pieces from Cinderella
Performer: Boris Berman (piano)
- Chandos 9069.
Broadcasts
- Thu 18 Mar 201012:00BBC Radio 3
- Thu 18 Mar 201022:00BBC Radio 3
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