Prokofiev - "On Guard for Peace", op.124, Suite from ''The Queen of Spades'' (2009)

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Prokofiev - "On Guard for Peace", op.124, Suite from ''The Queen of Spades'' (2009)

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This disc contains two works that have been newly recorded. And they are strange works indeed. During the late 1930s Prokofiev wrote three pieces based on works of Pushkin – incidental music for a production of Pushkin's play, Boris Godunov; incidental music for a stage production of his Eugene Onegin; and music for The Queen of Spades. The latter was never finished and never produced, largely because of a change in attitudes from Stalin's government about what art works should focus on. As for the 1950 oratorio 'On Guard for Peace', the less said the better. This is one of those god-awful patriotic oratorios that Stalin's apparatchiks ordered by the yard from the country's composers. This one extols Stalin and the Soviet state, and recalls the sacrifices of WWII. History notes and lyrics in Russian and English can be found in the booklet.

Symphonic Fragments from The Queen of Spades, as arranged and elaborated by Michael Berkeley, coupled with the seldom performed oratorio On Guard for Peace – Neeme Järvi conducts the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, in this their twenty-second Prokofiev recording for Chandos.
In 1936 Prokofiev was commissioned to write the score for Mikhail Romm’s film The Queen of Spades. Stalin’s directives put an end to the project and the film was never realised; consequently Prokofiev’s score was left unheard, and in the case of some numbers unorchestrated. In 2007/2008 Michael Berkeley was commissioned to complete the score for a ballet at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, titled Rushes and performed in 2008. This arrangement gave Prokofiev’s music viable dramatic shape, though independent of the original film plot. The Symphonic Fragments recorded here return to and elaborate further upon the surviving film music material to create an extended suite for the concert hall.

Berkeley describes his work as follows: ‘I think the best phrase is that I have “arranged and elaborated” what Prokofiev wrote. It has a wonderful energy and rhythm. Yes, of course it has a film-music feel, but it also has this obsessive quality.’

It is coupled here with Prokofiev’s final politically motivated work, and the last of his choral compositions, the stirring oratorio On Guard for Peace.
Reviews

'Here are superb performances of lesser-known Prokofiev works. Neeme Järvi understands the drama of Prokofiev’s music, as is evident in his celebrated cycle of the symphonies, and here he conducts by some margin the most convincing account of Prokofiev’s final coral work, on Guard for Peace.'
BBC Music Magazine

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)

premiere recording
Symphonic Suite adapted from
The Queen of Spades 32:11
Rediscovered music from an unreleased film score
Arranged and elaborated by Michael Berkeley (b. 1948)
1 I Introduction and Allegro 9:38
2 II Adagio 4:51
3 III Scherzo - 2:19
4 IV Finale - 11:26
5 (leading into Epilogue: Dumka 3:50)

On Guard for Peace, Op. 124 33:40
An oratorio in ten movements
Original text by Samuil Marshak (1950)
6 I Scarce has the Earth recovered 2:25
7 II Those who are ten today 2:01
8 III Stalingrad - City of Glory 2:35
9 IV Let enduring peace on Earth be the heroes' reward 2:25
10 V We do not want war 2:32
11 VI Dove of Peace 2:25
12 VII Lullaby 6:30
13 VIII At the Festival of Peace 4:34
14 IX Radio conversation 2:34
15 X The whole world is ready for war against war 5:38
Irina Tchistjakova mezzo-soprano and narrator
Niall Docherty boy soprano
Royal Scottish National Orchestra Junior Chorus
Royal Scottish National Orchestra Chorus
66:05
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Neeme Jarvi
Recorded in:
Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
10 & 11 November 2008
Producer(s)
Brian Pidgeon
Sound Engineer(s)
Ralph Couzens
Jonathan Cooper (Assistant)
Format: DDD
Bit Rate: 24 Bit / 96K