Episode 5
Donald Macleod explores Prokofiev's music for stage and screen, focusing on his operas War on Peace and Story of a Real Man, a doomed attempt to appease the Soviet authorities.
The final programme of the week ranges from the sublime to the abject; Prokofiev measures up magnificently to Tolstoy in his operatic presentation of War and Peace, but his Story of a Real Man is a doomed attempt to appease the Soviet authorities - by this point in his career, the composer was irretrievably out of favour with Stalin. Before things had got that far, Prokofiev collaborated for the second and last time with Sergei Eisenstein, on the film Ivan the Terrible, which was at least partly to Stalin's taste. And to finish, music from the composer's last completed work, The Tale of the Stone Flower.
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Music Played
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Sergey Prokofiev
?Story of a Real Man
Performer: Mark Ermler Performer: Chorus and Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre
- Chandos 10002(2).
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Sergey Prokofiev
?War and Peace
Performer: Georgi Tcholakov (Master of Ceremonies 鈥� tenor) Performer: James Anderson (footman 鈥� tenor) Performer: Dimiter Petkov (Count Rostov 鈥� bass baritone) Performer: Maria Paunova (Maria Dmitrievna Akhrosimova 鈥� mezzo soprano) Performer: Galina Vichnievska茂a (Natasha Rostova鈥� sop) Performer: Magdalena Cononovici (Madame Peronskaya 鈥� sop) Performer: Katherine Ciesinski (Sonya 鈥� mezzo soprano) Performer: Stefania Toczyska (Helena Bezoukhov 鈥� mezzo soprano) Performer: Nicola茂 Gedda (Anatole Kouraguine 鈥� tenor) Performer: Vladimir de Kanel (Dolokhov 鈥� bass baritone) Performer: Wieslaw Ochman 鈥� (Pierre Bezoukhov 鈥� tenor) Performer: Lajos Miller (Prince Andr茅 Bolkonski 鈥� baritone) Performer: Mstislav Rostropovich Performer: Orchestre National de France Performer: Choeurs de Radio France
- Warner 0927 49638-2.
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Sergey Prokofiev
?Ivan the Terrible
Performer: Valeri Polyansky Performer: Russian State Symphony Orchestra/ Russian State Symphonic Cappella
- Chandos 10153(2).
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Sergey Prokofiev
?Story of a Real Man
Performer: Yevgeny Kibkalo (Alexe茂 鈥� baritone) Performer: Mark Reshetin (Vasili Vasilevich 鈥� bass) Performer: Vladimir Petrov (Senior Physician 鈥� tenor) Conductor: Mark Ermler Performer: Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre Performer: Chorus of the Bolshoi Theatre
- Chandos 10002(2).
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Sergey Prokofiev
The Tale of the Stone Flower
Performer: Gianandrea Noseda Performer: 大象传媒 Philharmonic
- Chandos 10058(2).
Broadcasts
- Fri 19 Mar 2010 12:00大象传媒 Radio 3
- Fri 19 Mar 2010 22:00大象传媒 Radio 3
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