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Epicurus.com - Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky / Abbado
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List Price: $11.98
Our Price: $10.99
Your Save: $ 0.99 ( 8% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0028944741926
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Deutsche Grammophon
Release Date: 1996-01-23
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
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Editorial Reviews:
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Alexander Nevsky is one of the great film scores, and a beautifully restored edition of the film with a new digitally recorded soundtrack, is now available. Eisenstein's movie was a landmark in the history of the cinema--something like half of it consists of nothing but the great "battle on the ice," and the helmets of the invading crusaders gave George Lucas some ideas for the Storm Trooper costumes in Star Wars. The cantata that Prokofiev fashioned from the complete score has all of the good tunes, but none of action-motivated repetition, and this is its best performance. Combined with the two suites, it makes a stunning Prokofiev disc. --David Hurwitz
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: The Best Film Score Ever!~
Comment: Nevsky with Abbado is a stirring and moveing piece. This is the best version I've heard! Kije and the the rampaging Scythians are also first rate.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The recording to own
Comment: This is a must for any fan of tbe music
of Prokofiev. The cantat from the film
"Alexander Nevsky" is well perfomed by the
London Symphony Orchestra who is well suited
for the task. The cantata reaches a sublime point
when the solo for solo for mezzo-soprano sung by Elena
Obratsova. Also in this recording we hear Prokifiev's
Scythian Suite, as performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
under maestro Abbado. Also here is the suite from the
film score: "Lieutenant Kije". Here a prominent solo part
in different moments in the Suite is performed
by trumpeter: Adolph Herseth. The music was recorded beetween
1978 and 1980, indeed a five star classic.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Nevsky goes to church (an English church at that)
Comment: The Soviet Union was a decade away from collapsing when the young Abbado made a splash with this Alexander Nevsky from London. It took a long time before the British Labour Party fell out of love with Stalinism, but for all that, this is a decidedly non-Russian performance. The quieter passages are refined and reverential (didn't the Soviets get rid of chruches?), and the chorus sings Russian by the syllable.
Abbado injects plenty of big brass outbursts and strikes the proper barbaric tone for the invading Teutonic knights, but one listen to post-Soviet versions from Temirkanov (the complete score, on RCA/BMG) and Gergiev (decca) more or less renders the Abbado recording moot -- and the famous Reiner version with it, since that account is sung in English. DG's analogue sound strikes me as a bit shrill, but the LSO plays vigorously -- as they almost always did for Abbado when he was chief conductor.
For al its superficial drama, this reading needs an extra infusion of Russian blood. If the Kirov Orch. played Elgar, I think Londoners could tell the difference.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A must disk for Prokofiev lovers/collectors
Comment: Claudio Abbado' is definitely one of the greatest Prokofiev conductor of all time. His recording of the Peter and the Wolf in collaboration with Sting really gives a nice, delightful touch, as well as the Classical Symphony, often given a bit loose, heavy performances by even the most eminent maestros such as Karajan.
In this album too, Abbado gives a defining performance on the more serious, dark, and thrilling music by Prokofiev. In the Alexander Nevsky Suite, based on a 13th century Russian hero who led his troops to defeat Teutonic invaders, the climatic battle on ice is especially a thrill. The chorus sings "Peregrinus expectavi" with ice cold fright and as dark as siege, and high paced tempo really drives the audience. And in the Scythian Suite, the equally savage Dance of the Dark Spirits is as powerful under Abbado as it should be.
On the other hand, the more brighter Lieutenant Kije Suite restore the charm the maestro gave when he did Peter and the Wolf.
Try it out and I'm more than positive that you'll really get blown away.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Yet another star in Abbado's "Russian crown"
Comment: Maestro Abbado had done it again. From the bone-chilling bite of the strings (depicting the Russian winter) that open Alexander Nevsky across the Frozen Lake, the LSO under Abbado maintains a dramatic reading of the score. The LSC lacks nothing in the way of Russian idiom and Elena Obraztsova necessarily gives an authentic performance. Her voice is suitably dark. Personally, however, I prefer Anna Reynolds' more haunting lament under Previn...only because Reynolds sounds like a younger woman and to me this is more convincing (and tragic, given the "robbery" of war). Previn also has the added bonus of being recorded in EMI's double-forte Classics series, which also has the complete "Ivan the Terrible" (with brilliant soloists including a more youthful and vocally secure Irina Arkhipova) and Rachmaninov's "The Bells". Nonetheless, I give this recording it's due as a great rendition of what I consider to be Prokofiev's most accessible vocal work.The Scythian Suite begins to delve into what I like less about Prokofiev but what, nonetheless, is his more radical and novel side. My comments are therefore curtailed to say this: I have heard far more impenetrable compositions so it's clearly not beyond appreciation (even from someone like me who dislikes dissonance/atonality). Moreover, Abbado's conducting doesn't convey any notion of sheer chaos, so for those who can better appreciate it, this will likely be a good reading (I'm given to believe more than "good" but given my admitted lack of objectivity on the matter, I wouldn't want to indulge my own ignorance). Lieutenant Kije on the other hand is a lovely little work. Anyone who remembers the soundtrack from "The Gladiator" will recognise the inspiration for some of the film's music (together with Wagner's Gotterdammerung incidentally). Again Maestro Abbado conducts with true feeling and warmth, convincingly conveying the drama. This disc forms an worthy part of any introduction to Prokofiev.
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