Ecstatic Living Room

About the same time last year I wrote a post about music that was especially great for winter listening: http://ecstaticlivingroom.com/2010/01/10/winter-reveries/

One piece that didn’t make the playlist then was Sergei Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky, but arriving at our place in Upstate New York this past Friday night immediately brought this work to mind. The house had been idle for a couple of weeks so the temperature inside was in the high forties. Outside, under a brilliantly bright moon, the temperature hovered at zero. The moonlight bouncing off the snow lit up the countryside in luminous silver. Looking out from the living room windows, Prokofiev’s score began to play subconsciously in my mind, and in no time at all I was perched in front of a fire, sipping scotch and listening to “Nevksky” at a rather high volume.

Prokofiev wrote the score to the classic 1938 film of the same name by Sergei Eisenstein (if you haven’t ever seen it, rent it immediately), and later re-arranged the music as a concert cantata for mezzo-soprano, chorus and orchestra. It’s a scintillating score in either version. At times it is dark, ominous and brooding; at others times it is as thrilling, action-packed and uplifting as any music ever written.

Briefly told, Alexander Nevsky is a historical epic that brings to life the exploits of a great 13th-century leader who turned back the enemy hordes and protected mother Russia from certain annihilation. Though Stalin and Hitler began World War II on the same side of the fight, Nazi Germany soon invaded Soviet Russia and, after fighting that was disastrous for both sides, Germany was repulsed — a major turning point in the war. The patriotic allegory presented by Eisenstein’s film wasn’t lost on the Soviets, and in 1941 Eisenstein and his collaborators on the film were awarded the Stalin Prize.

The wintry associations of Alexander Nevsky — the film and the music — are many, beginning with the biting, desolate-sounding chords that open the score. In general, Prokofiev’s acerbic harmonies can hit the ears like bitter air searing the inside of your nostrils, and none more so than in this score. The second section of the cantata, “Song of Alexander Nevsky,” quietly introduces the glorious hymn that will appear and reappear at key moments through the action, and with shattering impact in the great finale.

Perhaps the most famous section of “Nevsky” is the “Battle on the ice,” and here Prokofiev whips up maximum excitement and raw physical power. The chorus wails, the brasses snarl, the percussion explodes — it’s terrifying here, exhilarating there.

The lament that follows in the next section, “The field of the dead,” is heart-breaking. Here, a mezzo-soprano sings in hushed, haunting tones about the bloody devastation that soaks the snowy expanse: “Here lies one hacked by swords,/here lies one pierced by an arrow./Their red blood has watered/the beloved land, our Russian land.”

The final section, “Alexander’s entry into Pskov,” begins with a grandly-scored and lustily sung reprisal of the main hymn theme. The celebration reaches dizzying heights of exultation as the chorus and orchestra head to the final climax: “Rejoice, sing, mother Russia!”

There are so many fine recordings of “Nevsky” that you almost can’t go wrong buying it. My long-time favorite has been Claudio Abbado’s classic recording with the London Symphony (DG), but others led by Neeme Järvi (Chandos), Valery Gergiev (Philips) and André Previn (Telarc) should please all the same.

Several years ago, I heard the Boston Symphony play the score to a showing of the film at Avery Fisher Hall. It was one of the most exciting concert experiences I’ve ever had, and I hope someone will repeat the enterprise here in NYC in the not too distant future.

The original movie is available in its entirety thanks to OpenFlix on YouTube. Enjoy!