Ivan the Terrible (Prokofiev)

Ivan the Terrible (Russian: Иван Грозный) is incidental music by Sergei Prokofiev, his Op.116, composed in 1942-45 for Sergei Eisenstein's film Ivan the Terrible and its sequel, the first two parts of a planned but uncompleted trilogy. The project was Prokofiev's second collaboration with Eisenstein, the first being the popular Aleksandr Nevskiy (1938).

The subject of the first film ("Part 1") is the early years, 1547 to 1565, of the reign of Ivan IV of Russia: his coronation, his intent to curb the powers of the boyars, his wedding, his conquest of Kazan, his almost fatal illness, the poisoning and death of his first wife Anastasiya, the formation of the Oprichniki, and his abdication.

The sequel, Ivan the Terrible: The Boyar Conspiracy ("Part 2"), covers the years 1565 to 1569, and concerns the defection of Prince Kurbskiy to Poland-Lithuania, Ivan's disputes with Philip II, Metropolitan of Moscow, the intrigues of the boyars, the excesses of the Oprichniki, the attempted coup by the boyars and Ivan's aunt, Yefrosinya Staritskaya, the murder of Vladimir Staritsky, and Ivan's triumph over his domestic enemies.

The film scores were not published during Prokofiev's lifetime. They were arranged in 1962 as an oratorio for speaker, soloists, chorus, and orchestra by Abram Stasevich, who conducted the scores for Eisenstein. In 1973 the composer Mikhail Chulaki and choreographer Yuriy Grigorovich drew on Prokofiev's film scores to create the ballet Ivan the Terrible, which was given its premiere in 1975. Later performing editions of the scores include an oratorio put together by Michael Lankester (1989), and a concert scenario by Christopher Palmer (1991). The recent restoration of the entire original film score has been published and recorded.

History

Publication history

Numbers

Part 1

Scene 1: Prologue

Scene 2: The Coronation

Scene 3: The Wedding

Scene 4: The Conquest of Kazan

Scene 5: Ivan's Illness

Scene 6: The Death of Anastasia

Scene 7: The Oath of the Oprichniks

Part 2

Scene 8: At the Polish Court

Scene 9: Lamentation for the Executed Boyars

Scene 10: The Fiery Furnace (liturgical drama)

Scene 11: The Tsar's Banquet and the Cathedral

Instrumentation

Strings: violins I & II, violas, cellos, double basses
Woodwinds: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 1 english horn, 2 clarinets, 1 E-flat clarinet, 1 bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 1 contrabassoon, tenor saxophone
Brass: 4 horns, 5 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba
Percussion: timpani, bass drum, snare drum, triangle, tambourine, cymbals, bells, church bells, xylophone, wood block, whip
Other: piano, harp

Versions by other hands

Ballet by Mikhail Chulaki (1975)

The ballet Ivan the Terrible was arranged by Mikhail Chulaki for a 1975 production by choreographer Yuriy Grigorovich at the Bolshoy Theatre. The two act work consists of selections from Prokofiev's film score for Ivan the Terrible supplemented with excerpts from his Symphony No. 3 (1928), Russian Overture (1936), and film score for Aleksandr Nevsky (1938).

The world premiere performance took place on 20 February 1975 at the Bolshoy Theatre. Algis Zhuraitis conducted. The cast included Yuriy Vladimirov (Ivan), Nataliya Bessmertnova (Anastasiya), and Boris Akimov (Kurbskiy).

Concert Scenario by Christopher Palmer (1991)

Christopher Palmer discusses his Ivan the Terrible concert scenario in the notes to a Chandos CD recording made a few days after the work's premiere:

"...in 1962 Abram Stasevich (1906-1971), who had conducted Ivan for the film soundtrack, published his Ivan the Terrible 'oratorio' for speaker, soloists, chorus and orchestra which incorporated all the major musical sequences in the film plus a few that had been left out (notably 'Russian Sea'). It is in this form that the Ivan music has been known outside the film ever since, and in this form that critics have tended to find it long and diffuse. The main problem is the speaker, introduced by Stasevich primarily because he had been unwise enough to try and incorporate a large number of short fragmentary episodes, and had to find a way of stitching them together. Unfortunately once the speaker was in, he seemed to take over the entire work—much to its detriment in terms of narrative intelligibility and tightness of structure. My new 'performing version' eliminates the speaker and shorter sections (most of which are pastiche Russian-liturgical music of minimal Prokofievian interest). It also restores a number of episodes to their original format, most importantly the assassination of the Pretender in Part II—the climax of the film and one of the most electrifying moments in film music. While retaining Stasevich's make-up of most of the larger movements, I have reverted largely to the film's original sequence of musical events."[1]

The 'new' work is in thirteen movements[2] (some nevertheless consisting of 2 or 3 numbers):

  1. Overture
  2. Russian Sea
  3. Wedding
  4. Fire
  5. Tartars and Cannoneers
  6. The Storming of Kazan
  7. Ivan's Sickness
  8. At the Polish Court
  9. Anastasia
  10. Song of the Beaver (Ephrosynia's Lullaby)
  11. The Banquet
  12. Murder in the Cathedral
  13. Finale (Coda)

The concert scenario received its premiere on 28 February 1991 at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Neeme Järvi conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus.[3]

Recordings

Audio

Year Conductor Orchestra and choir Soloists Version
1965? Abram Stasevich Moscow State Philharmonic Orchestra,
Moscow State Choir		 Valentina Levko (mezzo-soprano),
Anatoliy Mokrenko (baritone),
Aleksandr Estrin (speaker)		 Stasevich
1972 Maksim Shostakovich London Philharmonic Orchestra,
Yurlov Choral Kapella		 Stasevich
1978 Riccardo Muti Philharmonia Orchestra,
Ambrosian Chorus		 Irina Arkhipova (mezzo-soprano),
Anatoliy Mokrenko (baritone),
Boris Morgunov (speaker)		 Stasevich
1979 Leonard Slatkin Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus Claudine Carlson (mezzo-soprano),
Samuel Timberlake (bass),
Without speaker		 Stasevich
1991 Neeme Järvi The Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus Linda Finnie (contralto),
Nikita Storozhev (bass-baritone)		 Palmer
1993 Mstislav Rostropovich London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus,
The New London Children's Choir		 Tamara Sinyavskaya (mezzo-soprano),
Sergei Leiferkus (baritone),
Christopher Plummer (narrator)		 Lankester
1993 Vladimir Fedoseyev Ostankino Television-Radio Symphony Orchestra,
Yurlov Choral Kapella		 Nina Romanova (mezzo-soprano),
Grigoriy Gritsuk (bass),
Boris Morgunov (speaker)		 Stasevich
1995 Dmitriy Kitayenko Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt,
Danish National Radio Choir,
Kinderchor Frankfurt		 Tamara Sinyavskaya (mezzo-soprano),
Wolfgang Brendel (baritone),
Sergey Yurskiy (speaker)		 Stasevich
1996 Alipi Naydenov Russian Philharmonic Orchestra,
Danube Sounds Choir		 Vessela Zorova (mezzo-soprano),
Dimiter Stanchev (bass),
Boris Morgunov (speaker)		 Stasevich
1997 Valeriy Gergiev Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra,
Chorus of the Kirov Orchestra		 Lyubov Sokolova (mezzo-soprano),
Nikolay Putilin (baritone),
Without speaker		 Stasevich
2000 Vladimir Fedoseyev Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra,
Yurlov Choral Kapella,
Children's Choir of Studio Vesna		 Irina Chistyakova (contralto),
Dmitriy Stepanovich (bass)		 Film score
2003 Valeriy Polyansky State Symphonic Kapella of Russia,
Russian State Symphonic Kapella		 Lyudmila Kuznetsova (mezzo-soprano),
Sergey Toptygin (baritone)		 Film score
2004 Leonard Slatkin BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus Irina Chistyakova (mezzo-soprano),
James Rutherford (bass-baritone),
Simon Russell Beale (speaker)		 Stasevich
2013 Tugan Sokhiev Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin,
Rundfunkchor Berlin,
Staats- und Domchor Berlin		 Olga Borodina (mezzo-soprano),
Ildar Abdrazakov (bass)		 Stasevich

Video

Year Conductor Orchestra Roles Version
1976 Algis Zhuraitis Bolshoy Theatre Orchestra Yuriy Vladimirov (Ivan),
Nataliya Bessmertnova (Anastasiya),
Boris Akimov (Kurbskiy),
Bolshoy Ballet		 Chulaki
1990 Algis Zhuraitis Bolshoy Theatre Orchestra Irek Mukhamedov (Ivan),
Nataliya Bessmertnova (Anastasiya),
Gediminas Taranda (Kurbskiy),
Bolshoy Ballet		 Chulaki
2003 Vello Pähn Orchestre de l’Opéra de Paris Nicolas Le Riche (Ivan),
Eleonora Abbagnato (Anastasiya),
Karl Paquette (Kurbskiy),
Ballet de l’Opéra National de Paris		 Chulaki

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Palmer (1991)
  2. ↑ Palmer (1991)
  3. ↑ Palmer (1991)

Sources

External links