What an invaluable
addition to the Prokofiev catalogue.
The Onegin music is tellingly
performed and recorded catching the
quintessential heart-ache distilled
in the alembic of Tatiana, Lensky and
Onegin.
Before we get to Onegin
there is a bonus CD to be examined.
Once again Pushkin provides the inspiration.
It's a substantial bonus too: a suite,
running just over 33 minutes, of music
written by Prokofiev for the unfinished
1936 Michail Romm film Pique Dame.
A recording premiere.
The music? First there's
a chafing and ruthlessly sinister overture
followed by a lilting character sketch
of Lisa which is very much in the sweet
tracks we know from the Juliet music.
Der Morgen further develops the
remorseless atmosphere with miniature
fanfares and the sound of marching tracking
left to right. In Hermann sieht Lisa
the tense oppression of the overture
is regained and driven home with increasing
machismo. Prokofiev is in his element
with The Ball and its shark-rough
fanfares and conspiratorial pizzicato.
The usual psychological 'edge' appears
at 1:21. Lisa in her room includes
the taut patter of the overture matched
with more lilting music. The earnest
insistence continues into the music
for Hermann in the games room.
The music of Hermann geht zum dritten
mal is extremely inventive, febrile,
dissonant and claustrophobically dreamlike.
This soon gives way to gripping oompah-accentuated
ostinato writing. This is music that
would certainly have appealed to Bernard
Herrmann and if we recognise fragments
of this writing in Herrmann’s music
for the film Citizen Kane we
must not be surprised. This is very
much a collection of fragments but with
Prokofiev even the most fleeting scrap
instantly and often memorably establishes
time, place and mood. So it is here.
The Pique Dame music
is a perfect complement to Prokofiev's
music for Onegin. Both were drawn
from the writings of Pushkin, the centenary
of whose death was being marked by the
Soviet state in 1937. Onegin is
a verse drama. To bring it to the stage
the producer Krzyzanovsky rethought
it as a series of images and scenes
- very much a drama. The production
suffered many political vicissitudes
and finally was scrapped.
The twelve tracks are
encrusted with the most wonderfully
touching music. Dmitri at Larin's
grave links with Tchaikovsky’s Onegin
opera through the plaintive oboe
and bassoon writing. Lenski and Onegin
includes an effete Italianate bel
canto aria. Then enters Chulpan
Chamatova with her smokily nubile yet
full and buttery voice - very much acting
rather than pallidly read. It is utterly
irresistible. It is a pity that the
transliterated text could not have been
given with the translations. The music
counterpoints the speech with every
sigh and rise and fall of the voice
- a superb balance is achieved with
the orchestra. Kevin McCutcheon’s manic
hysterical harpsichord sounds like a
Nancarrow nightmare; somehow the equivalent
of Poe's ‘Raven’. The harpsichord also
contributes to the grand yet light waltz
and touches in anxiety as well as a
certain breathlessness and awe. In The
Duel (tr. 7) there is a trembling
evocation of balalaikas, the warm inevitability
of tragedy (00.59) caught in the currents
of a swift flowing river. Jakob Küf
is the dark-toned speaker. In Tatiana
before the bust of Napoleon the
saxophone offers lissom consolation
while the strings sing in glistening
silver. Mr McCutcheon returns, solo
this time, at the piano for the Three
Intermezzi (tr. 9) playing the overture,
waltz and minuett found in Pavel Lamm's
version of the score. How wonderfully
Prokofiev conveys the dulled and cauterised
ardour a decade later when Onegin approaches
the now married Tatiana in the great
house in St Petersburg. In Onegin’s
letter to Tatiana Onegin declares
his love too late with the tragedy magnified
by Tatiana’s admission that she loves
Onegin but will not leave the man she
has married. Prokofiev gives his own
voicings to the remorseless maw of fate
(5'03) and the return of the gracious
lissom theme, now somehow more mature,
recognises duties of fidelity. The world
has turned and Onegin now tastes the
despair he had visited on the Tatiana
he had heartlessly rejected all those
years ago. The music says it all. The
mirror of time begins to mist and darken,
catching only shimmering, imperfectly
filtered and dulled fragments. Once
again the saxophone is used inventively
(10.08). This score is a masterpiece
with every bit as much power as the
Tchaikovsky opera - more in fact. The
Students Song is not the best
way to end the piece but there you are.
This is a lovely performance
and I guarantee you will be whistling
the themes long after you have forgotten
where they came from.
It's the first time
on CD for the Onegin music with
the original Russian narration. The
music which is astonishing top-drawer
Prokofiev. The score has of course been
available in full from Chandos (CHAN
9318) with the New Company Singers and
Sinfonia 21 conducted by Edward Downes
(whose version of the score is used
here). However the narration in that
case was in English. In 1976 Melodiya
issued a two LP set (C10 11911)presenting
the music with acted speech in the same
way as this Capriccio edition. The conductor
was Kamul Abdullayev with singers and
actors including A. Konsovsky, Yevgeny
Kibkalo and N. Milanovich. The orchestra
was the All Union TV and Radio Symphony
with the Choir of Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko
Moscow State Musical Theatre. That recording
for all its analogue origins would still
be well worth reissuing - a project
for Regis? I have hankered for a Russian-narrated
version since that came out and here
it is.
Where do Capriccio
and Jurowski go from here? I hope that
they have not forgotten Prokofiev's
music for the 1940s films Lermontov
and the patriotic flag-waver Partisans
of the Ukrainian Steppes.
If you have any time
at all for Prokofiev’s Romeo and
Juliet ... and who doesn’t ... you
must get this CD. It is very much cut
from the same inspirational cloth. Disappointment
is not an issue.
Rob Barnett
Complete Tracklist
Eugene Onegin Op. 71 (1936)
Incidental music to Alexander Pushkin’s
novel in verse, adapted for the stage
by Sigismund Krzyzanowsky - sung and
narrated in Russian for speakers, chorus
and orchestra arranged by Edward Downes
1. Lenski Am Grab Von Dmitri Larin [04:20]
2. Lenski Und Onegin [05:55]
3. Und So Wurde Sie Tatiana Genannt...
[10:39]
4. Onegin Erhält Tatianas Brief
- Onegin Und Lenski [05:06]
5. Der Ball Auf Larina [12:01]
6. Tatjanas Traum [04:47]
7. Das Duell [02:26]
8. Tatjana Bei Onegin Und Vor Napoleons
Büste [05:27]
9. Trois Intermezzi Pour Piano [07:31]
10. Treffen Tatjanas Mit Onegin In Petersburg
[06:30]
11. Brief Onegins An Tatjana Und Letztes
Treffen [10:30]
12. Schlusschor Der Studenten [01:05]
Pique Dame - Film Music Op. 70
(1936, 2003)
1. Ouvertüre: Umherschweifen -
Hermann Vor Dem Haus Der Gräfin
[04:54]
2. Lisa: Hermann Zu Hause [03:12]
3. Der Morgen [01:18]
4. Hermann Sieht Lisa: Hermann Überreicht
Lisa Einen Brief - Li [08:16]
5. Der Ball [02:39]
6. Lisa In Ihrem Zimmer: Hermann In
Seinem Zimmer Vor Den Karte [07:07]
7. Hermann Geht Ein Zweites Mal In Den
Spielsalon: Zweiter Gewi [02:56]
8. Hermann Geht Ein Drittes Mal In Den
Spielsalon: Hermann Hat [02:58]
9. Letztes Wiedersehen [00:37]
Chulpan Chamatova (speaker); Jakob Küf
(speaker) 
for
details 
