Product Description

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Genre: Classical Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 22-AUG-2000

Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Overture
2. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 1: "The radiance of the sky in spring..."
3. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 1: "I won't, I can't sleep"
4. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 1: "O God, my God! What a shame to sleep!"
5. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 2:
6. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 2: "Chorus! Let the chorus begin!"
7. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 2: "Look, the colonel's dancing the mazurka"
8. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 2: "Will no one choose me as a partner?"
9. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 2: "When I was at Otradnoye in May"
10. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 3: "The young Prince's fiancée"
11. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 3: "Ah, Madam, young lady..."
12. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 4: "The charming, delightful Natasha!"
13. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 4: "She's wonderful and so beautiful"
14. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 5: "At ten o'clock in the evening, she'll be waiting"
15. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 5: "Balagal!"

Disc 2:

1. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 6: "Oh, my dear Miss Natasha, all is lost, it seems"
2. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 6: "A fine young lady you are!"
3. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 6: "I've sought to avoid her"
4. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 7: "Picture the scene, Countess"
5. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Epigraph: "The forces of two and ten European nations"

Disc 3:

1. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 8: "Come on lads! That's the way!"
2. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 8: "Denisov, her first fiancé"
3. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 8: "It's master, look at him!"
4. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 8: "Hurrah! Hurrah!"
5. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 8: "There is no people greater than ours"
6. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 9: "The wine is uncorked; we must drink it"
7. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 10: "And so, gentlemen, the question is..."
8. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 10: "The enemy bears down on us with fire and steel"
9. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 10: "When, oh when was this dreadful business decided?"

Disc 4:

1. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 11: "Moscow's deserted!"
2. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 11: "I must do the deed, or die"
3. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 11: "Where did you get such a good going-over, lads?"
4. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 11: "Davout, the cruel Davout, the emperor Napolean's"
5. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 11: "Nothing matters now, nothing"
6. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 11: "What a dreadful scene!"
7. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 12: "It's stretching higher and further"
8. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 12: "Has fate really brought us together so strangely today"
9. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 12: "We've burnt our bridges..."
10. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 12: "Dolokhov said that Hélène had passed away"
11. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 12: "The Commander-in-chief is coming!"
12. War and Peace, opera, Op. 91: Scene 12: "The enemy has been put to rout"

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #339952 in Music
• Brand: HICKOX,RICHARD
• Released on: 2000-08-22
• Number of discs: 4
• Format: Box set
• Dimensions: .99 pounds

Amazon.com
The genesis of Sergei Prokofiev's War and Peace reads like a microcosm of the stranglehold of Stalinist cultural control--this, despite the composer's choice of a subject so powerful in allegorical resonance following Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union, and so musically accessible in its profusion of melody and stirring choruses. Prokofiev never got to see the work performed in its entirety, and the frequency of performances today remains extremely rare (although for logistical, and not political, reasons). Yet, for all the opera's epic dimensions--four hours of music, over 60 roles, frequent scene changes, and scoring for enormous chorus and orchestra--Prokofiev paints his vast canvas with extraordinary economy and coherence. Together with his partner Mira Mendelson, Prokofiev achieved a selective, cinematic compression of Tolstoy's masterpiece, featuring clearly delineated principal figures and dramatic throughlines. This recording (like the only other competitor currently in the catalog, Gergiev's account with the Kirov opera) comes from a live, uncut, Russian-language performance; it was given at the 1999 Spoleto Festival, but the sound is relatively encumbered by the chaos of stage noise. Richard Hickox presides over an impressively architected sense of flow and connection among the opera's 13 scenes, divided into two parts ("Peace" followed by "War"). While perhaps not as drivingly, urgently manic as in Gergiev --especially in the battle scenes--the drama never fails to emerge, and Hickox effectively brings out the score's many musical glories, instead of letting them get buried among its less inspired stretches. The excellent chorus is a linchpin for the crucial ensemble work of the war scenes, but strong characterizations are provided by Roderick Williams's passionate Prince Andrey (deeply moving in his death scene), ENO stalwart Alan Opie's Napoleon, and Alan Ewing's heroic, Mussorgskian Kutuzov. Soprano Ekaterina Morozova's vocal phrasing tends to lack variety, but her youth gives a touch of convincing vulnerability to her portrayal of Natasha, one of the key figures of the story in Prokofiev's rendering. The orchestra plays with lots of color, bringing out the score's many fine miniature tone poems (the dance sequences depicting high society in Part I, the burning of Moscow in Part II). The box comes with a full libretto containing multiple translations, including the original (as well as transliterated) Russian text next to the English text. --Thomas May

Customer Reviews

Best Sound and Best Choral Singing
This is the 5th War and Peace I've ever bought on CD's and this is going to be the definitive one for me for a long time. The other 4 will be on sale soon!

When I bought the Gergiev set some years ago I thought THAT was going to be the best set ever but Chandos has outdone all of them again.

This recording beats Gergiev on quality of recording, sheer emotion, ensemble playing (unbelievable for a hand-picked summer youth orchestra Spoleto is!), choral singing and real understanding of this very lenghthy opera.

Gergiev tries to give us some of the hysteria the opera doesn't have by overheating some scenes where Hickox gives the right emotions in Prokofiev's orchestral writing. He also never forgets to let us listen to the wonderfull use of wind and wood instruments Prokofiev uses throughout this opera. Clarinet, oboe and piccollo are just as rightly 'produced' as are the weight and power of mass scenes.

So, the opera in this presentation clearly becomes a sometimes intimate drama rather than a oratorio showcase as with Gergiev.

Under the sheer size of the mass scenes and the subject (Napoleon's War against Russia) lie just the same human problems as in all opera: love, hate, relations and opportunities. And that's what you get in this great performance thanks to the very committed playing of this festival orchestra and the great singing.

All around best?
Don't let the length intimidate you; there's really never a dull moment in this wonderful work. The big moments are thrilling-the choral epigraph, Kutuzov's aria, Moscow burning, the snowstorm, the choral finale-and Prokofiev links these all together with some of the sweetest lyricism this side of the Iron Curtain. Let's get the important questions out of the way first.

Is the cover artwork worthy of the epic within? One of Chandos' most beautiful, yet masculine covers.

Are the sublime sounds of the bass drum and gong caught admirably? Oh yes.

Being a live recording, can one hear coughing? Only when Moscow is burning. This audience had to have been bound and gagged. Stage shuffling is barely audible.

Do we finally get a palatable soprano for the role of Natasha? Yes. Morozova's voice is light and fresh, if a little detached. Prokofiev gives his most beautiful music--that ecstatic 7th leap!--to Natasha and her willing but doomed suitor Prince Andrey, sung by Roderick Williams. Williams has a lovely, rich voice. Of the three performances I've heard, (Rostropovich, Gergiev, Hickox), the Morozova/Williams duo is most satisfactory to me, both in the opening moonlight scene and in Andrey's death scene. Hickox's handling of the orchestral atmospherics in the death scene is exceedingly satisfying-Prokofiev brings back the beautiful moonlight music but this time he shrouds the melody with the most delicate harp glissandi. In a word, haunting.

I don't know what to make of Alan Ewing's Kutuzov. His voice is strong, his intonation dead-on, and his portrayal full of character. But for a bass he's got a vibrato tighter than Sarah Brightman's. Matthew Boyden (?) of "Rough Guide to Opera" describes Ewing's voice as bellowing; I would call it more like braying. Being that Ewing gets the "big" aria, his voice--unique to say the least--may be an issue to some. I find it tolerable enough. The only other voice that (unquestionably) detracts is that of Igor Matioukhin, or Dolokhov-very wobbly.

Hickox's youthful Spoleto Festival Orchestra produces a wonderfully idiomaticProkofiev-esque sound, and I've got to hand it to the Chandos recording team for capturing all the goings on so successfully. For a live recording, the depth and voluptuousness of sound is remarkable. Though I feel that Rostropovich captures the overall grandeur and excitement of Prokofiev's epic the best, his achievement is only marginally better than Hickox. And with Hickox, the more intimate scenes of the opera-those moments between Natasha and Andrey-are better served with the voices of Morozova and Williams. (IMHO Gergiev's performance is too hard-pressed to give the composer's delectable orchestral colors proper bloom. And those absurdly intrusive stage noises!)

"War and Peace" is not like Prokofiev's other operas, such as "The Fiery Angel," "Love of Three Oranges," or "The Gambler." The lyricism and action sequences of W&P are more akin to his later ballets, "Romeo and Juliet" and "Cinderella," written while the composer was integrating himself into the new Soviet culture of his homeland. Though revised time and time again to satisfy the whims of the Soviet Artistic Committee, War and Peace is hardly the musical equivalent of "svimwear." (Remember that great commercial?) It's inspired and potent stuff. If you're squeamish about dropping the [money] on the complete opera, Chandos offers a single-CD recording of a suite from the opera arranged by C. Palmer. (CHAN9096)

John Smyth

Great complete version
This version could become a standard. Great version, great singers, great orchestra...Better than Gergiev with low budget (?)...may be not as good as the Galina Vizhnestkaya (Patchayev) but more complete. A beautiful opera