PROKOFIEV: Alexander Nevsky Cantata; Lieutenant Kijé Symphonic Suite – Claudine Carlson, mezzo-soprano (Nevsky)/Arnold Voketaitis, bass-baritone/ (Kijé)/ St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus/Leonard Slatkin – Vox/Mobile Fidelity

by | Feb 7, 2006 | SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews | 0 comments

PROKOFIEV: Alexander Nevsky Cantata; Lieutenant Kijé Symphonic Suite – Claudine Carlson, mezzo-soprano (Nevsky)/Arnold Voketaitis, bass-baritone/ (Kijé)/ St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus/ Leonard Slatkin – Vox/Mobile Fidelity multichannel SACD UDSACD 4009 *****:

The latest MoFi classical SACD reissue is a winner which has seen other reissues, but not quite as impressive as this one. Was a bit surprised to see no references in the otherwise serviceable note booklet on the history of the original recording, which I believe is another of the Nickrenz-Aubort four-channel efforts for Vox. The Nevsky Cantata has been reissued on vinyl, on CD and on 96K DAAD by Classic Records. The latter paired it up with Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade – a rather odd pair – and sourced only the frontal two channels of the original 4.0 tapes.  I did an A/B with the new reissue and found the sonics of the two stereo versions nearly identical. The original LP was issued in 1979 on the Turnabout sub-label with this same cover artwork, and was encoded for QS surround sound – one of the several quad formats.

Now, however, we can finally hear what was on those original four-channel tapes – unlike the technically problematic quad-on-LP system with something like 5dB front-to-back channel difference. The fact is there is a good deal!  All of MoFi’s proprietary tweaks were used in the transfer: It’s an Ultradisc UHR gold pressing done with their Gain 2 system, and incorporates gear from Tim de Paravicini, Ed Meitner and Nelson Pass. The center and sub channels will not be missed at all in the big climaxes of the famous Battle on the Ice movement or the final Entry of Alexander Into Pskov. The cantata was arranged by the composer from his original musical score for the Eisenstein film Alexander Nevsky. (An RCA laserdisc was once available of the original film with a new stereo recording of the soundtrack music conducted by Yuri Temirkanov with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic replacing the atrocious-sounding original 1938 soundtrack, but it has not been reissued on DVD.) This is one of those works which – like Mahler and Bruckner symphonies – seems to cry out for multichannel display and is a shame to restrict to two cramped channels. Many recordings of the work don’t include the chorus, which is so thrilling on sections such as the Battle on the Ice. Soloist Carlson is moving in The Field of the Dead.

The same goes for Prokofiev’s witty and sardonic musical tale of the make-believe Lieutenant Kijé. It’s the same basic story line as Kodaly’s Hary Janos Suite. I had forgotten that the original version of the score features a bass-baritone soloist in the Romance and Troika movements. The tune in the Romance is a Russian folk song, which in the all-instrumental versions of the suite is given to a doublebass.  This disc brings us a pair of prime Prokofiev classic tapings in prime hi-res multichannel sound.

– John Sunier

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