Ivan the Terrible (Prokofiev)

Ivan the Terrible (), Op. 116, is the score composed by Sergei Prokofiev for Sergei Eisenstein's film "Ivan the Terrible" (1942–45) and its sequel (1946), the first two parts of an incomplete trilogy. The project was Prokofiev's second collaboration with Eisenstein, the first being the popular "Aleksandr Nevskiy" (1938). The majority of the non-liturgical song texts were written by Vladimir Lugovskoy, who collaborated with Prokofiev on the texts for "Aleksandr Nevskiy".
The subject of the "First Tale" (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 "Second Tale" (Part 2), subtitled "The Boyar Conspiracy", 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 her son Vladimir Staritsky, and Ivan's triumph over his domestic enemies.
The film scores were not published during Prokofiev's lifetime. They were arranged in 1961 as an oratorio for soloists, chorus, and orchestra by Levon Atovmyan, one of Prokofiev's assistants. However, before this version could be performed, the music received its concert premiere in 1961 in Moscow in the form of an oratorio for speaker, soloists, chorus, and orchestra by Abram Stasevich, who had conducted the film soundtracks for Eisenstein.
In 1973 the composer Mikhail Chulaki and choreographer Yuri 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 restoration of the entire original film score has been published and recorded.
History.
Performance history.
The film "Ivan the Terrible" (Part One) premiered on 30 December 1944. The sequel, "The Boyar Conspiracy" (Part Two), was not shown until 1958.
The concert premiere of the soundtrack film score, as restored by Frank Strobel, took place on 16 September 2016 at the Musikfest Berlin, accompanied by a showing of the film in the Great Hall of the Konzerthaus Berlin. Strobel conducted the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and the Rundfunkchor Berlin, with soloists Marina Prudenskaya (contralto) and Alexander Vinogradov (bass).
Scoring and instrumentation.
The two film scores together require a contralto or mezzo-soprano (in 'Ocean-Sea' and 'Song about the Beaver'), a baritone or bass (in 'Song of the Oprichniki'), a bass (in 'Many Years!'), mixed (SATB) chorus, and the following instrumentation:
Manuscript numbers.
The numbers in Prokofiev's manuscript scores are listed in the table below. The table can be sorted by clicking on the buttons in the title bar. The default sequence can be restored by refreshing the browser (press F5).
"Note": The column marked 'S' shows the numbering of the musical numbers by Musikverlage Hans Sikorski, the publisher of the restored manuscript film score (zeros have been inserted before single digit numbers for sorting purposes). 'A' stands for Anhang (the appendix), which includes the liturgical numbers used in the film that were either arranged by Prokofiev or were not written into his score of "Ivan the Terrible".
The performance duration is about 100 minutes.
Several numbers can be divided into two parts, which are sometimes quoted in the film separately:
Themes.
The Ivan theme appears in:
Versions by other hands.
Oratorio by Levon Atovmyan (1961).
Atovmyan's oratorio finally received its public premiere on 28 January 2012 at the Royal Festival Hall, London. Vladimir Jurowski conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus. The soloists were Ewa Podleś and Andrey Breus.
The Russian premiere took place on 2 April 2012 in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. Vladimir Jurowski conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra with the Sveshnikov State Academic Russian Choir and the Chamber Choir of the Moscow Conservatory. The soloists were Elena Zaremba and Andrey Breus.
The North American premiere took place on 18 October 2012 at Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco. Vladimir Jurowski conducted the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus. The soloists were Elena Zaremba and Andrey Breus.
Atovmyan's oratorio is in 8 sections, some consisting of several numbers (or parts of numbers) from the film score—refer to 'Sequence' below:
The performance duration is about 45 minutes.
Atovmyan's oratorio is scored for contralto or mezzo-soprano (in 'Ocean-Sea' and 'Song about the Beaver') and baritone (in 'Song of the Oprichniki'), mixed (SATB) chorus, and the following instrumentation:
Oratorio by Abram Stasevich (1961).
The following commentary, by composer and musicologist Thomas Korganov (1925-2015), was printed in the preface to Stasevich's vocal score in 1961:
"Without adding material of his own or making changes to the composer's manuscript, A. Stasevich approached the music for the film in a creative manner turning it into an oratorio consisting of 20 numbers. By repeating certain episodes and sections, and by linking them in a variety of ways, Stasevich was able to turn the various parts of this substantial work into self-contained numbers. In order to comply with the dictates of musical logic, he did not always adhere strictly to the order of the musical episodes prescribed by the plot. Thus certain episodes were transformed into tripartite structures, and others expanded to become rather large movements. Certain changes were also made to the orchestration, and certain instrumental lines were reinforced ... Stasevich also added another formal determinant in the shape of a speaker."
The premiere took place on 23 April 1961 in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. Abram Stasevich conducted the Moscow State Philharmonic Orchestra.<br>
Stasevich's oratorio is in 20 movements, some consisting of several numbers (or parts of numbers) from the film score—refer to 'Sequence' below:
Performance duration is about 75 minutes.
Stasevich's oratorio is scored for contralto (in 'Ocean-Sea' and 'Song about the Beaver') and baritone (in 'Song of the Oprichniki'), mixed (SATB) chorus, and the following instrumentation:
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 (7 scenes) 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 'The Field of the Dead' from the film score for "Aleksandr Nevskiy" (1938).
The world premiere performance took place on 20 February 1975 at the Bolshoy Theatre. Algis Zhuraitis conducted. The cast included Yuriy Vladimirov (Ivan), Natalya Bessmertnova (Anastasiya), and Boris Akimov (Kurbskiy).
Oratorio by Michael Lankester (1988).
The premiere took place on 4 May 1988. Michael Lankester conducted the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.
This version of "Ivan the Terrible" consists of 29 numbers.
The performance duration is about 95 minutes.
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."
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.
The 'new' work is in 13 movements, some consisting of several numbers (or parts of numbers) from the film score—refer to 'Sequence' below:
The performance duration is about 60 minutes.
References.
Notes
Sources