5/5. Stalinist Russia. With Donald Macleod.
Having returned to the USSR at the invitation of the Soviet authorities, Prokofiev spent his final years in the shadow of Stalin's repressive control. In 1948 he found himself among a group of composers who were publicly denounced as having anti-democratic tendencies but there was little he could do to retaliate.
Song of the Collective Farmers (Story of a Real Man) Bolshoi Theatre Chorus and Orchestra, conductor Mark Ermler
Betrothal in a Monastery, Act 1 Scene 2 Soloists, Kirov Opera Orchestra, conductor Valery Gergiev Symphony No 5 (3rd mvt)
Leningrad PO, conductor Mariss Jansons Cello Sonata, Op 119 (1st mvt)
Alexander Ivashkin , Tatyana Lazareva (piano) Andrei's Vision of Natasha and Death (War and Peace) Soloists, Kirov Chorus and Orchestra, conductor Valery Gergiev Repeated from Friday