Credits:

NIKOLAI LUGANSKY

Description:

The film "Ivan the Terrible," produced between 1944 and 1946, depicts the life of the real Ivan IV in the mid-16th century. A cruel and inhumane man, he once withdrew from the world in the first part of the film, but in the second part, he carried out a great purge with the support of the people, which was considered implicitly critical of Stalin, the ruler of the time. The film was banned, and the planned third part was never produced. Prokofiev's music is based on the Russian Orthodox tradition, but is full of colorful sounds. One of Prokofiev's assistants, Levon Atovmyan, arranged an oratorio of this work in 1961, but this version was never performed, and the oratorio version by conductor and composer Abram Stasevich from the same period is usually performed. This recording, however, uses a reconstructed version of the original score written by Prokofiev himself.You can enjoy different numbers from the usual ones carefully. Naxos Japan