# Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky: compare the film music with the suite



## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

Excuses for the watery sound quality of Eisenstein's original movie. But when one listens through this handicap, there are discoveries to be made. The instrumentalisation of the battle on the ice for example differs a lot in the movie compared with the suite. Is there someone on TC who knows more about this? Does there exist a full movie version of Alexander Nevsky?


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Film and concerts

In the 1990s a new, cleaner print became available. A number of symphony orchestras gave performances of Prokofiev's cantata, synchronized with a showing of the new print. The New York Philharmonic,[13] the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra[14] are five such ensembles. The concerts were quite popular, because Prokofiev's music is badly degraded by the original soundtrack recording, which suffers from extreme distortion and limited frequency response, as well as cuts to the original score to fit scenes that had already been shot. The cantata not only restored cuts but considerably expanded parts of the score.

New edition of the film

In 1995, a new edition of the film was issued on VHS and laserdisc, for which Prokofiev's score was entirely re-recorded in hi-fi digital stereo by Yuri Temirkanov conducting the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, although the dialogue portions of the soundtrack were left unchanged. This enabled a new generation to experience Eisenstein's film and Prokofiev's score in high fidelity, rather than having to settle for the badly recorded musical portion that had existed since the film's original release. There is no version of the re-recorded score available on DVD.

Above from Wikipedia. I saw Alexander Nevsky some 60 years ago while a student in New York City. A theater there specialized in Eisenstein films and ran them over and over again, so I got to see many of them. It's a wonderful film, though clearly a mix of propaganda, fantasy, and history, and Prokofiev's score when seen within the context is truly wonderful. I'd love to see that re-recorded version remarked above. Anyone who likes the cantata but has never seen the film is in for a real treat, seeing any version.


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