Prokofiev: Songs and Romances
Although songs feature prominently over the course of Prokofiev's output, they remain his least explored genre, and this set appears to be the first systematic attempt at an integral edition. The uncredited booklet note gives a decent overview of what this entails; the omission of songs arranged by others from the scores of Lieutenant Kijé and Alexander Nevsky is a fair decision, though the exclusion of the 1927 Kazakh Songs, never published but presumably extant, seems odd. Was timing the guiding consideration?As to what is included, the Op. 9 Poems are attractive student efforts under the sway of Scriabin, while The Ugly Duckling is a marvel of witty observation and nostalgic sentiment. It is characterfully sung by Victoria Yevtodieva, without banishing memories of Soderström and Ashkenazy from the mid-1970s. Harmonically, the wide-ranging Op. 23 Poems lack a unified idiom, but the Op. 27 Akhmatova Poems are a real discovery: probing texts enhanced by their settings, not least the tonally ambivalent ‘The Grey-Eyed King' (second disc, track 7) which closes the sequence in a mood anticipating Shostakovich's equally underrated Japanese cycle. Usually heard in their violin transcription, the Op. 35 vocalises are clearly difficult to pitch when sung, and no match qualitatively for the Op. 36 Balmont Poems, whose inward intensity – seamlessly conveyed here despite being split between three singers – offers a foretaste of the ground to be covered in The Fiery Angel and the Second and Third Symphonies.In terms of intrinsic quality, it is difficult to assess the songs from Prokofiev's Soviet period. A functional aspect is often present, as in the strident propaganda settings of Op. 66, forcefully projected by Andrei Slavny, and the Songs of Our Days cycle; authentic socialist realism from the peak of Stalin's ‘terror', which really need their original massed voices and orchestra to avoid sounding like a dress rehearsal as here. Textually, the Op. 79 Songs are a motley assortment, but the singers' fervency makes them cohere, Yevtodieva capturing the bittersweet essence of ‘Seeing Off' (first disc, track 15) to perfection. Sergei Aleksashkin impresses in the brooding Mussorgskian numbers that open the otherwise undistinguished Op. 89 Songs; translations notwithstanding, Mira Mendelson-Prokofieva could have made a fortune in the West writing verse for greetings cards. The Op. 68 Children's Songs are delightful, while the Op. 73 Pushkin Songs are another major find: stylistically a pre-echo of the wartime piano sonatas, they offer manifold insights into texts by a poet not otherwise associated with Prokofiev, and warrant the dedication brought to them by Slavny. The arrangements of traditional songs invariably bear the composer's imprint; those of Op. 104 have supple and imaginative piano writing, while Lyubov Sokolova has sufficient variety of characterization to justify taking on all 12 of them (a shame they had to be divided over the three discs even so). A special mention for Yuri Serov, co-ordinator of the whole project, whose thoughtful and attentive accompaniment is an asset to the highlights, and makes the lesser songs at least listenable to. Sound is not free of distortion in some of the more rhetorical items, while the booklet could have featured texts in parallel with translations, and fitted more comfortably into the CD box. No matter, this is a timely and welcome set which all devotees of Prokofiev, and Russian music in general, need to have.Graham Simpson--From International Record Review - subscribe now