COMPOSERS: Franz Eaxman,Hans Erdmann,Prokofiev
LABELS: RCA Victor Red Seal
PERFORMER: Various
CATALOGUE NO: 09026-61954-2/09026-62657-2/09026-68143-2 Q209/Q211/Q210
The concert version of Ivan the Terrible was done after Prokofiev’s death by Abram Stasevich, who had conducted the original soundtrack recording, and it’s now available in a stirring performance by the Frankfurt RSO. But the CD is frustrating.
The narration is in Russian, and though the accompanying notes give an English translation, they are confusing: the track numbers in the notes bear no relation to the track numbers on the CD itself . In the same series comes Sayonara – a collection of Franz Waxman’s music for Fifties epics – and Hans Erdmann’s music for Murnau’s Dracula retelling, Nosferatu. Gillian B Anderson conducts the score which she has lovingly reconstructed, and it makes magnificently graphic music. Erdmann’s music is little known: this should help redress the injustice.