Sergei Prokofiev: War And Peace

The two contenders for the best "War and Peace" are this 1993 Gergiev set (on 3 CDs) and Rostropovich's 1989 recording (on 4 CDs) for ERato. The lines seem evenly drawn with the critics. Those who favor Rostropovich (whom the dying Prokofiev entrusted with the opera) like his impassioned conducting and Vishnevskaya's ardent portrayl of Natasha, despite the fact that she was twenty years too old for the part. Those who favor Gergiev point to the evenness of his singing cast and the psychological refinement of each character. I can accept both viewpoints. If you have the resources, you might buy the Gergiev for the "Peace" scenes in the drawing rooms and ballrooms, the Rostropovich for the "War" scenes that occupy the second half of the opera. In that regard Gergiev has the advantage of better music, since Prokofiev originally intended to portray only the personal, romantic parts of the novel. War came as an afterthought when the Germans invaded the Soviet Union.

The work itself continues to have problems. No one should come ot it expecting Tolstoy's novel and its moving wisdom. When Prokofiev was composing the opera in the mid-Forties, his inspiraiton was variable. The great Fifth Sym. had just been written in the sumemr of 1941, but that was his last indisputable masterpiece. "War and Peace" contains a feeble Overture, included here by Gergiev but omitted whenever he stages the opera. There are patriotic choruses straight out of Soviet wartime propaganda, clearly aimed at Hitler more than Napoleon. And in general the melodic inspiration falls well short of Romeo and Juliet--the more delicate music, of which there is a lot on CD 1, sounds like outtakes from Prokofiev's fitfully inspired Cinderella ballet.

War and Peace works best if you have seen its epic spectacle onstage, so I sympathize with the reviewers who recommend the DVD instead. Coming to the work cold, with no visual memories of Moscow burning, Natasha's delirious dancing at the ball, Napoleon in retreat with half an army onstage, a listener may get fairly bored. Prokofiev found a middle-of-the-road idiom that has few pinnacles, presumably because of the daunting four hours of stage business he had to compose for. As a work of craft, War and Peace is admirable, but without the epic spectacle, its musical thinness shows thorugh.

Good but not the best. Try rather the Chandos version. Voices are better. Another great version (not complete) is the Melik-Patchayev one. A good old version.

Martin Pitchon

I wrote the first of the customer reviews here, warning potential buyers about the sound. As it is now possible to buy Gergiev's Kirov performance on DVDs, I would recommend doing that, if you must have a Russian version, or buying the TDK DVDs of the outstanding Paris production. In consequence, I re-rate these over-priced Philips CDs 3 stars.

Although the recording level is too low as established by others reviewing this work/recordings, I have to point out that the dramatic quality is stronger than others. I have the Hickox and like it a little less than this. The Rostropovich is very fine, BUT the singing/acting is weak, the orchestral playing is great. The Bolshoi sets ie: Alexander Melik-Pashaev and Mark Ermler are outstanding in performance and recording, but they are edited versions. Although I have heard the Janssen set I haven't analyzed it clearly, since I do not own it. For a complete version I strongly recommend the Gergiev performance. The acting and conducting is superior to the Hickox performance if one can forgive the low sound recording. I found myself a bit bored at times while listening to the Hickox upon its broadcast before the CD issueing. I did buy it since it is stronger than the Rostropovich, but it lacks a solid continuity of drama between soloists. The Gergiev performance treats every scene with care and understood performance which I don't always find in other performances. It is live and does fail on the attempts of the engineers, but what does that have to do with the artists performance? It is all round complete and more satisfactory than its rival Spoleto performance under Hickox.

I would like to amplify upon a point made by a previous reviewer. The performance does indeed have the mentioned extraneous noises associated with the live performance, but I find that the real shortfall is simply the recorded sound quality, which is somewhat lacking in clarity, spaciousness, and dynamic range. Apparently the engineering used for the recording was not the best. Recorded sound quality of live performances can be marvelous even with footfalls and the occasional audience noises (I am thinking of Elektra with Behrens/Ozawa-Boston Symphony Orchestra on the Phillips label). But this one disappoints to a degree. I give it a few stars anyway for the fine performance.