Prokofiev · Alexander Nevsky · Lieutenant Kijé · LSO · Claudio Abbado

Lionel Salter compared the Abbado and Svetlanov recordings of Alexander Nevsky in April 1980 and concluded: ''Readers to whom splendid sonority and sophisticated playing make the greater appeal can be recommended to go for the DG version: those who rate the authentic vocal timbre, language and dramatic sense higher can go for the Svetlanov''. And MEO, having noted that Riccardo Chailly on Decca offered a ''vivid and exciting account'' did not rate him a serious challenger to Abbado. The issue is now complicated by the question of couplings (Decca offer none) and by aspects of recording highlighted on CD.

None of the three recordings lacks immediacy of impact, but the 1960s vintage of the Le Chant du Monde/Melodiya/Harmonia Mundi is betrayed by a relatively high level of hiss and by one or two 'drop-outs'. These can be lived with; but someone has had the unfortunate idea of fading down the final chord and leaving barely two seconds' gap before the next work. The cantata Seven, they are seven, a fascinating document of Prokofiev's hysterical modernist phase, is similarly treated. (My typing has just produced the portmanteau 'mysterical', which I take to be a Freudian slip of inspired appropriateness.) Indeed, the only piece on the record not to be faded out is the 13 1/2 minute Hail to Stalin, which deserves to be faded out about 13 1/2 minutes before its conclusion. No texts are provided (probably a blessing in the case of the last-named work).

DG's analogue recording for Abbado is of demonstration quality, although there are a couple of very audible edits which are probably more disturbing than on the LP. The LSO are on virtuoso form and though some may be allergic to Elena Obraztsova (MEO found her plummily histrionic) I find she focuses the tragedy of the ''Field of the Dead'' movement far more effectively than the more detached Arkhipova (Decca) or the absurdly prominent Avdeyeva (Le Chant du Monde). Without this element of compassion the famous ''Battle on the Ice'' dominates the score and makes the whole drama seem one-dimensional. but before writing-off the Russian performance it must be said that there are orchestral colours in it which the LSO gloss over, and the choral singing is spellbinding (undeterred by anything so trivial as a mezzo-piano marking in the score). And Abbado's otherwise excellent Lieutenant Kije is marred by strange lapses of concentration from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra—split horn notes, a dreadful misread accidental in the ''Troika'' (which is probably the movement you would most often want to play for friends) and some dicey solos besides. The Tennstedt/EMI version (coupled with Hary Janos) has some flat and tentative horn solos and he spoils the introduction to the ''Troika'' by anticipating the pesante marking. Mata and the Dallas Symphony (coupled with The love for three oranges suite and Stravinsky's orchestral Suites) are less sophisticated and the RCA recording makes less impact, but there is much to be said for their straightforwardness and careful presentation.'
Reviewed: Gramophone 6/1987