Alexander Nevsky
In the year of the 50th anniversary of Sergei Prokofiev’s death, a spectacular premiere of one the composer’s works was on the program in the Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin: For the first time in sixty-five years, the original score of the Prokofiev’s film music to Sergei M. Eisenstein’s Alexander Nevsky was made available again and premiered as a film-concert on October 16, 2003. Thanks to generous arrangements handled by the GlinkaMuseum in Moscow, the original manuscript could be reedited by Frank Strobel, in collaboration with Sikorski Music Publishers, and published as a critical edition.
With Frank Strobel conducting, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchster Berlin, Ernst Senff Choir, and soloist Marina Domashenko gave a live performance of Prokofiev’s music to a screening of Sergei Eisenstein’s film. In connection with the film-concert, a new recording was aired by the Deutschlandradio Berlin radio station in a comprehensive report and released on May 1, 2004 on the Capriccio label. For the SACD, Frank Strobel was awarded the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik 2004 for recording excellence.
In addition, at the close of Prokofiev Year, the production was endowed with an enhanced sound quality and aired as a TV broadcast of the arte network on December 4, 2003. All this culminated in the entire project being invited to Moscow as the so-called “flagship project” in conjunction with the German-Russian Encounters Festival. Under the direction of the Goethe Institute, the German Federal Cultural Foundation, the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Russian Ministry of Culture, the work was presented for the first time, since its premiere in the 1930s of the last century, where it was initially presented: at the Bolschoi Theater in Moscow. In this context, on the stage of the Bolschoi Theater, Frank Strobel was decorated with the “Medal of the Holy Alexander Nevsky” in honor of his contribution to the revival of Russian masterworks of music culture.
The Alexander Nevsky Project is a co-production of Deutschlandradio Berlin, ZDF and arte, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, and Sikorski Music Publishers, in collaboration with the European Film Philharmonic.
“... in the very center of the exact time.”
On the Reconstruction and the New Recording of Sergei Prokofiev’s Film Music