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Tag: Soviet Cinema

Soviet Cinema’s Musical Masterpieces

This week on “Picture Perfect,” peek behind the Curtain for music by notable composers for Soviet cinema.

Alfred Schnittke, a name usually associated with the avant-garde, actually composed over 60 film scores. One of these was for “Agony” (1974), about Rasputin, his influence over the Tsar, and the conspiracy to murder him.

Georgy Sviridov, a pupil of Shostakovich, wrote the music for “Time, Forward!” (1962), based on the novel of Valentin Kataev. Set in the 1930s, the film describes a day of construction work at the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works. Some of the music was used during the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Dmitri Shostakovich, of course, is celebrated for his symphonies and string quartets, which are regarded as some of the most important of the 20th century. He also happened to write some 30 film scores, beginning all the way back in the silent era. Far and away his greatest hit composed for film, at least in the West, is the Romance from “The Gadfly” (1955), based on the novel of Ethel Lillian Voynich. The music gained broader exposure as the theme to “Reilly, Ace of Spies.”

Sergei Eisenstein’s “Alexander Nevsky” (1938) invariably turns up on lists of the greatest films ever made. Nevsky, the 13th century Russian prince, military leader, and saint, thwarts the attempted invasion of Novgorod by Teutonic Knights of the Holy Roman Empire.

Sergei Prokofiev arranged his masterful score into a concert piece, a cantata. However, these days, orchestras seem to be performing it more and more often as it was originally heard, with the film. The synthesis of music and visuals for the climactic Battle on the Ice is one of its indelible highlights.

Say “da” to classic music for Soviet cinema, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

January 9, 2021
Shostakovich’s Lost Film Score

Dmitri Shostakovich, of course, is celebrated for his monumental symphonies and confessional string quartets, which are regarded as some of the most important of the 20th century.

But early on, he eked out a living as a pianist in movie houses, enlivening silent images with his mercurial improvisations. This was great practice for his later work with a number of notable Soviet filmmakers.

Shostakovich would go on to compose some 30 original film scores. Far and away his “greatest hit” in the field, at least in the West, is the romance from “The Gadfly” (1955), based on the novel of Ethel Lillian Voynich. The music enjoyed a revival of sorts in the 1980s as the theme for the miniseries “Reilly, Ace of Spies.”

But my personal favorite among his film scores is that for a zany fairy story after Pushkin, called “The Tale of the Priest and His Worker Balda.” Shostakovich, about 27 years-old in 1933, was hired by experimental animator Mikhail Tsekhanovsky to supply the manic underscore for his visionary creations. But Tsekhanovsky probably didn’t count on just how manic Shostakovich could be. The music flowed like water down the Neva, and Tsekhanovsky struggled to keep up, all the while pushing himself to create images worthy of his collaborator.

Then, in 1936, following the debut of the opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk,” Shostakovich was condemned by the Soviet authorities in an infamous “Muddle Instead of Music” denunciation in Pravda, and the composer decided he had better cool his jets. The potentially inflammatory Symphony No. 4 went into a drawer, and he halted work on the film, which he had already been involved with, on and off, for nearly three years. When the denunciation came, he was in the process of wholly reorchestrating the existing music, at the studio’s request, for smaller forces.

While the feature would remain unfinished, Tsekhanovsky compiled what he had – some 40 minutes in all – and the work was put into storage at the Lenfilm archives. Unfortunately, nearly all of it would be destroyed by fire during the Nazi siege of Leningrad in 1941.

Only the bizarre bazaar scene survives. Watch this, and count your blessings.

Shostakovich regarded his music for “Balda” as some of the best he’d ever written. Here’s a complete recording, with restorations. Alas, it doesn’t have quite the pungency of the earlier suite recorded by Gennady Rozhdestvensky.

Happy birthday, Dmitri Shostakovich!

September 25, 2020
Soviet Cinema Scores A Winter Escape

In the wake of yesterday’s “bomb cyclone,” we turn our thoughts to someplace you really don’t want to be in the winter – Russia.

This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll have an hour of music from classic Soviet cinema. Alfred Schnittke, a name usually associated with the avant-garde, actually composed over 60 film scores. One of these was for “Agony” (1974) about Rasputin, his influence over the Tsar, and the conspiracy to murder him.

Georgy Sviridov, a pupil of Shostakovich, wrote the music for “Time, Forward!” (1962), based on the novel of Valentin Kataev. Set in the 1930s, the film describes a day in the construction work of Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works. Some of the music was used during the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Shostakovich, of course, is celebrated for his symphonies and string quartets, which are regarded as some of the most important of the 20th century. He also happened to write some 30 film scores, beginning all the way back in the silent era. Far and away his “greatest hit” composed for film, at least in the West, is the romance from “The Gadfly” (1955), based on the novel of Ethel Lillian Voynich.

Sergei Eisenstein’s “Alexander Nevsky” (1938) invariably turns up on lists of the greatest films ever made. Nevsky, the 13th century Russian prince, military leader and saint, thwarts the attempted invasion of Novgorod by Teutonic Knights of the Holy Roman Empire.

Sergei Prokofiev arranged his masterful score into a concert piece, a cantata. However, these days, orchestras seem to be performing it more and more as it was originally heard, with the film. It’s a powerful piece of work. The marriage of music and visuals for the famous Battle on the Ice is one of the film’s great highlights.

If you think we’ve got it bad, try facing down a patriotic Nevsky on a frozen lake! I hope you’ll join me for music from these classics of Soviet cinema, this Friday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

January 5, 2018
Soviet Cinema Soundtracks Russian Winter

With Winter Storm Jonas shaking out his big white beard all up the East Coast, we turn our thoughts to someplace you really don’t want to be in the winter – Russia.

This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll have an hour of music from classic Soviet cinema. Alfred Schnittke, a name usually associated with the avant-garde, actually composed over 60 film scores. One of these was for “Agony” (1974) about Rasputin, his influence over the Tsar, and the conspiracy to murder him.

Georgy Sviridov, a pupil of Shostakovich, wrote the music for “Time, Forward!” (1962), based on the novel of Valentin Kataev. Set in the 1930s, the film describes a day in the construction work of Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works. Some of the music was used during the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Shostakovich, of course, is celebrated for his symphonies and string quartets, which are regarded as some of the most important of the 20th century. He also happened to write some 30 film scores, beginning all the way back in the silent era. Far and away his “greatest hit” composed for film, at least in the West, is the romance from “The Gadfly” (1955), based on the novel of Ethel Lillian Voynich.

Sergei Eisenstein’s “Alexander Nevsky” (1938) invariably turns up on lists of the greatest films ever made. Nevsky, the 13th century Russian prince, military leader and saint, thwarts the attempted invasion of Novgorod by Teutonic Knights of the Holy Roman Empire.

Sergei Prokofiev arranged his masterful score into a concert piece, a cantata. However, these days, orchestras seem to be performing it more and more as it was originally heard, with the film. It’s a powerful piece of work. The marriage of music and visuals for the famous Battle on the Ice is one of the film’s great highlights.

If you think you’ve got it bad, try facing down a patriotic Nevsky on a frozen lake! I hope you’ll join me for music from these classics of Soviet cinema, tonight at 6 ET, or tomorrow morning at 6; or that you’ll listen to it later as a webcast at wwfm.org.

January 22, 2016
Wintry World Cinema Picture Perfect

This week on “Picture Perfect,” we look beyond our shores for an hour of wintry scenes from world cinema, with entries from England, Finland, the Soviet Union and Japan.

“Dersu Uzala,” from 1975, was one of the best of Akira Kurosawa’s later films, although it seems to have slipped into obscurity in the shadow of “Kagemusha” and “Ran.” The plot concerns the friendship in the early 20th century between a Russian explorer and an East Asian trapper and hunter, who acts as his guide.

“Dersu Uzala” was the last of Kurosawa’s works to be recognized with an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The music is by Isaac Schwartz.

Snow again is in abundance in “The White Reindeer,” a Finnish film from 1952. Set in Lapland, it tells the tale of a lonely herder’s wife, who visits a local shaman and is transformed into a shapeshifting, vampiric white reindeer.

The film was honored at the Cannes Film Festival with a special award for Best Fairy Tale Film, and at the Golden Globes as Best Foreign Film. Einar Englund wrote the music.

Sergei Prokofiev’s concert suite from “Lieutenant Kijé ” is very well known, but for some reason the film is not. In fact, it has been widely circulated in program notes that the film was never actually completed, which is false. It has not been available for purchase in the U.S. for as long as I can remember, but you can watch it here:

Why Criterion can’t get a hold of this one, I don’t know, but I’m sure there must be an explanation. The famous sleigh-ride, the “Troika,” begins just before the 45 minute mark. Note that the baritone on the soundtrack is none other than the composer himself, who thought the original singer employed for the purpose too refined.

Finally, we head to the South Pole with Robert Falcon Scott, for “Scott of the Antarctic.” England’s Ealing Studios is best recognized for its classic comedies of the 1950s, many of them starring Alec Guinness. There’s not much funny about this harrowing story, released in 1948, which stars John Mills and sports the most celebrated film score of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Vaughan Williams’ music perfectly reflects the sublime, austere beauty of a hostile environment. Material from the score was later reworked to create his Symphony No. 7, the “Sinfonia Antarctica.”

Bring your gloves and a hat. It’s a small world of cold this week, on “Picture Perfect,” this Friday evening at 6 ET, with a repeat Saturday morning at 6, or you can listen to it later as a webcast at http://www.wwfm.org.

January 15, 2015

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