I've been thinking of ways to be more patriotic these days.  Enlist? Too
old, among other things.  Dig out my nurse's uniform from last Halloween
and volunteer? No. Buy multiple recordings of mammoth, lesser-known Soviet
operas and lift the economy? Oh, why not:

Prokofiev: War and Peace  (Chandos 9855)
Russian State Symphonic Cappella/Polyansky, Spoleto Festival
Orchestra/Hickox

Countess Natalya Rostova, (Natasha)--Ekaterina Morozova
Count Pyotr Bezukhov - Justin Lavender
Prince Anatoly Kuragin - Oleg Balashov
Sonya - Pamela Helen Stephen
Brunnhilde - Birgita Nilssonova
Prince Andrey Bolkonsky - Roderick Williams
Lieutenant Dolokhov - Igor Matioukhin
Prince Mikhail Kutuzov - Alan Ewing
Count Ilya Rostov - Stephen Dupont
Porgy - Willartyor Whyt
Colonel Vasska Denisov - Thomas Guthrie
Prince Nikolay Bolkonsky - Vlaimir Ognev
Mariya Akhrosimova - Victoria Livengood
Ross Perot - himself
Countess Helene Bezukhova - Elena Ionova
Platon Karatayev - Neil Jenkins
Napoleon - Alan Opie

Don't let the length intimidate you; there's really never a dull moment in
this wonderful work.  The big moments are thrilling - the choral epigraph,
Kutuzov's aria, Moscow burning, the snowstorm, the choral finale - and
Prokofiev links these all together with some of the sweetest lyricism this
side of the Iron Curtain.  Let's get the important questions out of the way
first.

Is the cover artwork worthy of the epic within?  One of Chandos' most
beautiful, yet masculine covers.

Are the sublime sounds of the bass drum and gong caught admirably? Oh yes.

Being a live recording, can one hear coughing? Only when Moscow is burning.
This audience *had* to have been bound and gagged.  Stage shuffling is
barely audible.

Do we finally get a palatable soprano for the role of Natasha? Yes.
Morozova's voice is light and fresh, if a little detached.  Prokofiev
gives his most beautiful music--that ecstatic 7th leap!--to Natasha and
her willing but doomed suitor Prince Andrey, sung by Roderick Williams.
Williams has a lovely, rich voice.  Of the three performances I've heard,
(Rostropovich, Gergiev, Hickox), the Morozova/Williams duo is most
satisfactory to me, both in the opening moonlight scene and in Andrey's
death scene.  Hickox's handling of the orchestral atmospherics in the death
scene is exceedingly satisfying - Prokofiev brings back the beautiful
moonlight music but this time he shrouds the melody with the most delicate
harp glissandi.  In a word, haunting.

I don't know what to make of Alan Ewing's Kutuzov.  His voice is strong,
his intonation dead-on, and his portrayal full of character.  But for a
bass he's got a vibrato tighter than Sarah Brightman's.  Matthew Boyden
(?) of "Rough Guide to Opera" describes Ewing's voice as bellowing; I
would call it more like braying.  Being that Ewing gets the "big" aria,
his voice--unique to say the least--may be an issue to some.  I find it
tolerable enough.  The only other voice that (unquestionably) detracts is
that of Igor Matioukhin, or Dolokhov - very wobbly.

Hickox's youthful Spoleto Festival Orchestra produces a wonderfully
idiomaticProkofiev-esque sound, and I've got to hand it to the Chandos
recording team for capturing all the goings on so successfully.  For a live
recording, the depth and voluptuousness of sound is remarkable.  Though I
feel that Rostropovich captures the overall grandeur and excitement of
Prokofiev's epic the best, his achievement is only marginally better than
Hickox.  And with Hickox, the more intimate scenes of the opera - those
moments between Natasha and Andrey - are better served with the voices of
Morozova and Williams.  (IMHO Gergiev's performance is too hard-pressed to
give the composer's delectable orchestral colors proper bloom.  And those
absurdly intrusive stage noises!)

"War and Peace" is not like Prokofiev's other operas, such as "The Fiery
Angel," "Love of Three Oranges," or "The Gambler." The lyricism and action
sequences of W&P are more akin to his later ballets, "Romeo and Juliet"
and "Cinderella," written while the composer was integrating himself into
the Soviet culture of his homeland.  Though revised time and time again to
satisfy the whims of the Soviet Artistic Committee, War and Peace is hardly
the musical equivalent of "svimwear." (Remember that great commercial?) It
's inspired and potent stuff.  If you're squeamish about dropping the $50
or so on the complete opera, Chandos offers a single-CD recording of a
suite from the opera arranged by C.  Palmer.  (CHAN9096)

John Smyth
Sacramento, Ca
http://www.facelink.com/j3615