Ivan the Terrible (Prokofiev)

The subject of the "First Tale" (Part 1) is the early years, 1547 to 1565, of the reign of Ivan IV of Russia: his coronation, his intent to curb the powers of the boyars, his wedding, his conquest of Kazan, his almost fatal illness, the poisoning and death of his first wife Anastasia, the formation of the oprichniki, and his abdication.

However, before this version could be performed, the music received its concert premiere in 1961 in Moscow in the form of an oratorio for speaker, soloists, chorus, and orchestra by Abram Stasevich, who had conducted the film soundtracks for Eisenstein.

In 1973 the composer Mikhail Chulaki and choreographer Yuri Grigorovich drew on Prokofiev's film scores to create the ballet Ivan the Terrible, which was given its premiere in 1975.

Later performing editions of the scores include an oratorio put together by Michael Lankester (1989), and a concert scenario by Christopher Palmer (1991).

'A' stands for Anhang (the appendix), which includes the liturgical numbers used in the film that were either arranged by Prokofiev or were not written into his score of Ivan the Terrible.

Several numbers can be divided into two parts, which are sometimes quoted in the film separately: The Ivan theme appears in: Atovmyan's oratorio finally received its public premiere on 28 January 2012 at the Royal Festival Hall, London.

Atovmyan's oratorio is scored for contralto or mezzo-soprano (in 'Ocean-Sea' and 'Song about the Beaver') and baritone (in 'Song of the Oprichniki'), mixed (SATB) chorus, and the following instrumentation: The following commentary, by composer and musicologist Thomas Korganov (1925-2015), was printed in the preface to Stasevich's vocal score in 1961: "Without adding material of his own or making changes to the composer's manuscript, A. Stasevich approached the music for the film in a creative manner turning it into an oratorio consisting of 20 numbers.

By repeating certain episodes and sections, and by linking them in a variety of ways, Stasevich was able to turn the various parts of this substantial work into self-contained numbers.

Stasevich's oratorio is scored for contralto (in 'Ocean-Sea' and 'Song about the Beaver') and baritone (in 'Song of the Oprichniki'), mixed (SATB) chorus, and the following instrumentation: The ballet Ivan the Terrible, arranged by Mikhail Chulaki and choreographed by Yuriy Grigorovich, debuted in February 1975 at the Bolshoy Theatre with Yuri Vladimirov in the title role.

The two act (7 scenes) work consists of selections from Prokofiev's film score for Ivan the Terrible supplemented with excerpts from his Symphony No.

The main problem is the speaker, introduced by Stasevich primarily because he had been unwise enough to try and incorporate a large number of short fragmentary episodes, and had to find a way of stitching them together.

While retaining Stasevich's make-up of most of the larger movements, I have reverted largely to the film's original sequence of musical events.