Prokofieff's Queen of Spades is heard again

(May 2009)

Serge Prokofieff’s music for the Queen of Spades can be heard again thanks to a new symphonic suite arranged by Michael Berkeley. He initially adapted the music for a new ballet, Rushes – Fragments of a Lost Story, premiered last year at The Royal Ballet in London in choreography by Kim Brandstrup starring Carlos Acosta and Alina Cojocaru. The first recording of the new 32-minute concert suite has just been released on Chandos (CHAN 10519) with Neeme Järvi conducting the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the work is now available on hire for orchestral programming.

The Queen of Spades was one of three Pushkin-related projects Prokofieff undertook soon after his return to the Soviet Union, together with incidental music for theatre productions of Boris Godunov and Eugene Onegin. The composer worked with film director Mikhail Romm, relishing the opportunities for musical characterisation and exploring scenes omitted in Tchaikovsky’s operatic version. However, as the Pushkin centenary of 1937 approached, all three projects were halted as Stalin increasingly favoured works glorifying the state.

Whereas Prokofieff had adapted his film music for Lieutenant Kijé into an orchestral suite, with the Queen of Spades he opted for arranging the thematic material into new works including Symphony No.5 and Piano Sonata No.8. At the point when he stopped work on the film, 24 numbers were completed, 20 of them fully orchestrated. Michael Berkeley has shaped this material into a four movement suite, orchestrating and elaborating where necessary. The sequence follows the drama, through Herman’s obsessive pursuit of the three card formula to guarantee his gambling success, his opportunistic love of Lisa who holds the secret, the ball scene, and the denouement when the cards are played and Herman loses his mind.

Photo: Laura Morera and Carlos Acosta in Rushes - Fragments of a Lost Story at The Royal Ballet (April 2008) (image: Bill Cooper)

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