Prokofiev Lieutenant Kijé Suite, Op .60

Beginning in the 1930s, Prokofiev became one of the first composers of international repute to write music for films. His silver screen career began with the score to Alexander Feinzimmer’s Lieutenant Kijé (1933), released in America under the title The Czar Wants to Sleep. Though the film is infrequently encountered today, Prokofiev’s music has enjoyed tremendous popularity in its incarnation as a five-movement concert suite. Following Kijé, Prokofiev produced a number of film scores of great distinction, most notably those for Alexander Nevsky (1938) and Ivan the Terrible (1942-1943). So highly regarded were his skills, in fact, that while researching film and sound techniques in Hollywood during 1937-1938, he was offered a then-colossal $2,500 per week to become a full-time film composer. He rejected the offer and returned to the Soviet Union. The music of Lieutenant Kijé is refreshingly satirical, a perfect counterpart to a story about a nonexistent soldier -- “born