At the chill opening of Jarvi's fine new version of Alexander Nevsky one can really feel the bitter wind of the Russian winter. The acoustics of the Caird Hall in Dundee where these Chandos recordings are made adds an extra atmospheric dimension to this splendidly recorded performance. The choral entry has an affecting poised melancholy, yet their geniality in the call to ''Arise ye Russian people'' has a ring of peasantry: here Abbado's rhythmic bite on DG is a shade sharper but Jarvi's marginally more relaxed way is equally effective. The ''Battle on the Ice'' is the enormously spectacular climax of his performance, with the bizarre dissonance of the orchestral scherzando effects given tremendous pungency capped by the exhilarating shouts of fervour from the singers. With Abbado the focal point is The ''Field of the Dead'', his battle sequence is powerful enough, goodness knows, but he is working towards the release and is helped by the quite superb account of the lament by Elena Obraztsova. Linda Finnie's contribution is most eloquent too and Jarvi's apotheosis undoubtedly moving, but at the end there is an added gravitas in the London performance. Overall, however, it is swings and roundabouts.
The DG analogue recording has great weight and impact, but the fortissimo force of Chandos's digital sound is especially telling. Both accounts are very gripping indeed in their different ways. Couplings may help you to decide between the two. Abbado offers a cultured and superbly played Lieutenant Kije; Jarvi chooses the ballet Ala and Lolly, originally written for Diaghilev which, when rejected by him, became the Scythian Suite. Its aggressive motoric rhythms are as powerful as anything Prokofiev wrote (indeed, their primitive force has an element of brutal ugliness to which I do not wholly respond) but the lyrical music is top-quality Prokofiev. ''It remains one of his most richly imaginative, harmonically sophisticated and wonderfully atmospheric scores'', suggests RL in the notes. I think that's overstating the case—it is not in the class of Romeo and Juliet, or for that matter Kije but is well worth having on record. Certainly Jarvi has its measure and so do the Chandos engineers, but it's not music for a small flat.'