Description
Sergei Prokofiev’s music for Lieutenant Kijé was originally written in 1933-34 to accompany one of the earliest sound films made in the Soviet Union. At the time Prokofiev had been based in Paris for almost a decade, but he was keen to return to his homeland and saw the film commission as an opportunity to write music in an accessible style to appeal to a mass Soviet audience.
The film was based on a Russian army story involving mistaken paperwork. This led to a soldier who never existed being promoted to Lieutenant and then General, commanding an army, marrying a princess, being summoned to meet the Tsar, and finally ‘killed’, so the Tsar wouldn’t find out the truth.
The film was a success and Prokofiev was soon asked to create an orchestral suite of the film music – probably the first instance of a film score being adapted into a significant musical work. The suite quickly became part of the international concert repertoire and has remained one of the composer’s best-known works.
Troika – the fourth of the five movements in the suite – is a delightful evocation of a brisk winter sleigh ride in a troika (a traditional Russian three-horse sled). In this version for bassoon quartet the sleigh bells are optional. If included they can either be played by the bassoon 4 (worn on the ankles, playing from the cues provided in the part) or by someone else (perhaps an audience member). A separate sleigh bell part is included.
Also available for wind quintet and wind quartet
