I had the good fortune to catch last night’s Promenade Concert, featuring the excellent City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andris Nelsons, the best part of which was Sergei Prokofiev’s patriotic cantata Alexander Nevsky, which comprises music he wrote for the film of the same name directed by Sergei Eisenstein. I thought it was a wonderful performance (which you can still see on iPlayer at least for a week) of an amazing piece and was glad I stayed in to watch it. Apart from everything else it reminded me of going to see the film at the Arts Cinema in Cambridge when I was a student. Here is a segment from the thrilling Battle on the Ice. Shot in 1938, without benefit of digital effects, the photography of this sequence is absolutely amazing, as is the music. The point at which battle commences – and the music falls silent – is one of the greatest heart-stopping moments in all cinematic history.
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In the Dark 