This is a great great version of Alexander Nevsky. But why not put it out on CD for all of us? Hearing news about this is like hearing news about Region 2 DVDs from England and elsewhere that won't play on a US DVD player.

From the very opening, cold and menacing, Schippers sets the tone, and the heavy overture gives another meaning to the title of the first track, Russia Under the Mongol Yoke.
The glorious hymn associated with Nevsky and the Russkies begins somberly, with the Westminster Choir weighing in with restraint and reverence before and explosive entry into the middle part of the song. Russian is not the easiest language to sing with the right accent and inotnation, but this American chorus shows British and German choruses how non-Russians can sing Russian without slaughtering the language with a thick accent.
And speaking of Brits, it's not for nothing that they were surprised by the might of the New York Philharmonic's brass a few years before this recording when Dimitri Mitropoulos took them on a tour of the UK. The NY Phil's brass section offers a worthy tribute to any dangerous ennemy deserving of the title: it is aggressive, piercing and threatening. Schippers choses somewhat slow tempos transforming a tense situation between the opposite camps into a nightmare of suspense and terror.
Yet another heroic song: Russian people rise up and fight. The chorus sings without shouting, and sings with such energy that you can almost imagine the choristers rising up and going to the front.
And then... the battle on the ice. Or a lesson in how to vary between slow and fast movements without being artificially theatrical. Again, the first instants of The Battle are slow, and desperate creating unease and suspense while the two armies prepare and wait for the first step. At 1min 53sec, Schippers strikes. There is but one way to describe Schippers' ferocious attack: CHARGE!. Accelerating suddenly from a standstill to a lightening descent into madness and battle, Schippers leads chorus and orchestra in a wild and frenetic battle where the two camps alternatively win and lose. In agility and virtuosity, few orchestras can match the New York Philharmonic. Orchestra and chorus move from doom to victory and vice-versa with an astounding easiness. At the end of the battle, Schippers and company adopt a dark and poetic mood as if to say 'We won, but at what cost?'. Yet not all is tragic, for hope remains as the brass is replaced by the smooth, silky strings of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
The strings return in the next track where contralto Lili Chookasian provides one of the saddest versions of the elegiac Field of the Dead. Schippers's experience in opera is an asset unequaled in this rendition in which orchestra and soloist are one. Schippers does not artificially favour his soloist, nor does he place obstacles in her way. It is a perfect collaboration with stupendous results.
Final choral reprise. The battle won, the victorious warriors return home. Interesting that at the height of the Cold War, an American chorus should sing Russian propaganada music with such perfection.

The disc is rounded off by an excellent version of the Mussorgsky/Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition, in which Schippers shows maturity, assuredness and control even more pronounced than on Nevsky.
While Columbia was spending much of its budget on Leonard Bernstein (New York Philharmonic), Eugene Ormandy (Philadelphia Orchestra) and George Szell (Cleveland Orchestra), the label nevertheless found the time to hire America's wildest orchestra and hand it over to a relatively unknown and inexperienced Schippers. A Thomas Schippers who died too soon in 1977 at the age of 47. Nevertheless, he had time to record some magnificent works, in the studio for Columbia, and live for other labels. This version of Alexander Nevsky was recorded in 1961 when Schippers was but 31 years old.

Hopefully, Sony will reissue Schippers' New York recordings in ways worthier than his current filler music status, where his recordings fill up the remaining time on CDs of Szell, Ormandy and Bernstein.

This version of Alexandre Nevsky, originally produced by John McClure, is here transeferd to SACD by Louise de la Fuente (producer) et Richard King (engineer). The sound is superb: powerful, clear, transparent. Although recorded in February 1961, the recording has barely aged and is much better than lots of newer digital recordings.

The biggest flaw of this album is Sony's usual imbecility regarding their own innovations: this SACD is not hybrid! It can only be played on SACD players. Inserting it in a regular CD player will yield a "No Disc" message.

But as idiotic as that flaw is, it's hard not to give Thomas Schippers, the New York Philharmonic, the Westminster Choir, as well as the producers and engineers the credit they deserve. For, if this is not the absolute best Alexander Nevsky, then it is by far the most serious contender for that title.

It was a three hour fight to get it, but after battling a fleet of crazy consumers for a parking space and even whackier consumers inside the store, I was able to make myself through to a Sony DAV-C450 system.