Valery Polyansky conducting (one of the many) Russian State Symphony Orchestra(s).

From the price of it (£30.99) and the catalogue number ( CHAN10153(2) ) I'd guess it's a double disc set, and it includes another piece of music as well, Ballad of an Unknown Boy.

Years back, on the day Sony released its Ultimate Phantom Menace, Nimbus Records, a small Brit label, released the Ultimate Ivan - a rerecording of the complete score from the movie, including the religious works used.
An excellent recording which is highly recommended as it includes the complete score without the annoying narration.

See there: http://www.moviemusic.com/CD/ivantheterrible.html

or here .

The new Ivan album is coming out on Chandos in October. Chandos already has a recording of excerpts from Ivan the Terrible in a concert suite setting, with Neeme Jarvi conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Chandos will also release the Film Music of Sir Arnold Bax, with Rumon Gamba and the BBC Philharmonic on the same day as the new Ivan.

In somewhat unrelated news, Carl Davis has recorded a Christmas album with the Hallé Orchestra, to be issued by the orchestra's own label.

Ivan at Chandos

I checked the Chandos against the Nimbus...same track titles [with some minor modifications], similar lengths but not exactly the same; the Nimbus tracks tend to be a few seconds longer than the Chandos. The Nimbus is a bit more than 99 minutes, the Chandos about the same.

I bought the Nimbus for something like $11.95...whatta bargain for this tremendous score.

Unless the Chandos version is considerably better in performance and sound, I'll stick with the Nimbus.

Advantages of the Fedosseyev/Nimbus version:

• comes off as more balanced in tempi.
  
• much more balanced in sound.
  
• better overall balance of orchestra/choir.
  

The key word differentiating both versions is balance. The Polyansky/Chandos is inconsistent. Polyansky's timings are often much slower than Fedosseyev, at other times much faster. Fedosseyev's approach however comes off as more balanced, more cohesive, not as jarring as Polyansky's.

Fedosseyev has a great orchestra from beginning to end, Polyansky has an inconsistent orchestra.

Fedosseyev gets incredible sonics throughout. Good dynamic range, excellent detail, good impact from the percussion... there's enough bass without it being overbearing, there's enough reverb without it sounding cavernous, the chorus and the orchestra never struggle with each other.

Polyansky/Chandos gets a very wide dynamic range, but also an annoying sound, lots of reverb, instrumental transparency is inconsistent and often sounds fake: individual instruments emerge to the front then recede into the background... there's a place when what sounds like an oboe (or is it a clarinet?) is significantly louder than the whole string section.

Fedosseyev's soloists are also much more satisfying. Polyansky's soloists have annoying wobbly/vibrating voices, you'd think someone was shaking them while they sang.

The Polyansky/Chandos version does have one advantage: the chorus. Overall, the chorus used on the Chandos is much better than the one used on the Fedosseyev/Nimbus. The Chandos/Polyansky chorus is also much better recorded than the orchestra. The Chandos reverb actually favours the Polyansky choir over the Fedosseyev version.
The wedding music is particularly better in the Polyansky version, due solely to the choir.

Liner notes on the Nimbus are longer, more detailed. I'll even call them too detailed. There are no texts to the songs and religious works. The Chandos disc has shorter liner notes, but does have the complete sung texts in Russian (cyrillic) with French, German and English translations.

End result?
Fedosseyev on Nimbus comes off as much better than Polyansky on Chandos.
Mainly, Fedosseyev's advantage comes from his version's consistency.
The Polyansky has too many extremes which constantly break the music's flow: too fast, too slow; too loud, not loud enough; wobbly soloists; instruments appear, then disappear...
The crazies at Amazon.co.uk are selling the Chandos for £12.99 ($22), and the Nimbus for £11.99. I'm glad to have them both, but had I paid the more commonly found price of £24 for the Chandos, I'd be pissed. Good thing Amazon can't get its prices straight.

Have you by any chance heard Stokowski's Symphonic Synthesis of Mussorgsky's BORIS?