The Battle on The Ice

"Peregrinus, expectavi, pedes meos in cymbalis est!
 Vincant arma crucifera! Hostis pereat!"

 

 

After the frozen wastes of the coming scene of battle pointedly evoked by strings, a tramping motion in lower strings and brass depicts approaching Teutonic hordes. The Lating chanting returns, as do a number of motifs heard earlier in the cantata, as in the original film-score. Brass fanfares from the preceding movement mark the Russian counter-attack, and a scherzo-like section, skilfully amalgamated from disparate fragments of the film-score, the mounting excitement of the battle. A pile-driving march episode depicts the Russian victory and terrible loss of life, with a closing allusion to the Nevsky Song as calm descends on the carnage.

Richard Whitehouse