During a 1938 visit to the United States, Prokofiev visited a number of Hollywood film studios. The experience was prophetic, because later that year the composer was asked by legendary director Sergei Eisenstein (Battleship Potemkin) to compose the music for his epic picture Alexander Nevksy. For this story of the 12th-century invasion of Prince Alexander's Russia by Teutonic crusaders, Prokofiev wrote one of the most influential scores in the canon. Its influence can still be felt today through the music of John Williams (The Phantom Menace) and James Horner (Braveheart). The composer conveys the incandescent spirit of the Russian people through the entrance of a chorus, which sings of a previous Russian victory over Sweden ("Song About Alexander Nevksy"), while the rhythmic "Battle on the Ice" is still the most kinetic action cue ever written. An altogether different mood is achieved by Prokofiev's lyrical score for Alexander Feinzimmer's Lieutenant Kijé (1933), a satiric comedy set in the court of Czar Paul I. Both scores have been rewritten and shaped for the concert hall, and this is the form in which these works have become famous. For those who wish to hear Alexander Nevksy as it appears in the film, one's attention should be directed to Yuri Temirkanov's recording with the St. Petersburg Choruses and Philharmonic Orchestra (available on RCA Victor Red Seal). -Kevin Mulhall.