In Berkeley, a military and religious double bill of Russian music

There’s a pretty irresistible thrill that comes from the spectacle of Prokofiev cranking up his stirring bombast machine to the levels he uses in the cantata “Alexander Nevsky.” It helps, of course, if you can keep from remembering that all this musical splendor was originally deployed, in Sergei Eisenstein’s film, as a way of paying tribute to Stalin.

But as long as you can do that, the composer’s stirring orchestral writing, choruses and solo vocal numbers pack a punch.

Ming Luke conducts the Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra, along with mezzo-soprano soloist Emily Skilling, in four free performances of the piece this weekend.