Posted on May 2, 2021
David Bowie Narrates Disney's Peter And The Wolf (Full)
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Rare films of the composer taken in 1927, 1943, 1946 and 1948, as well as musical extracts from the following Prokofiev works:Sonata no.4 Op.29 extract (1927...
Thank you my friend SGT (Join to see) for making us aware that on May 2, 1936 Sergey Sergeyevich Prokofiev's musical "Peter and the Wolf" premiered in Moscow.
Test in peace Sergey Sergeyevich Prokofiev
Prokofiev on film
Rare films of the composer taken in 1927, 1943, 1946 and 1948, as well as musical extracts from the following Prokofiev works:
Sonata no.4 Op.29 extract (1927 silent film, audio of Sviatoslav Richter)
Concerto no.3 Op.26 extract (1932 recording, audio only)
Waltz from Op.110 no.1 extract (1946 sound recording)
Symphony no.7 Op.131 (1st movement, conducted by Rozhdestvensky, 1969)
Waltz Suite Op.110 no.1 (extract, conducted by Theodore Kuchar, 1995)
as well as a recorded film interview (1946)
CORRECTION: please note that at 7:32 the caption should read:
"Natalie & Nicolas Nabokov, with Lina & Sergei Prokofiev, June, 1930" (i.e. not Vladimir Nabokov, Nicolas' cousin).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkRS8hPgn5k
Image:
1. Sergei Prokofiev in New York in 1918, In the summer of 1917, he composed his first symphony, the Classical, which was written in the style of Haydn if he were stil alive.
2. Young Sergei Prokofiev - child prodigy composed his first piano piece at age 5 and his first opera at age 9.
3. Sergei Prokofiev initially made his name as a composer-pianist, achieving notoriety with a series of difficult works for his instrument, including his first two piano concertos.
4. Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsk
Background from {[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sergey-Prokofiev//]}
Sergey Prokofiev Russian composer
WRITTEN BY Richard Taruskin
Professor of Musicology, University of California, Berkeley. Author of Text and Act: Essays on Music and Performance; Stravinsky and the Russian Traditions; Musorgsky: Eight Essays and an Epilogue...
Last Updated: Apr 19, 2021 See Article History
Alternative Title: Sergey Sergeyevich Prokofiev
Sergey Prokofiev, in full Sergey Sergeyevich Prokofiev, (born April 23 [April 11, Old Style], 1891, Sontsovka, Ukraine, Russian Empire—died March 5, 1953, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.), 20th-century Russian (and Soviet) composer who wrote in a wide range of musical genres, including symphonies, concerti, film music, operas, ballets, and program pieces.
Pre-Revolutionary period
Prokofiev (Prokofjev in the transliteration system of the Russian Academy of Sciences) was born into a family of agriculturalists. Village life, with its peasant songs, left a permanent imprint on him. His mother, a good pianist, became the highly gifted child’s first mentor in music and arranged trips to the opera in Moscow. A high evaluation was put upon the boy’s talent by a Moscow composer and teacher, Sergey Taneyev, on whose recommendation the Russian composer Reinhold Glière twice went to Sontsovka in the summer months to become young Sergey’s first teacher in theory and composition and to prepare him for entrance into the conservatory at St. Petersburg. The years Prokofiev spent at that institution—1904 to 1914—were a period of swift creative growth. His teachers were struck by his originality, and when he graduated he was awarded the Anton Rubinstein Prize in piano for a brilliant performance of his own first large-scale work—the Piano Concerto No. 1 in D-flat Major.
The conservatory gave Prokofiev a firm foundation in the academic fundamentals of music, but he avidly sought musical innovation. His enthusiasms were supported by progressive circles advocating musical renewal. Prokofiev’s first public appearance as a pianist took place in 1908 at a concert series, Evenings of Contemporary Music, sponsored by such a group in St. Petersburg. A little later he met with friendly sympathy in a similar circle in Moscow, which helped him make his first appearances as a composer, at the Moscow summer symphony seasons of 1911 and 1912.
Prokofiev’s musical talent developed rapidly. He studied the compositions of Igor Stravinsky, particularly the early ballets, but maintained a critical attitude toward his countryman’s brilliant innovations. Contacts with the then-new currents in theatre, poetry, and painting also played an important role in Prokofiev’s development. He was attracted by the work of modernist Russian poets; by the paintings of the Russian followers of Paul Cézanne and Pablo Picasso; and by the theatrical ideas of Vsevolod Meyerhold, whose experimental productions were directed against an obsolescent naturalism. In 1914 Prokofiev became acquainted with the great ballet impresario Serge Diaghilev, who became one of his most influential advisers for the next decade and a half.
Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content.Subscribe Now
After the death of his father in 1910, Prokofiev lived under more straitened material conditions, though his mother provided for his continuing studies. On the eve of World War I, he visited London and Paris to acquaint himself with the newest in art. The tense pre-storm atmosphere that pervaded Russia sharpened in him a feeling of skepticism, of disbelief in romantic ideals, but did not shake his essentially healthy outlook on life. Exempt from war mobilization as the only son of a widow, Prokofiev continued to perfect his musicianship on the organ and appeared in concerts in the capital and elsewhere. The pre-Revolutionary period of Prokofiev’s work was marked by intense exploration. The harmonic thought and design of his work grew more and more complicated. Prokofiev wrote the ballet Ala and Lolli (1914), on themes of ancient Slav mythology, for Diaghilev, who rejected it. Thereupon, Prokofiev reworked the music into the Scythian Suite for orchestra. Its premiere, in 1916, caused a scandal but was the culmination of his career in Petrograd (St. Petersburg). The ballet The Tale of the Buffoon Who Outjested Seven Buffoons (1915; reworked as The Buffoon, 1915–20), also commissioned by Diaghilev, was based on a folktale; it served as a stimulus for Prokofiev’s searching experiments in the renewal of Russian music. Despite Diaghilev’s assertion of the priority of ballet over opera, which he considered a dying genre, Prokofiev was active in the field of opera. Following the immature Maddalena, which he wrote in 1911–13, he composed in 1915–16 The Gambler, a brilliant and dynamic adaptation of the novella by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Continuing the operatic tradition of Modest Mussorgsky, Prokofiev skillfully combined subtle lyricism, satiric malice, narrative precision, and dramatic impact. During this period, Prokofiev achieved great recognition for his first two piano concerti—the first the one-movement Concerto in D-flat Major (1911) and the second the dramatic four-movement Concerto in G Minor (1913).
The year 1917—the year of two Russian revolutions—was astonishingly productive for Prokofiev. When Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown in February 1917, Prokofiev was in the streets of Petrograd, expressing the joy of victory. As if inspired by feelings of social and national renewal, he wrote within one year an immense quantity of new music: he composed two sonatas, the Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, the Classical Symphony, and the choral work Seven, They Are Seven; he began the magnificent Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major; and he planned a new opera, The Love for Three Oranges, after a comedy tale by the 18th-century Italian dramatist Carlo Gozzi, as translated and adapted by Meyerhold. In the summer of 1917 Prokofiev was included in the Council of Workers in the Arts, which led Russia’s left wing of artistic activity; but for almost nine months he was stranded in the Caucasus, cut off from Petrograd by the civil war. Only in the spring of 1918 did he succeed in returning there. In the difficult circumstances of these years, however, he concluded that music had no place in the council’s activities, and he decided to leave Russia temporarily to undertake a concert tour abroad. With official sanction, Prokofiev traveled over the difficult route through Siberia, where civil strife was raging.
QUICK FACTS
BORN
April 23, 1891, Sontsovka, Ukraine
DIED
March 5, 1953 (aged 61) Moscow, Russia
NOTABLE WORKS
• “Piano Concerto No. 1 in D-flat Major, Op. 10”
• “Romeo and Juliet”
• “Peter and the Wolf”
• “Alexander Nevsky”
• “Piano Sonata No. 6 in A, Op. 82”
• “Ala and Lolli”
• “The Love for Three Oranges”
• “The Gambler”
• “Semyon Kotko”
• “Betrothal in a Monastery”
MOVEMENT / STYLE
• Neoclassical art
Foreign period
The next decade and a half are commonly called the “foreign period” of Prokofiev’s work. For a number of reasons, chiefly the continued blockade of the Soviet Union, he could not return at once to his homeland. Nevertheless, he did not lose touch with Russia. The first five years of Prokofiev’s life abroad are usually characterized as the “years of wandering.” On the way from Vladivostok to San Francisco, in the summer of 1918, he gave several concerts in Tokyo and Yokohama. In New York City the sensational piano recitals of the “Bolshevik Pianist” evoked both delight and denunciation. The composer had entrée to the Chicago Opera Association, where he was given a commission for a comic opera. The conductor and the producer of the opera, both Italian, gladly backed the idea of an opera on the Gozzi plot. Accordingly, The Love for Three Oranges was completed in 1919, though it was not produced until 1921. Within a few years the opera was also produced with immense success on the stages of the Soviet Union as well as in western Europe.
In America, Prokofiev met a young singer of Spanish extraction, Lina Llubera, who eventually became his wife and the mother of two of his sons, Svyatoslav and Oleg. Not finding continuing support in the United States, the composer set out in the spring of 1920 for Paris for meetings with Diaghilev and the conductor Serge Koussevitzky. They soon secured for him wide recognition in the most important western European musical centres. The production of The Buffoon by Diaghilev’s ballet troupe in Paris and London in 1921 and the Paris premiere of the Scythian Suite in 1921 and that of Seven, They Are Seven in 1924 evoked enormous interest, consolidating his reputation as a brilliant innovator. The successful performance of his Piano Concerto No. 3 (1921), completed in France, also marked one of the peaks of Prokofiev’s dynamic national style.
During 1922–23 Prokofiev spent more than a year and a half in southern Germany, in the Bavarian town of Ettal. Resting after fatiguing premieres and reviewing the course of his creative path, he prepared many of his compositions for the printer. He also continued work on the opera The Flaming Angel, after a story by the contemporary Russian author Valery Bryusov. The opera, which required many years of work (1919–27), did not find a producer within Prokofiev’s lifetime.
Meanwhile, Prokofiev, uninterested in the musical activity in Germany, settled in Paris in the autumn of 1923. There he was in close touch with progressive French musical figures, such as the composers Francis Poulenc and Arthur Honegger, while continuing his own intensive creative activity. Vexed by criticisms of his melodically lucid Violin Concerto No. 1, which had its premiere in Paris in 1923, he addressed himself to a search for a more avant-garde style. These tendencies appeared in several compositions of the early 1920s, including the epic Symphony No. 2 in D Minor, commissioned by Koussevitzky. Its intense dramatic quality and its striking sense of proportion are also found in the Symphony No. 3 in C Minor (1928), based on thematic material from the opera The Flaming Angel. In close collaboration with Diaghilev, Prokofiev created new one-act ballets, Le Pas d’acier (performed in 1927) and The Prodigal Son (performed in 1929). Le Pas d’acier had a sensational success in Paris and London, thanks to its original staging and bold evocation of images of Soviet Russia at the beginning of the 1920s—with its economic dislocation and the beginnings of industrialization. The Prodigal Son had a lofty biblical theme and music that was exquisitely lyrical. It reflects an emotional relaxation and a clarification of style that are also seen in the String Quartet No. 1 in B Minor (1930), in the Sonata for Two Violins in C Major (1932), and in the ballet On the Dnieper (1932).
In 1927 Prokofiev toured the Soviet Union and was rapturously received by the Soviet public as a world-renowned Russian musician-revolutionary. While there, he strengthened his old associations with the innovative theatrical producer Meyerhold, who helped him in a basic revision of the opera The Gambler, produced in 1929 in Brussels.
During the 1920s and early ’30s, Prokofiev toured with immense success as a pianist in the great musical centres of western Europe and the United States. His U.S. tours in 1925, 1930, and 1933 were attended with tumultuous success and brought him new commissions, such as the Symphony No. 4 in C Major (1930; incorporating musical material of The Prodigal Son), for the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony, and the String Quartet No. 1, commissioned by the Library of Congress. His new piano concerti—No. 4 (1931), for the left hand, and No. 5 in G Major (1932)—demonstrated anew his bent for impulsiveness and virtuoso brilliance.
Soviet period
Although he enjoyed material well-being, success with the public, and contact with outstanding figures of Western culture, Prokofiev increasingly missed his homeland. Visits to the Soviet Union in 1927, 1929, and 1932 led him to conclude his foreign obligations and return to Moscow once and for all. From 1933 to 1935 the composer gradually accustomed himself to the new conditions and became one of the leading figures of Soviet culture. He finally closed his Paris apartment in 1936 and made his last Western tour in 1938. In the two decades constituting the Soviet period of Prokofiev’s work—1933 to 1953—the realistic and epical traits of his art became more clearly defined. The synthesis of traditional tonal and melodic means with the stylistic innovations of 20th-century music was more fully realized.
In the years preceding World War II, Prokofiev created a number of classical masterpieces. These included his Violin Concerto No. 2 in G Minor (1935) and the ballet Romeo and Juliet (1935–36). His work in theatre and the cinema gave rise to a number of charming programmatic suites, such as the Lieutenant Kije suite (1934), the Egyptian Nights suite (1934), and the symphonic children’s tale Peter and the Wolf (1936). Turning to opera, he cast in the form of a contemporary drama of folk life his Semyon Kotko, depicting events of the civil war in the Ukraine (1939). The basis of the brilliantly modernized opéra bouffe Betrothal in a Monastery (composed in 1940, produced in 1946) was the play The Duenna, by the 18th-century British dramatist Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Testing his powers in other genres, he composed the monumental Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution (1937), on texts by Karl Marx, V.I. Lenin, and Joseph Stalin, and the cantata The Toast (1939), composed for Stalin’s 60th birthday.
On his last trip abroad, Prokofiev visited Hollywood, where he studied the technical problems of the sound film; what he learned was applied brilliantly in the striking national music for Sergey Eisenstein’s film Alexander Nevsky, depicting the heroic Russian struggle against the Teutonic Knights in the 13th century. The cantata Alexander Nevsky was based on the music of the film. One of the summits of Prokofiev’s art was the production of his ballet Romeo and Juliet in Leningrad, with Galina Ulanova in the leading role. Throughout the 1930s Prokofiev took part in the organizational work of the Composers’ Union, made appearances as conductor and as pianist, and traveled much throughout the country.
On the eve of World War II, he left his wife and sons for poet Mira Mendelssohn, who became his second (common-law) wife. The war sharpened Prokofiev’s national and patriotic feelings. Regardless of the difficulties of the war years, he composed with remarkable assiduity, even when the evacuation of Moscow in 1941 made it necessary for him to move from one place to another until he was able to return in 1944.
From the first days of the war, the composer’s attention was centred on a very large-scale operatic project: an opera based on Leo Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace. He was fascinated by the parallels between 1812, when Russia crushed Napoleon’s invasion, and the then-current situation. The first version of the opera was completed by the summer of 1942, but subsequently the work was fundamentally revised, a task that occupied more than 10 years of intensive work. Those who heard it were struck both by the immense scale of the opera (13 scenes, more than 60 characters) and by its unique blend of epic narrative with lyrical scenes depicting the personal destinies of the major characters. His increasing predilection for national-epical imagery is manifested in the heroic majesty of the Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major (1944) and in the music (composed 1942–45) for Eisenstein’s two-part film Ivan the Terrible (Part I, 1944; Part II, 1948). Living in the Caucasus, in Central Asia, and in the Urals, the composer was everywhere interested in folklore, an interest that was reflected in the String Quartet No. 2 in F Major (1941), on Kabardian and Balkar themes, and in the projected comic opera Khan Buzai (never completed), on themes of Kazakh folktales. Documents of those troubled days are three piano sonatas, No. 6 (1940), No. 7 (1942), and No. 8 (1944), which are striking in the dramatic conflict of their images and in their irrepressible dynamism.
Overwork was fatal to the composer’s health, as was the stress he suffered in 1948, when, along with other Soviet composers, he was censured by the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party for “formalism.” During the last years of his life, Prokofiev seldom left his villa in a suburb of Moscow. His propensity for innovation, however, is still evident in such important works as the Symphony No. 6 in E-flat Minor (1945–47), which is laden with reminiscence of the tragedies of the war just past; the Sinfonia Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in E Minor (1950–52), composed with consultation from the conductor and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich; and the Violin Sonata in F Minor (1938–46), dedicated to the violinist David Oistrakh, which is laden with Russian folk imagery. Just as in earlier years, the composer devoted the greatest part of his energy to musical theatre, as in the opera The Story of a Real Man (1947–48), the ballet The Stone Flower (1948–50), and the oratorio On Guard for Peace (1950). The lyrical Symphony No. 7 in C-sharp Minor (1951–52) was the composer’s swan song.
In 1953 Prokofiev died suddenly of cerebral hemorrhage. On his worktable there remained a pile of unfinished compositions, including sketches for a 6th concerto for two pianos, a 10th and an 11th piano sonata, and a solo violoncello sonata. The subsequent years saw a rapid growth of his popularity in the Soviet Union and abroad. In 1957 he was posthumously awarded the Soviet Union’s highest honour, the Lenin Prize, for his Symphony No. 7.
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Test in peace Sergey Sergeyevich Prokofiev
Prokofiev on film
Rare films of the composer taken in 1927, 1943, 1946 and 1948, as well as musical extracts from the following Prokofiev works:
Sonata no.4 Op.29 extract (1927 silent film, audio of Sviatoslav Richter)
Concerto no.3 Op.26 extract (1932 recording, audio only)
Waltz from Op.110 no.1 extract (1946 sound recording)
Symphony no.7 Op.131 (1st movement, conducted by Rozhdestvensky, 1969)
Waltz Suite Op.110 no.1 (extract, conducted by Theodore Kuchar, 1995)
as well as a recorded film interview (1946)
CORRECTION: please note that at 7:32 the caption should read:
"Natalie & Nicolas Nabokov, with Lina & Sergei Prokofiev, June, 1930" (i.e. not Vladimir Nabokov, Nicolas' cousin).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkRS8hPgn5k
Image:
1. Sergei Prokofiev in New York in 1918, In the summer of 1917, he composed his first symphony, the Classical, which was written in the style of Haydn if he were stil alive.
2. Young Sergei Prokofiev - child prodigy composed his first piano piece at age 5 and his first opera at age 9.
3. Sergei Prokofiev initially made his name as a composer-pianist, achieving notoriety with a series of difficult works for his instrument, including his first two piano concertos.
4. Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsk
Background from {[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sergey-Prokofiev//]}
Sergey Prokofiev Russian composer
WRITTEN BY Richard Taruskin
Professor of Musicology, University of California, Berkeley. Author of Text and Act: Essays on Music and Performance; Stravinsky and the Russian Traditions; Musorgsky: Eight Essays and an Epilogue...
Last Updated: Apr 19, 2021 See Article History
Alternative Title: Sergey Sergeyevich Prokofiev
Sergey Prokofiev, in full Sergey Sergeyevich Prokofiev, (born April 23 [April 11, Old Style], 1891, Sontsovka, Ukraine, Russian Empire—died March 5, 1953, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.), 20th-century Russian (and Soviet) composer who wrote in a wide range of musical genres, including symphonies, concerti, film music, operas, ballets, and program pieces.
Pre-Revolutionary period
Prokofiev (Prokofjev in the transliteration system of the Russian Academy of Sciences) was born into a family of agriculturalists. Village life, with its peasant songs, left a permanent imprint on him. His mother, a good pianist, became the highly gifted child’s first mentor in music and arranged trips to the opera in Moscow. A high evaluation was put upon the boy’s talent by a Moscow composer and teacher, Sergey Taneyev, on whose recommendation the Russian composer Reinhold Glière twice went to Sontsovka in the summer months to become young Sergey’s first teacher in theory and composition and to prepare him for entrance into the conservatory at St. Petersburg. The years Prokofiev spent at that institution—1904 to 1914—were a period of swift creative growth. His teachers were struck by his originality, and when he graduated he was awarded the Anton Rubinstein Prize in piano for a brilliant performance of his own first large-scale work—the Piano Concerto No. 1 in D-flat Major.
The conservatory gave Prokofiev a firm foundation in the academic fundamentals of music, but he avidly sought musical innovation. His enthusiasms were supported by progressive circles advocating musical renewal. Prokofiev’s first public appearance as a pianist took place in 1908 at a concert series, Evenings of Contemporary Music, sponsored by such a group in St. Petersburg. A little later he met with friendly sympathy in a similar circle in Moscow, which helped him make his first appearances as a composer, at the Moscow summer symphony seasons of 1911 and 1912.
Prokofiev’s musical talent developed rapidly. He studied the compositions of Igor Stravinsky, particularly the early ballets, but maintained a critical attitude toward his countryman’s brilliant innovations. Contacts with the then-new currents in theatre, poetry, and painting also played an important role in Prokofiev’s development. He was attracted by the work of modernist Russian poets; by the paintings of the Russian followers of Paul Cézanne and Pablo Picasso; and by the theatrical ideas of Vsevolod Meyerhold, whose experimental productions were directed against an obsolescent naturalism. In 1914 Prokofiev became acquainted with the great ballet impresario Serge Diaghilev, who became one of his most influential advisers for the next decade and a half.
Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content.Subscribe Now
After the death of his father in 1910, Prokofiev lived under more straitened material conditions, though his mother provided for his continuing studies. On the eve of World War I, he visited London and Paris to acquaint himself with the newest in art. The tense pre-storm atmosphere that pervaded Russia sharpened in him a feeling of skepticism, of disbelief in romantic ideals, but did not shake his essentially healthy outlook on life. Exempt from war mobilization as the only son of a widow, Prokofiev continued to perfect his musicianship on the organ and appeared in concerts in the capital and elsewhere. The pre-Revolutionary period of Prokofiev’s work was marked by intense exploration. The harmonic thought and design of his work grew more and more complicated. Prokofiev wrote the ballet Ala and Lolli (1914), on themes of ancient Slav mythology, for Diaghilev, who rejected it. Thereupon, Prokofiev reworked the music into the Scythian Suite for orchestra. Its premiere, in 1916, caused a scandal but was the culmination of his career in Petrograd (St. Petersburg). The ballet The Tale of the Buffoon Who Outjested Seven Buffoons (1915; reworked as The Buffoon, 1915–20), also commissioned by Diaghilev, was based on a folktale; it served as a stimulus for Prokofiev’s searching experiments in the renewal of Russian music. Despite Diaghilev’s assertion of the priority of ballet over opera, which he considered a dying genre, Prokofiev was active in the field of opera. Following the immature Maddalena, which he wrote in 1911–13, he composed in 1915–16 The Gambler, a brilliant and dynamic adaptation of the novella by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Continuing the operatic tradition of Modest Mussorgsky, Prokofiev skillfully combined subtle lyricism, satiric malice, narrative precision, and dramatic impact. During this period, Prokofiev achieved great recognition for his first two piano concerti—the first the one-movement Concerto in D-flat Major (1911) and the second the dramatic four-movement Concerto in G Minor (1913).
The year 1917—the year of two Russian revolutions—was astonishingly productive for Prokofiev. When Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown in February 1917, Prokofiev was in the streets of Petrograd, expressing the joy of victory. As if inspired by feelings of social and national renewal, he wrote within one year an immense quantity of new music: he composed two sonatas, the Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, the Classical Symphony, and the choral work Seven, They Are Seven; he began the magnificent Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major; and he planned a new opera, The Love for Three Oranges, after a comedy tale by the 18th-century Italian dramatist Carlo Gozzi, as translated and adapted by Meyerhold. In the summer of 1917 Prokofiev was included in the Council of Workers in the Arts, which led Russia’s left wing of artistic activity; but for almost nine months he was stranded in the Caucasus, cut off from Petrograd by the civil war. Only in the spring of 1918 did he succeed in returning there. In the difficult circumstances of these years, however, he concluded that music had no place in the council’s activities, and he decided to leave Russia temporarily to undertake a concert tour abroad. With official sanction, Prokofiev traveled over the difficult route through Siberia, where civil strife was raging.
QUICK FACTS
BORN
April 23, 1891, Sontsovka, Ukraine
DIED
March 5, 1953 (aged 61) Moscow, Russia
NOTABLE WORKS
• “Piano Concerto No. 1 in D-flat Major, Op. 10”
• “Romeo and Juliet”
• “Peter and the Wolf”
• “Alexander Nevsky”
• “Piano Sonata No. 6 in A, Op. 82”
• “Ala and Lolli”
• “The Love for Three Oranges”
• “The Gambler”
• “Semyon Kotko”
• “Betrothal in a Monastery”
MOVEMENT / STYLE
• Neoclassical art
Foreign period
The next decade and a half are commonly called the “foreign period” of Prokofiev’s work. For a number of reasons, chiefly the continued blockade of the Soviet Union, he could not return at once to his homeland. Nevertheless, he did not lose touch with Russia. The first five years of Prokofiev’s life abroad are usually characterized as the “years of wandering.” On the way from Vladivostok to San Francisco, in the summer of 1918, he gave several concerts in Tokyo and Yokohama. In New York City the sensational piano recitals of the “Bolshevik Pianist” evoked both delight and denunciation. The composer had entrée to the Chicago Opera Association, where he was given a commission for a comic opera. The conductor and the producer of the opera, both Italian, gladly backed the idea of an opera on the Gozzi plot. Accordingly, The Love for Three Oranges was completed in 1919, though it was not produced until 1921. Within a few years the opera was also produced with immense success on the stages of the Soviet Union as well as in western Europe.
In America, Prokofiev met a young singer of Spanish extraction, Lina Llubera, who eventually became his wife and the mother of two of his sons, Svyatoslav and Oleg. Not finding continuing support in the United States, the composer set out in the spring of 1920 for Paris for meetings with Diaghilev and the conductor Serge Koussevitzky. They soon secured for him wide recognition in the most important western European musical centres. The production of The Buffoon by Diaghilev’s ballet troupe in Paris and London in 1921 and the Paris premiere of the Scythian Suite in 1921 and that of Seven, They Are Seven in 1924 evoked enormous interest, consolidating his reputation as a brilliant innovator. The successful performance of his Piano Concerto No. 3 (1921), completed in France, also marked one of the peaks of Prokofiev’s dynamic national style.
During 1922–23 Prokofiev spent more than a year and a half in southern Germany, in the Bavarian town of Ettal. Resting after fatiguing premieres and reviewing the course of his creative path, he prepared many of his compositions for the printer. He also continued work on the opera The Flaming Angel, after a story by the contemporary Russian author Valery Bryusov. The opera, which required many years of work (1919–27), did not find a producer within Prokofiev’s lifetime.
Meanwhile, Prokofiev, uninterested in the musical activity in Germany, settled in Paris in the autumn of 1923. There he was in close touch with progressive French musical figures, such as the composers Francis Poulenc and Arthur Honegger, while continuing his own intensive creative activity. Vexed by criticisms of his melodically lucid Violin Concerto No. 1, which had its premiere in Paris in 1923, he addressed himself to a search for a more avant-garde style. These tendencies appeared in several compositions of the early 1920s, including the epic Symphony No. 2 in D Minor, commissioned by Koussevitzky. Its intense dramatic quality and its striking sense of proportion are also found in the Symphony No. 3 in C Minor (1928), based on thematic material from the opera The Flaming Angel. In close collaboration with Diaghilev, Prokofiev created new one-act ballets, Le Pas d’acier (performed in 1927) and The Prodigal Son (performed in 1929). Le Pas d’acier had a sensational success in Paris and London, thanks to its original staging and bold evocation of images of Soviet Russia at the beginning of the 1920s—with its economic dislocation and the beginnings of industrialization. The Prodigal Son had a lofty biblical theme and music that was exquisitely lyrical. It reflects an emotional relaxation and a clarification of style that are also seen in the String Quartet No. 1 in B Minor (1930), in the Sonata for Two Violins in C Major (1932), and in the ballet On the Dnieper (1932).
In 1927 Prokofiev toured the Soviet Union and was rapturously received by the Soviet public as a world-renowned Russian musician-revolutionary. While there, he strengthened his old associations with the innovative theatrical producer Meyerhold, who helped him in a basic revision of the opera The Gambler, produced in 1929 in Brussels.
During the 1920s and early ’30s, Prokofiev toured with immense success as a pianist in the great musical centres of western Europe and the United States. His U.S. tours in 1925, 1930, and 1933 were attended with tumultuous success and brought him new commissions, such as the Symphony No. 4 in C Major (1930; incorporating musical material of The Prodigal Son), for the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony, and the String Quartet No. 1, commissioned by the Library of Congress. His new piano concerti—No. 4 (1931), for the left hand, and No. 5 in G Major (1932)—demonstrated anew his bent for impulsiveness and virtuoso brilliance.
Soviet period
Although he enjoyed material well-being, success with the public, and contact with outstanding figures of Western culture, Prokofiev increasingly missed his homeland. Visits to the Soviet Union in 1927, 1929, and 1932 led him to conclude his foreign obligations and return to Moscow once and for all. From 1933 to 1935 the composer gradually accustomed himself to the new conditions and became one of the leading figures of Soviet culture. He finally closed his Paris apartment in 1936 and made his last Western tour in 1938. In the two decades constituting the Soviet period of Prokofiev’s work—1933 to 1953—the realistic and epical traits of his art became more clearly defined. The synthesis of traditional tonal and melodic means with the stylistic innovations of 20th-century music was more fully realized.
In the years preceding World War II, Prokofiev created a number of classical masterpieces. These included his Violin Concerto No. 2 in G Minor (1935) and the ballet Romeo and Juliet (1935–36). His work in theatre and the cinema gave rise to a number of charming programmatic suites, such as the Lieutenant Kije suite (1934), the Egyptian Nights suite (1934), and the symphonic children’s tale Peter and the Wolf (1936). Turning to opera, he cast in the form of a contemporary drama of folk life his Semyon Kotko, depicting events of the civil war in the Ukraine (1939). The basis of the brilliantly modernized opéra bouffe Betrothal in a Monastery (composed in 1940, produced in 1946) was the play The Duenna, by the 18th-century British dramatist Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Testing his powers in other genres, he composed the monumental Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution (1937), on texts by Karl Marx, V.I. Lenin, and Joseph Stalin, and the cantata The Toast (1939), composed for Stalin’s 60th birthday.
On his last trip abroad, Prokofiev visited Hollywood, where he studied the technical problems of the sound film; what he learned was applied brilliantly in the striking national music for Sergey Eisenstein’s film Alexander Nevsky, depicting the heroic Russian struggle against the Teutonic Knights in the 13th century. The cantata Alexander Nevsky was based on the music of the film. One of the summits of Prokofiev’s art was the production of his ballet Romeo and Juliet in Leningrad, with Galina Ulanova in the leading role. Throughout the 1930s Prokofiev took part in the organizational work of the Composers’ Union, made appearances as conductor and as pianist, and traveled much throughout the country.
On the eve of World War II, he left his wife and sons for poet Mira Mendelssohn, who became his second (common-law) wife. The war sharpened Prokofiev’s national and patriotic feelings. Regardless of the difficulties of the war years, he composed with remarkable assiduity, even when the evacuation of Moscow in 1941 made it necessary for him to move from one place to another until he was able to return in 1944.
From the first days of the war, the composer’s attention was centred on a very large-scale operatic project: an opera based on Leo Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace. He was fascinated by the parallels between 1812, when Russia crushed Napoleon’s invasion, and the then-current situation. The first version of the opera was completed by the summer of 1942, but subsequently the work was fundamentally revised, a task that occupied more than 10 years of intensive work. Those who heard it were struck both by the immense scale of the opera (13 scenes, more than 60 characters) and by its unique blend of epic narrative with lyrical scenes depicting the personal destinies of the major characters. His increasing predilection for national-epical imagery is manifested in the heroic majesty of the Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major (1944) and in the music (composed 1942–45) for Eisenstein’s two-part film Ivan the Terrible (Part I, 1944; Part II, 1948). Living in the Caucasus, in Central Asia, and in the Urals, the composer was everywhere interested in folklore, an interest that was reflected in the String Quartet No. 2 in F Major (1941), on Kabardian and Balkar themes, and in the projected comic opera Khan Buzai (never completed), on themes of Kazakh folktales. Documents of those troubled days are three piano sonatas, No. 6 (1940), No. 7 (1942), and No. 8 (1944), which are striking in the dramatic conflict of their images and in their irrepressible dynamism.
Overwork was fatal to the composer’s health, as was the stress he suffered in 1948, when, along with other Soviet composers, he was censured by the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party for “formalism.” During the last years of his life, Prokofiev seldom left his villa in a suburb of Moscow. His propensity for innovation, however, is still evident in such important works as the Symphony No. 6 in E-flat Minor (1945–47), which is laden with reminiscence of the tragedies of the war just past; the Sinfonia Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in E Minor (1950–52), composed with consultation from the conductor and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich; and the Violin Sonata in F Minor (1938–46), dedicated to the violinist David Oistrakh, which is laden with Russian folk imagery. Just as in earlier years, the composer devoted the greatest part of his energy to musical theatre, as in the opera The Story of a Real Man (1947–48), the ballet The Stone Flower (1948–50), and the oratorio On Guard for Peace (1950). The lyrical Symphony No. 7 in C-sharp Minor (1951–52) was the composer’s swan song.
In 1953 Prokofiev died suddenly of cerebral hemorrhage. On his worktable there remained a pile of unfinished compositions, including sketches for a 6th concerto for two pianos, a 10th and an 11th piano sonata, and a solo violoncello sonata. The subsequent years saw a rapid growth of his popularity in the Soviet Union and abroad. In 1957 he was posthumously awarded the Soviet Union’s highest honour, the Lenin Prize, for his Symphony No. 7.
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Sergei Prokofiev - Battle On The Ice
Composed by Sergei Sergeyevich ProkofievAditional credit: Irina Gelahova, Dmitry Yablonsky; Russian State Symphony Orchestra, Stanislavsky Chorus. Link to th...
Sergei Prokofiev - Battle On The Ice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyDKezDLGTM
Images:
1. Sergei Prokofiev with his first wife Lina Llubera and their two sons Svyatoslav and Oleg
2. June 1932, Prokofiev made a record for the first time in his life at London's famous Abbey Road studios. He recorded his third Piano Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra
3. Sergei Prokofiev was a passionate chess player who became friends with world chess champions José Raúl Capablanca, whom he beat in 1914, and Mikhail Botvinnik
4. Sergei Prokofiev enjoyed personal and artistic support from a new generation of Russian performers, notably the pianist Richter and cellist Rostropovich
Biographies
1. classicfm.com/composers/prokofiev/guides/facts-gallery
2. pragueclassicalconcerts.com/en/composers/prokofiev
1. Background from {{https://www.classicfm.com/composers/prokofiev/guides/facts-gallery/]}
Prokofiev: 15 facts about the great composer
The Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev was one of the giants of 20th century music. His works ranged from ballets - including Cinderella and Romeo and Juliet - to film music, such as Lieutenant Kije and Alexander Nevsky.
1. Prokofiev - the child prodigy
Born on 23 April 1891, Prokofiev's musical ambitions were fuelled by hearing his mother playing Chopin and Beethoven on the piano in the evenings. Young Sergei composed his first piano piece at five and his first opera aged nine.
2. Encounter with Glazunov
In 1904, the 13-year old Prokofiev and his mother were introduced to the composer Glazunov, professor at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He was so impressed that he urged Sergei to apply to study there.
3. Eccentric and arrogant
Several years younger than most of his classmates at the Conservatory, Prokofiev was viewed as eccentric and arrogant, often expressing his dissatisfaction with the education, which he found boring.
4. Scandalous piano music
Prokofiev initially made his name as a composer-pianist, achieving notoriety with a series of difficult works for his instrument, including his first two piano concertos. The second caused a scandal at its 1913 premiere. The audience reportedly left the hall with exclamations of "The cats on the roof make better music!"
5. Classical roots
In the summer of 1917, Prokofiev composed his first symphony, the Classical, which was written, he said, in the style that Haydn would have used if he had been alive.
6. Prokofiev by Matisse
Prokofiev's first major orchestral success was the Scythian Suite, compiled from music he composed for the Ballets Russes. Diaghilev commissioned three more ballets from Prokofiev which were all successful. This drawing of Prokofiev was by Henri Matisse and published in the programme for the season of the Ballets Russes in Paris in May 1921.
7. Family man
After the Russian Revolution, Prokofiev left his homeland with the Soviet Union's official blessing. He lived in the USA, then Germany and Paris, during which time he married Spanish singer, Carolina Codina, with whom he had two sons.
8. Love for opera
Prokofiev's first love was opera. He composed several, including The Gambler and The Fiery Angel. But his most successful was the satirical 'The Love for Three Oranges'.
9. Prokofiev and Stravinsky
Prokofiev and his compatriot Stravinsky were friends, although Prokofiev did not enjoy Stravinsky's later works. Stravinsky modestly described Prokofiev as the greatest Russian composer of his day, after himself.
10. First recording at Abbey Road studios
At the end of June 1932, Prokofiev made a record for the first time in his life at London's famous Abbey Road studios. He recorded his third Piano Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra. On 28 June, HRH Prince George (later the Duke of Kent) visited the studios and 'left immediately, perhaps astonished by the slightly aggressive style of the music.'
11. Chess master
Prokofiev was a passionate chess player who became friends with world chess champions José Raúl Capablanca, whom he beat in 1914, and Mikhail Botvinnik.
12. Composer of film music
In 1938, Prokofiev collaborated with film director Eisenstein on Alexander Nevsky. Prokofiev composed some of his most brilliant and dramatic music. He later adapted much of his score into a large-scale cantata for mezzo-soprano, orchestra and chorus, which was extensively performed and recorded.
13. War and Peace - the opera
Prokofiev was already considering making an opera from Tolstoy's War and Peace when Germany invaded Russia on 22 June 1941. The conflict spurred him on and he took two years to compose his original version. Because of the war he was evacuated to the Caucasus where he also composed his Second String Quartet.
14. With Rostropovich
Towards the end of his life, Prokofiev enjoyed personal and artistic support from a new generation of Russian performers, notably the pianist Richter and cellist Rostropovich for whom he composed his Symphony-Concerto.
15. Overshadowed by Stalin
Prokofiev died at the age of 61 on 5 March 1953, the day Stalin's death was announced. For three days as the throngs gathered to mourn Stalin, it was impossible to carry Prokofiev's body out of his home for burial.
2. Background from {[https://pragueclassicalconcerts.com/en/composers/prokofiev/]}
Sergei Prokofiev (1891 - 1953)
Prokofiev was born in Ukraine. At the age of 11, he began studying piano, theory, composition, and orchestration privately with Reinhold Glière. He entered the St. Petersburg at 12, and many of his student works remained in his permanent catalogue, although often undergoing years of revision, including the first, third, and fourth piano sonatas and the Sinfonietta.
Most of Prokofieff's early work is music for the piano, and in his early years, at any rate, he was as much a touring virtuoso as a composer. In 1913, Prokofieff visited western Europe. His most notable stop was Paris, where he first heard Maurice Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé and Igor Stravinsky's three early ballets. The relationship between Prokofieff and Stravinsky was a strained one, although Stravinsky, particularly with The Rite of Spring, did succeed in influencing his countryman. Prokofieff entered his "barbaric" period, typified by Sarcasms (1914), the Scythian Suite (1915), the cantata They are Seven (1918), and the ballet Chout (1919). Prokofieff also helps to pioneer, at least two years before Stravinsky, the modern neo-classical style with his Classical Symphony (1917). In the Twenties, these two tendencies of his coincided, with the second and third symphonies and the second piano concerto representing his barbarous gigantism and his quintet the pared-down neo-classical aesthetic.
The Russia Revolution had caught the composer in the West. He made several tours of the Soviet Union, where officials feted him. In the United States and Western Europe, he felt economically on the edge and rather sour on the lack of support for Modern music in general – this, despite that he had led a fairly successful career. In 1936, he emigrated to the Soviet Union for good. This may have been the source of Stravinsky's acid comment, "Outside of music, he's an idiot." Many have speculated on the reasons for his return. Part of it may have to do with his sense of coming in second to Rachmaninoff in the U.S. and Stravinsky in Europe. Within Russia, Shostakovich had found himself in dutch with Soviet officialdom, so Prokofieff may well have thought the younger man out of the running as a serious rival.
During the Cold War, a great deal was made of the change in Prokofieff's music from the freedom-loving (or evil-doing) West to the Glorious Motherland (or Evil Empire). In truth, a straightforward lyricism was always part of Prokofieff's artistic make-up, shown by such works as the 5 Melodies of 1925 and the suite from the film Lieutenant Kije, as well as by Prokofieff's predilection for opera. Prokofieff initially had little difficulty adapting to Soviet policy. He applied himself to genres favored by the regime: band music, music for children, works inspired by folk tales, and so on. However, he increasingly found himself caught between increasingly contradictory dictates from the commissars. His music was either too complicated or too simple. Actually, he wasn't alone in his troubles. Soviet aesthetics had much to do with control over writers and artists. Most of the tenets of Socialist Realism (the doctrine of Stalin's regime) were aesthetically empty. About the only Prokofieff score well-received by the Soviet critical flacks was the cantata Alexander Nevsky, based on music for the Eisenstein film. Indeed, one of the greatest film scores of all, it exercised an immense influence on film composers worldwide.
Much of Prokofieff's Soviet work concentrated on music for film and theater, including the ballet Romeo and Juliet, the operas Semyon Kotko, Betrothal in a Monastery, and most notably War and Peace, the film score to Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible, and the ballet Cinderella. In addition, he added to his catalogue a few "absolute" works: his cello concerto, a Sinfonia Concertante for cello and orchestra, symphonies 5 through 7, piano sonatas 6 through 9, two violin sonatas, and a second string quartet. Few of these works enjoyed much success in the Soviet Union during the composer's lifetime.
Prokofieff's troubles with the regime increased after World War II. In 1948, he was caught up in the Party's condemnation of the most prominent Soviet composers, also including Miaskovsky, Khachaturian, and Shostakovich. He was also a very sick man, and indeed, never really recovered. He died on the same day as Stalin, ironically enough, March 5, 1953.
Most critics regard Prokofieff as one of the great Modern composers, although his stock has dipped a bit since Shostakovich's has risen. Nevertheless, more than Shostakovich, Prokofieff found a way to accommodate Modernism to the general public. He has genuine hits: Peter and the Wolf, the Classical Symphony, Lieutenant Kije, the Fifth Symphony, the Third Piano Concerto, the Second Violin Concerto, and the Seventh Piano Sonata. He is, above all, a composer with a great sense of tune. His orchestra can glitter as well as evoke the sense of immense spaces. The neglect of certain parts of his output – the Sixth Symphony, all the "war sonatas" (piano sonatas 6-8 and the two violin sonatas), and the opera War and Peace – I hope merely temporary. We have room in our minds for more than one Modern Russian composer."
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyDKezDLGTM
Images:
1. Sergei Prokofiev with his first wife Lina Llubera and their two sons Svyatoslav and Oleg
2. June 1932, Prokofiev made a record for the first time in his life at London's famous Abbey Road studios. He recorded his third Piano Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra
3. Sergei Prokofiev was a passionate chess player who became friends with world chess champions José Raúl Capablanca, whom he beat in 1914, and Mikhail Botvinnik
4. Sergei Prokofiev enjoyed personal and artistic support from a new generation of Russian performers, notably the pianist Richter and cellist Rostropovich
Biographies
1. classicfm.com/composers/prokofiev/guides/facts-gallery
2. pragueclassicalconcerts.com/en/composers/prokofiev
1. Background from {{https://www.classicfm.com/composers/prokofiev/guides/facts-gallery/]}
Prokofiev: 15 facts about the great composer
The Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev was one of the giants of 20th century music. His works ranged from ballets - including Cinderella and Romeo and Juliet - to film music, such as Lieutenant Kije and Alexander Nevsky.
1. Prokofiev - the child prodigy
Born on 23 April 1891, Prokofiev's musical ambitions were fuelled by hearing his mother playing Chopin and Beethoven on the piano in the evenings. Young Sergei composed his first piano piece at five and his first opera aged nine.
2. Encounter with Glazunov
In 1904, the 13-year old Prokofiev and his mother were introduced to the composer Glazunov, professor at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He was so impressed that he urged Sergei to apply to study there.
3. Eccentric and arrogant
Several years younger than most of his classmates at the Conservatory, Prokofiev was viewed as eccentric and arrogant, often expressing his dissatisfaction with the education, which he found boring.
4. Scandalous piano music
Prokofiev initially made his name as a composer-pianist, achieving notoriety with a series of difficult works for his instrument, including his first two piano concertos. The second caused a scandal at its 1913 premiere. The audience reportedly left the hall with exclamations of "The cats on the roof make better music!"
5. Classical roots
In the summer of 1917, Prokofiev composed his first symphony, the Classical, which was written, he said, in the style that Haydn would have used if he had been alive.
6. Prokofiev by Matisse
Prokofiev's first major orchestral success was the Scythian Suite, compiled from music he composed for the Ballets Russes. Diaghilev commissioned three more ballets from Prokofiev which were all successful. This drawing of Prokofiev was by Henri Matisse and published in the programme for the season of the Ballets Russes in Paris in May 1921.
7. Family man
After the Russian Revolution, Prokofiev left his homeland with the Soviet Union's official blessing. He lived in the USA, then Germany and Paris, during which time he married Spanish singer, Carolina Codina, with whom he had two sons.
8. Love for opera
Prokofiev's first love was opera. He composed several, including The Gambler and The Fiery Angel. But his most successful was the satirical 'The Love for Three Oranges'.
9. Prokofiev and Stravinsky
Prokofiev and his compatriot Stravinsky were friends, although Prokofiev did not enjoy Stravinsky's later works. Stravinsky modestly described Prokofiev as the greatest Russian composer of his day, after himself.
10. First recording at Abbey Road studios
At the end of June 1932, Prokofiev made a record for the first time in his life at London's famous Abbey Road studios. He recorded his third Piano Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra. On 28 June, HRH Prince George (later the Duke of Kent) visited the studios and 'left immediately, perhaps astonished by the slightly aggressive style of the music.'
11. Chess master
Prokofiev was a passionate chess player who became friends with world chess champions José Raúl Capablanca, whom he beat in 1914, and Mikhail Botvinnik.
12. Composer of film music
In 1938, Prokofiev collaborated with film director Eisenstein on Alexander Nevsky. Prokofiev composed some of his most brilliant and dramatic music. He later adapted much of his score into a large-scale cantata for mezzo-soprano, orchestra and chorus, which was extensively performed and recorded.
13. War and Peace - the opera
Prokofiev was already considering making an opera from Tolstoy's War and Peace when Germany invaded Russia on 22 June 1941. The conflict spurred him on and he took two years to compose his original version. Because of the war he was evacuated to the Caucasus where he also composed his Second String Quartet.
14. With Rostropovich
Towards the end of his life, Prokofiev enjoyed personal and artistic support from a new generation of Russian performers, notably the pianist Richter and cellist Rostropovich for whom he composed his Symphony-Concerto.
15. Overshadowed by Stalin
Prokofiev died at the age of 61 on 5 March 1953, the day Stalin's death was announced. For three days as the throngs gathered to mourn Stalin, it was impossible to carry Prokofiev's body out of his home for burial.
2. Background from {[https://pragueclassicalconcerts.com/en/composers/prokofiev/]}
Sergei Prokofiev (1891 - 1953)
Prokofiev was born in Ukraine. At the age of 11, he began studying piano, theory, composition, and orchestration privately with Reinhold Glière. He entered the St. Petersburg at 12, and many of his student works remained in his permanent catalogue, although often undergoing years of revision, including the first, third, and fourth piano sonatas and the Sinfonietta.
Most of Prokofieff's early work is music for the piano, and in his early years, at any rate, he was as much a touring virtuoso as a composer. In 1913, Prokofieff visited western Europe. His most notable stop was Paris, where he first heard Maurice Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé and Igor Stravinsky's three early ballets. The relationship between Prokofieff and Stravinsky was a strained one, although Stravinsky, particularly with The Rite of Spring, did succeed in influencing his countryman. Prokofieff entered his "barbaric" period, typified by Sarcasms (1914), the Scythian Suite (1915), the cantata They are Seven (1918), and the ballet Chout (1919). Prokofieff also helps to pioneer, at least two years before Stravinsky, the modern neo-classical style with his Classical Symphony (1917). In the Twenties, these two tendencies of his coincided, with the second and third symphonies and the second piano concerto representing his barbarous gigantism and his quintet the pared-down neo-classical aesthetic.
The Russia Revolution had caught the composer in the West. He made several tours of the Soviet Union, where officials feted him. In the United States and Western Europe, he felt economically on the edge and rather sour on the lack of support for Modern music in general – this, despite that he had led a fairly successful career. In 1936, he emigrated to the Soviet Union for good. This may have been the source of Stravinsky's acid comment, "Outside of music, he's an idiot." Many have speculated on the reasons for his return. Part of it may have to do with his sense of coming in second to Rachmaninoff in the U.S. and Stravinsky in Europe. Within Russia, Shostakovich had found himself in dutch with Soviet officialdom, so Prokofieff may well have thought the younger man out of the running as a serious rival.
During the Cold War, a great deal was made of the change in Prokofieff's music from the freedom-loving (or evil-doing) West to the Glorious Motherland (or Evil Empire). In truth, a straightforward lyricism was always part of Prokofieff's artistic make-up, shown by such works as the 5 Melodies of 1925 and the suite from the film Lieutenant Kije, as well as by Prokofieff's predilection for opera. Prokofieff initially had little difficulty adapting to Soviet policy. He applied himself to genres favored by the regime: band music, music for children, works inspired by folk tales, and so on. However, he increasingly found himself caught between increasingly contradictory dictates from the commissars. His music was either too complicated or too simple. Actually, he wasn't alone in his troubles. Soviet aesthetics had much to do with control over writers and artists. Most of the tenets of Socialist Realism (the doctrine of Stalin's regime) were aesthetically empty. About the only Prokofieff score well-received by the Soviet critical flacks was the cantata Alexander Nevsky, based on music for the Eisenstein film. Indeed, one of the greatest film scores of all, it exercised an immense influence on film composers worldwide.
Much of Prokofieff's Soviet work concentrated on music for film and theater, including the ballet Romeo and Juliet, the operas Semyon Kotko, Betrothal in a Monastery, and most notably War and Peace, the film score to Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible, and the ballet Cinderella. In addition, he added to his catalogue a few "absolute" works: his cello concerto, a Sinfonia Concertante for cello and orchestra, symphonies 5 through 7, piano sonatas 6 through 9, two violin sonatas, and a second string quartet. Few of these works enjoyed much success in the Soviet Union during the composer's lifetime.
Prokofieff's troubles with the regime increased after World War II. In 1948, he was caught up in the Party's condemnation of the most prominent Soviet composers, also including Miaskovsky, Khachaturian, and Shostakovich. He was also a very sick man, and indeed, never really recovered. He died on the same day as Stalin, ironically enough, March 5, 1953.
Most critics regard Prokofieff as one of the great Modern composers, although his stock has dipped a bit since Shostakovich's has risen. Nevertheless, more than Shostakovich, Prokofieff found a way to accommodate Modernism to the general public. He has genuine hits: Peter and the Wolf, the Classical Symphony, Lieutenant Kije, the Fifth Symphony, the Third Piano Concerto, the Second Violin Concerto, and the Seventh Piano Sonata. He is, above all, a composer with a great sense of tune. His orchestra can glitter as well as evoke the sense of immense spaces. The neglect of certain parts of his output – the Sixth Symphony, all the "war sonatas" (piano sonatas 6-8 and the two violin sonatas), and the opera War and Peace – I hope merely temporary. We have room in our minds for more than one Modern Russian composer."
FYI LTC John Shaw 1SG Steven ImermanGySgt Gary CordeiroSMSgt Tom BurnsSgt Jim BelanusSGM Bill FrazerSGT Randell Rose[SGT Denny EspinosaA1C Riley SandersSSgt Clare MaySSG Robert WebsterCSM Chuck StaffordPFC Craig KarshnerSFC (Join to see)SPC Nancy GreenePVT Mark Zehner Lt Col Charlie BrownSP5 Dennis Loberger SSG Robert Mark Odom 1LT Peter Duston
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(0)
LTC Stephen F.
Prodigal Son, Documentary on Prokofiev's Life
Documental "El Hijo Pródigo" sobre la vida de Prokofiev.Restored from VHS.
Prodigal Son, Documentary on Prokofiev's Life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWAkNidQCo8
Image:
1. Sergei Prokofiev and his second wife, Mira Mendelson
2. Prokofiev's first love was opera. He composed several, including The Gambler and The Fiery Angel. But his most successful was the satirical 'The Love for Three Oranges'.
3. Prokofiev with colleagues Dmitri Shostakovich and Aram Khachaturian, 1946
4. A Soviet stamp marking Prokofiev's centenary in 1991
Background from {[https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Sergei_Prokofiev]}
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (Russian: Серге́й Серге́евич Проко́фьев, Sergéj Sergéjevič Prokófjev) (Alternative transliterations of his name include Sergey or Serge, and Prokofief, Prokofieff, or Prokofyev.)27 April [O.S. 15 April] 1891 - March 5, 1953[1]) was a Russian composer who mastered numerous musical genres and came to be admired as one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century.
Along with Dmitri Shostakovich and Aram Khachaturian, Prokofiev was one of the innovators and leading composers in the rise of modern music in Russia. As a result he would come into conflict with the Soviet authorities, especially during the era of Zhdanovism in the late 1940s, when political orthodoxy was imposed on the arts, including music.1 Biography
Prokofiev is famous for numerous compositions, including the popular Peter and the Wolf, the ballet Romeo and Juliet and for his film scores for Eisenstein's films Ivan the Terrible and Alexander Nevsky.
Biography
Early years
Prokofiev was born in Sontsovka [2](now Borysivka), near Jekaterinoslaw (also subsequently renamed), Ukraine, of the Russian Empire. He displayed unusual musical abilities by the age of five. His first piano composition to be written down (by his mother), an 'Indian Gallop', was in the key of F Lydian (F major with a B natural instead of B flat) as the young Prokofiev did not like to touch the black keys. By the age of seven, he had also learned to play chess. Much like music, chess would remain a passion his entire life, and he became acquainted with world chess champions Jose Raul Capablanca and Mikhail Botvinnik.
At the age of nine he was composing his first opera,[3] The Giant, as well as an overture and miscellaneous pieces.
In 1902 Prokofiev's mother obtained an audience with Sergei Taneyev, director of the Moscow Conservatoire. Taneyev suggested that Prokofiev should start lessons in composition with Alexander Goldenweiser, who declined, and Reinhold Glière.[4] Glière visited Prokofiev in Sontsivka twice during the summer to teach him. By then Prokofiev had already produced a number of innovative pieces. As soon as he had the necessary theoretical tools, he quickly started experimenting, creating the basis for his own musical style.
After a while, Prokofiev felt that the isolation in Sontsivka was restricting his further musical development.[5] Although his parents were not too keen on forcing their son into a musical career at such an early age,[6] in 1904 he moved to Saint Petersburg and applied to the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, after encouragement by the director Alexander Glazunov, who was later unhappy with Prokofiev's music.[7] By this time Prokofiev had composed two more operas, Desert Islands and The Feast during the Plague and was working on his fourth, Undine.[8] He passed the introductory tests and started his composition studies the same year. Several years younger than most of his classmates, Prokofiev was viewed as eccentric and arrogant, and he often expressed dissatisfaction with much of the education, which he found boring.[9] During this period he studied under Anatol Liadov, Nikolai Tcherepnin, and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, among others. Later, he would regret squandering his opportunity to learn more from Rimsky-Korsakov. He also became friends with Boris Asafiev and Nikolai Myaskovsky.
As a member of the Saint Petersburg music scene, Prokofiev eventually earned a reputation as an enfant terrible, while also getting receiving praise for his original compositions, which he would perform himself on the piano. In 1909, he graduated from his class in composition, getting less than impressive marks. He continued at the Conservatory, but now concentrated on playing the piano and conducting. His piano lessons went far from smoothly, but the composition classes made an impression on him. His teacher encouraged his musical experimentation, and his works from this period display more intensity than earlier ones.[10]
In 1910, Prokofiev's father died and Sergei's economic support ceased. Luckily, at that time, he had started making a name for himself as a composer, although he frequently caused scandals with his forward-looking works.[11] His first two piano concertos were composed around this time. He made his first excursion out of Russia in 1913, traveling to Paris and London where he first encountered Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.
In 1914, Prokofiev left the Conservatory with the highest marks of his class, a feat which won him a grand piano. Soon afterwards, he made a trip to London where he made contact with Diaghilev and Igor Stravinsky.
War and Revolution
During World War I, Prokofiev returned again to the Academy, now studying the organ. He composed his opera The Gambler based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel The Gambler, but the rehearsals were plagued by problems and the première scheduled for 1917 had to be cancelled because of the February Revolution. In the summer the same year, Prokofiev composed his first symphony, the Classical. This was his own name for the symphony which was written in the style that, according to Prokofiev, Joseph Haydn would have used if he had been alive at the time.[12] Hence, the symphony is more or less classical in style but incorporates more modern musical elements (see Neoclassicism). After a brief stay with his mother in Kislovodsk in the Caucasus, because of worries of the enemy capturing Petrograd (the new name for Saint Petersburg), he returned in 1918, but he was now determined to leave Russia, at least temporarily.[13] In the current Russian state of unrest, he saw no room for his experimental music and, in May, he headed for the United States. Despite this, he had already developed acquaintances with senior Bolsheviks including Anatoly Lunacharsky, the People's Commissar for Education, who told him: "You are a revolutionary in music, we are revolutionaries in life. We ought to work together. But if you want to go to America I shall not stand in your way."[14]
Life abroad
Arriving in San Francisco, he was immediately compared to other famous Russian exiles (such as Sergei Rachmaninoff), and he started out successfully with a solo concert in New York, leading to several further engagements. He also received a contract for the production of his new opera The Love for Three Oranges but, due to illness and the death of the director, the premiere was cancelled. This was another example of Prokofiev's bad luck in operatic matters. The failure also cost him his American solo career, since the opera took too much time and effort. He soon found himself in financial difficulties, and, in April 1920, he left for Paris, not wanting to return to Russia as a failure.[15]
Paris was better prepared for Prokofiev's musical style. He renewed his contacts with the Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and with Stravinsky, and returned to some of his older, unfinished works, such as the Third Piano Concerto. The Love for Three Oranges finally premièred in Chicago in December 1921, under the composer's baton. The work was performed throughout Europe in that time, and the reception was good thanks to the success in Chicago.[16].
In March 1922, Prokofiev moved with his mother to the town of Ettal in the Bavarian Alps for over a year so he could concentrate fully on his composing. Most of his time was spent on an old opera project, The Fiery Angel, based on the novel The Fiery Angel by Valery Bryusov. By this time his later music had acquired a certain following in Russia, and he received invitations to return there, but he decided to stay in Europe. In 1923, he married the Spanish singer Lina Llubera (1897-1989), before moving back to Paris.
There, a number of his works (for example the Second Symphony) were performed, but the critical reception was lukewarm,[17] perhaps because he could no longer really lay claim to being a "novelty." He did not particularly like Stravinsky's later works and, even though he was quite friendly with members of "Les Six," he musically had very little in common with them.
Around 1927, the virtuoso's situation brightened; he had some exciting commissions from Diaghilev and made a number of concert tours in Russia; in addition, he enjoyed a very successful staging of The Love for Three Oranges in Leningrad (as Saint Petersburg was then known). Two older operas (one of them The Gambler) were also played in Europe and in 1928 Prokofiev produced his Third Symphony, which was broadly based on his unperformed opera The Fiery Angel. The years 1931 and 1932 saw the completion of his fourth and fifth piano concertos.
In 1929, he suffered a car accident, which slightly injured his hands and prevented him from touring Moscow, but in turn permitted him to enjoy contemporary Russian music. After his hands healed, he made a new attempt at touring the United States, and this time he was received very warmly, propped up by his recent success in Europe. This, in turn, propelled him to commence a major tour throughout Europe.
In the early 1930s, Prokofiev was starting to long for Russia again;[18] he moved more and more of his premieres and commissions to his home country instead of Paris. One such was Lieutenant Kije, which was commissioned as the score to a Russian film. Another commission, from the Kirov Theater in Leningrad, was the ballet Romeo and Juliet.
Prokofiev was soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Piero Coppola, in the first recording of his third piano concerto, recorded in London by His Master's Voice in June 1932. The recording has exceptionally clear sound and Prokofiev's own virtuosic performance remains very impressive. Prokofiev also recorded some of his solo piano music for HMV in Paris in February 1935; these recordings were issued on CD by Pearl and Naxos.[19] In 1938, he conducted the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra in a recording of the second suite from his Romeo and Juliet ballet; this performance was also later released on LP and CD. Another reported recording with Prokofiev and the Moscow Philharmonic was of the Prokofiev First Violin Concerto with David Oistrakh as soloist; Everest Records later released this recording on a LP, along with a performance of Khachaturian's violin concerto with that composer conducting the Philharmonic with much inferior sound compared to the EMI recording with Khachaturian and Oistrakh.[20]
Return to Soviet Union
In 1935, Prokofiev moved back to the Soviet Union permanently; his family joined him a year later. At this time, the official Soviet policy towards music changed; a special bureau, the "Composers' Union," was established in order to keep track of the artists and their activities. By limiting outside influences, these policies would gradually cause almost complete isolation of Soviet composers from the rest of the world. Willing to adapt to the new circumstances (whatever misgivings he had about them in private), Prokofiev wrote a series of "mass songs" (Opp. 66, 79, 89), using the lyrics of officially approved Soviet poets, and also the oratorio Zdravitsa (Hail to Stalin) (Op. 85), which secured his position as a Soviet composer and put an end to his persecution. At the same time Prokofiev also composed music for children (Three Songs for Children and Peter and the Wolf, among other) as well as the gigantic Cantata for the Twentieth Anniversary of the October Revolution, which was, however, never performed. The première of the opera Semyon Kotko was postponed because the producer Vsevolod Meyerhold was imprisoned and executed.
In 1938, Prokofiev collaborated with the great Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein on the score to the historical epic Alexander Nevsky. For this he composed some of his most inventive dramatic music. Although the film had very poor sound recording, Prokofiev adapted much of his score into a cantata, which has been extensively performed and recorded.
In 1941, Prokofiev suffered the first of several heart attacks, resulting in a gradual decline in health. Because of the war, he was periodically evacuated to the south together with a large number of other artists. This had consequences for his family life in Moscow, and his relationship with the 25-year-old Mira Mendelson (1915-1968) finally led to his separation from his wife Lina, although they remained married with no talk of divorce. (Marriage to foreigners had been made illegal in the Soviet Union, although the USSR had recognized their marriage by granting them both apartments when they returned.)
The outbreak of war inspired Prokofiev to a new opera project, War and Peace, which he worked on for two years, along with more film music for Sergei Eisenstein (Ivan the Terrible) and the second string quartet. However, the Soviet government had opinions about the opera which resulted in numerous revisions. [21] In 1944, Prokofiev moved to an estate outside of Moscow, to compose his Fifth Symphony (Op. 100) which would turn out to be the most popular of all his symphonies, both within Russia and abroad.[22] Shortly afterwards, he suffered a concussion from a fall. He never fully recovered from this injury, and it severely lowered his productivity rate in later years, though some of his last pieces were as fine as anything he had composed before.[23]
Prokofiev had time to write his postwar Sixth Symphony and a ninth piano sonata (for Sviatoslav Richter) before the Party suddenly changed its opinion about his music.[24] The end of the war allowed attention to be turned inwards again and the Party tightened its reins on domestic artists. Prokofiev's music was now seen as a grave example of formalism, and dangerous to the Soviet people.
On February 20, 1948, Prokofiev's wife Lina was arrested for 'espionage', as she tried to send money to her mother in Catalonia. She was sentenced to 20 years, but was eventually released after Stalin's death and later left the Soviet Union. 1948 was the same year that Prokofiev left his family for Mira.
His latest opera projects were quickly cancelled by the Kirov Theatre. This snub, in combination with his declining health, caused Prokofiev to withdraw more and more from active musical life. His doctors ordered him to limit his activities, which resulted in him spending only an hour or two each day on composition. The last public performance of his lifetime was the première of the Seventh Symphony in 1952, a piece of somewhat bittersweet character.[25] The music was written for a children's television program.
Igor Stravinsky characterized him as the greatest Russian composer of his day, other than Stravinsky himself.[26]
Prokofiev died at the age of 61 on March 5, 1953: the same day as Stalin. He had lived near Red Square, and for three days the throngs gathered to mourn Stalin making it impossible to carry Prokofiev's body out for the funeral service at the headquarters of the Soviet Composer's Union. Paper flowers and a taped recording of the funeral march from Romeo and Juliet had to be used, as all real flowers and musicians were reserved for Stalin's funeral. He is buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.[27]
The leading Soviet musical periodical reported Prokofiev's death as a brief item on page 116. The first 115 pages were devoted to the death of Stalin. Usually Prokofiev's death is attributed to cerebral haemorrhage (bleeding into the brain). Nevertheless it is known that he was persistently ill for eight years before he died, and was plagued during that length of time by headaches, nausea and dizziness[28], the precise nature of Prokofiev's terminal illness is uncertain.
Lina Prokofieva outlived her estranged husband by many years, dying in London in early 1989. Royalties from her late husband's music provided her a modest income. Their sons Sviatoslav (born 1924), an architect, and Oleg (1928-1998), an artist, painter, sculptor and poet, have dedicated a large part of their lives to the promotion of their father's life and work.[29] [30]
Legacy
Prokofiev was the composer of numerous popular works. Among his best known works are the children's tale, "Peter and the Wolf," his film scores for two of the films of Sergei Eisenstein, Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible, and his ballet, "Romeo and Juliet," which contains some of the most inspired and poignant passages in his whole output.[31] However, there were numerous political and choreographic problems, and the premiere was postponed for several years.
The ballet was thought to have been composed around 1935 or 1936, on commission by the Kirov Ballet. The original version had a "happy" ending, but was never publicly mounted, partly due to increased fear and caution in the musical and theatrical community in the aftermath of the two notorious Pravda editorials criticizing Shostakovich and other "degenerate modernists." Suites of the ballet music were heard in Moscow and the United States, but the full ballet premiered in Brno, Czechoslovakia, on 30 December 1938. It is better known today from the significantly revised version that was first presented at the Kirov in Leningrad on January 11, 1940, with choreography by Leonid Lavrovsky. Prokofiev objected to this version.
Zhdanovism
Like many Soviet artists, Prokofiev had troubles with the authorities over his style of music. He was one of the targets of the Zhdanov Doctrine (also called zhdanovism or zhdanovschina, Russian: доктрина Жданова, ждановизм, ждановщина)–a Soviet cultural doctrine developed by the Central Committee secretary Andrei Zhdanov in 1946. It proposed that the world was divided into two camps: the imperialistic, headed by the United States; and democratic, headed by the Soviet Union. Zhdanovism soon became a Soviet cultural policy, requiring that Soviet artists, writers and intelligentsia in general had to conform to the party line in their creative works. Under this policy, artists who failed to comply with the government's wishes risked persecution. The policy remained in effect until 1952, when it was declared that it had a negative effect on Soviet culture.
The first decree was largely aimed at writers. A further decree was issued on 10 February 1948. Although formally aimed at Vano Muradeli's opera The Great Friendship, it signaled a sustained campaign of criticism and persecution against many of the Soviet Union's foremost composers, notably Dmitri Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Aram Khachaturian. They were accused of formalism and being "anti-popular."
Works
Important works include (in chronological order):
• Toccata in D minor, Op. 11, for piano
• Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16
• Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 19
• Scythian Suite, Op. 20, suite for orchestra
• Visions Fugitives, Op. 22, set of twenty piano pieces
• Symphony No. 1 in D major Classical, Op. 25, the first definitive neo-classical composition
• Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26
• The Love for Three Oranges, Op. 33, opera in four acts, includes the famous March from the Love for Three Oranges
• The Fiery Angel, Op. 37, opera in five acts
• Symphony No. 2 in D minor, Op. 40
• Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 44
• String Quartet No. 1 in B minor, Op. 50
• Symphonic Song, Op. 57
• Lieutenant Kije, Op. 60, suite for orchestra, includes the famous Troika
• Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63
• Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64, ballet in four acts
• Peter and the Wolf, Op. 67, a children's tale for narrator and orchestra
• Alexander Nevsky, Op. 78, cantata for mezzo-soprano, chorus, and orchestra
• Violin Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 80
• The three so-called War Sonatas:
• Piano Sonata No. 6 in A major, Op. 82
• Piano Sonata No. 7 in B-flat major, Op. 83
• Piano Sonata No. 8 in B-flat major, Op. 84
• Cinderella, Op. 87, ballet in three acts
• War and Peace, Op. 91, opera in thirteen scenes
• String Quartet No. 2 in F major, Op.92
• Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, Op. 100
• Symphony No. 6 in E-flat minor, Op. 111
• Ivan the Terrible, Op. 116, music for Eisenstein's classic film of the same name.
• The Tale of the Stone Flower, Op. 118, ballet in two acts
• Symphony-Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in E minor, Op. 125, written for Mstislav Rostropovich
• Symphony No. 7 in C-sharp minor, Op. 131
Bibliography
Autobiography and diaries
His autobiography was published in English as Prokofiev: Autobiography, Articles, Reminiscences. ISBN [login to see]
The first volume of Prokofiev's diaries was translated into English by Anthony Phillips and published by Faber and Faber in 2006.
Biographers
• David Nice
• Daniel Jaffe
• Harlow Robinson
• Israel Nestjev
• Simon Morrison
• Piero Rattalino
Music Analyses
• Stephen C. I. Fiess
• Neil Minturn
Notes
1. ↑ While Prokofiev himself believed April 23 to be his birth date, the posthumous discovery of his birth certificate showed that he was actually born four days later, on April 27. Nicolas Slonimsky. The Concise Edition of Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 8th ed. (New York: Schirmer Books, 1993), 793
2. ↑ answers.com
3. ↑ Phil Tulga, 2006, "He was a child prodigy on the order of Mozart, composing for piano at age five and writing an opera at nine." Peter and the Wolfphiltulga.com. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
4. ↑ Paul Shoemaker, [1]. musicweb-international.com. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
5. ↑ "The year was 1904, Prokofiev was thirteen, and it was clear to Maria Grigoryevna that the geographical isolation of Sontsovka was not conducive to the development of her son's burgeoning musical potential." [2]prokofiev.org. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
6. ↑ "In fact, Prokofiev's parents focused most of his educational energies on non-musical subjects, particularly mathematics and the sciences." [3] Retrieved September 19, 2008.
7. ↑ Alexander Glazunov (1865 - 1936).balletmet.org. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
8. ↑ Robert Layton, "Prokofiev's Demonic Opera" Found in the introductory notes to the Philips Label recording of The Fiery Angel
9. ↑ "His memoirs indicate that even in his early Conservatory years he was self-confident, generally critical of his fellow students, yet disapproving of criticism he often received from his teachers. His unfailing belief in his own innovative musical style and his criticism of fellow students was interpreted as arrogance by many around him. This arrogance and propensity to shock his teachers with his music earned him the reputation as an 'enfant terrible'—a label Prokofiev actually enjoyed." [4] Retrieved September 19, 2008.
10. ↑ "During this time his works are characterized by continued brilliance at the piano (e.g. Piano Concertos No. 1 & 2, Toccata Op. 11 in D Minor), and a struggle to master new forms (the one-act opera Maddalena, and several sketches for Orchestra including Autumnal and Dreams)" [5].prokofiev.org. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
11. ↑ "In contrast to other composers such as Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky who wilted under critical assaults, Prokofiev welcomed the disapproving reviews. Throughout his career, in fact he would purposely push the limits of his compositions, all the while provoking and shocking listeners and critics. He relished his role as 'enfant terrible' of the music world." [6].prokofiev.org. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
12. ↑ As detailed in Prokofiev's autobiography. Listen to Discovering Music from 1:00 to 3:02, particularly from 1:45 to 2:39 BBC Radio. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
13. ↑ "Prokofiev knew his prospects were much brighter in Western Europe. Blocked from heading west by war, Prokofiev headed east instead, toward the Pacific port of Vladivostock." [7].prokofiev.org. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
14. ↑ Sergei Prokofiev and S. Shlifstein (ed.) & Rose Prokofieva (translator). Sergei Prokofiev: Autobiography, Articles, Reminiscences.(The Minerva Group, Inc. (1960) 2000. ISBN [login to see] ), 50
15. ↑ "Having avoided returning to Russia, Prokofiev asked his mother, who was in poor health, to join him in Paris." [8].prokofiev.org. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
16. ↑ "When The Love for Three Oranges finally did premiere in Chicago in December 1920, it was an immediate hit. So successful was the reception in fact, that it was staged in opera houses throughout Europe." [9].prokofiev.org. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
17. ↑ "While the Second Symphony is more remembered for its inauspicious debut, it did have a few supporters." [10].prokofiev.org. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
18. ↑ "While his notoriety grew in Europe, Prokofiev longed to return to his homeland" [11] prokofiev.org. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
19. ↑ Pearl Records, Naxos Records, amazon.com
20. ↑ Everest Records, EMI
21. ↑ "Prokofiev wrote the first version of "War and Peace" during the Second World War. He revised it in the late forties and early fifties, during the period of the 1948 Zhdanov Decree, which attacked obscurantist tendencies in the music of leading Soviet composers." [12] Retrieved September 19, 2008.
22. ↑ "It quickly emerged as his most popular symphony and has remained to this day one of his greatest orchestral works." [13]Retrieved September 19, 2008.
23. ↑ "Prokofiev never fully recovered from this accident, although the greatness of works which were to follow gave no indication of it." [14].prokofiev.org. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
24. ↑ "This orgy of government denouncements, censorship, and intimidation became known as Zhdanovshchina ('Zhdanov's Terror'.) Prokofiev became the target in early 1948. Zhdanov denounced Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and Khatchaturian among other composers, as too cosmopolitan and formalist." [15].prokofiev.org. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
25. ↑ The Seventh Symphony is variously viewed as overly simplistic or banal by its critics, but with dark emotions beneath the surface.
26. ↑ Martin Kettle, First among equals. The Guardian (UK), September 19, 2008
27. ↑ "Prokofiev's body was later buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow." [16].prokofiev.org. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
28. ↑ C.M. Hingtgen, Semin Neurol. 19 Suppl 1 (1999) :59-61 The tragedy of Sergei Prokofiev. - PubMed Result.pubmed. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
29. ↑ Geoffrey Norris, January 23, 2003, Fifty years after the death of composer Sergei Prokofiev, Geoffrey Norris talks to his son and to Vladimir Ashkenazy, 'My father was naïve'. Telegraph (UK). Retrieved September 19, 2008.
30. ↑ Obituary: Oleg Prokofiev | Independent, The (London) | Find Articles at BNET.com Retrieved September 19, 2008.
31. ↑ "Now his most celebrated work has been given a new lease of life." The dictator's cut: Prokofiev's 'Romeo and Juliet' Independent (UK). Retrieved September 20, 2008.
References
• Shlifstein, S. & Rose Prokofieva, (translator), Sergei Prokofiev, [1960] (2000). Sergei Prokofiev: Autobiography, Articles, Reminiscences. Honolulu: University Press of the Pacific, ISBN [login to see] .
• Slonimsky, Nicolas. The Concise Edition of Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 8th ed. New York: Schirmer Books, 1993. ISBN 002872416X
• Taruskin, Richard. "Prokofiev, Sergei" The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. ed. Stanley Sadie. London: 1992. ISBN [login to see] .
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Image:
1. Sergei Prokofiev and his second wife, Mira Mendelson
2. Prokofiev's first love was opera. He composed several, including The Gambler and The Fiery Angel. But his most successful was the satirical 'The Love for Three Oranges'.
3. Prokofiev with colleagues Dmitri Shostakovich and Aram Khachaturian, 1946
4. A Soviet stamp marking Prokofiev's centenary in 1991
Background from {[https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Sergei_Prokofiev]}
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (Russian: Серге́й Серге́евич Проко́фьев, Sergéj Sergéjevič Prokófjev) (Alternative transliterations of his name include Sergey or Serge, and Prokofief, Prokofieff, or Prokofyev.)27 April [O.S. 15 April] 1891 - March 5, 1953[1]) was a Russian composer who mastered numerous musical genres and came to be admired as one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century.
Along with Dmitri Shostakovich and Aram Khachaturian, Prokofiev was one of the innovators and leading composers in the rise of modern music in Russia. As a result he would come into conflict with the Soviet authorities, especially during the era of Zhdanovism in the late 1940s, when political orthodoxy was imposed on the arts, including music.1 Biography
Prokofiev is famous for numerous compositions, including the popular Peter and the Wolf, the ballet Romeo and Juliet and for his film scores for Eisenstein's films Ivan the Terrible and Alexander Nevsky.
Biography
Early years
Prokofiev was born in Sontsovka [2](now Borysivka), near Jekaterinoslaw (also subsequently renamed), Ukraine, of the Russian Empire. He displayed unusual musical abilities by the age of five. His first piano composition to be written down (by his mother), an 'Indian Gallop', was in the key of F Lydian (F major with a B natural instead of B flat) as the young Prokofiev did not like to touch the black keys. By the age of seven, he had also learned to play chess. Much like music, chess would remain a passion his entire life, and he became acquainted with world chess champions Jose Raul Capablanca and Mikhail Botvinnik.
At the age of nine he was composing his first opera,[3] The Giant, as well as an overture and miscellaneous pieces.
In 1902 Prokofiev's mother obtained an audience with Sergei Taneyev, director of the Moscow Conservatoire. Taneyev suggested that Prokofiev should start lessons in composition with Alexander Goldenweiser, who declined, and Reinhold Glière.[4] Glière visited Prokofiev in Sontsivka twice during the summer to teach him. By then Prokofiev had already produced a number of innovative pieces. As soon as he had the necessary theoretical tools, he quickly started experimenting, creating the basis for his own musical style.
After a while, Prokofiev felt that the isolation in Sontsivka was restricting his further musical development.[5] Although his parents were not too keen on forcing their son into a musical career at such an early age,[6] in 1904 he moved to Saint Petersburg and applied to the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, after encouragement by the director Alexander Glazunov, who was later unhappy with Prokofiev's music.[7] By this time Prokofiev had composed two more operas, Desert Islands and The Feast during the Plague and was working on his fourth, Undine.[8] He passed the introductory tests and started his composition studies the same year. Several years younger than most of his classmates, Prokofiev was viewed as eccentric and arrogant, and he often expressed dissatisfaction with much of the education, which he found boring.[9] During this period he studied under Anatol Liadov, Nikolai Tcherepnin, and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, among others. Later, he would regret squandering his opportunity to learn more from Rimsky-Korsakov. He also became friends with Boris Asafiev and Nikolai Myaskovsky.
As a member of the Saint Petersburg music scene, Prokofiev eventually earned a reputation as an enfant terrible, while also getting receiving praise for his original compositions, which he would perform himself on the piano. In 1909, he graduated from his class in composition, getting less than impressive marks. He continued at the Conservatory, but now concentrated on playing the piano and conducting. His piano lessons went far from smoothly, but the composition classes made an impression on him. His teacher encouraged his musical experimentation, and his works from this period display more intensity than earlier ones.[10]
In 1910, Prokofiev's father died and Sergei's economic support ceased. Luckily, at that time, he had started making a name for himself as a composer, although he frequently caused scandals with his forward-looking works.[11] His first two piano concertos were composed around this time. He made his first excursion out of Russia in 1913, traveling to Paris and London where he first encountered Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.
In 1914, Prokofiev left the Conservatory with the highest marks of his class, a feat which won him a grand piano. Soon afterwards, he made a trip to London where he made contact with Diaghilev and Igor Stravinsky.
War and Revolution
During World War I, Prokofiev returned again to the Academy, now studying the organ. He composed his opera The Gambler based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel The Gambler, but the rehearsals were plagued by problems and the première scheduled for 1917 had to be cancelled because of the February Revolution. In the summer the same year, Prokofiev composed his first symphony, the Classical. This was his own name for the symphony which was written in the style that, according to Prokofiev, Joseph Haydn would have used if he had been alive at the time.[12] Hence, the symphony is more or less classical in style but incorporates more modern musical elements (see Neoclassicism). After a brief stay with his mother in Kislovodsk in the Caucasus, because of worries of the enemy capturing Petrograd (the new name for Saint Petersburg), he returned in 1918, but he was now determined to leave Russia, at least temporarily.[13] In the current Russian state of unrest, he saw no room for his experimental music and, in May, he headed for the United States. Despite this, he had already developed acquaintances with senior Bolsheviks including Anatoly Lunacharsky, the People's Commissar for Education, who told him: "You are a revolutionary in music, we are revolutionaries in life. We ought to work together. But if you want to go to America I shall not stand in your way."[14]
Life abroad
Arriving in San Francisco, he was immediately compared to other famous Russian exiles (such as Sergei Rachmaninoff), and he started out successfully with a solo concert in New York, leading to several further engagements. He also received a contract for the production of his new opera The Love for Three Oranges but, due to illness and the death of the director, the premiere was cancelled. This was another example of Prokofiev's bad luck in operatic matters. The failure also cost him his American solo career, since the opera took too much time and effort. He soon found himself in financial difficulties, and, in April 1920, he left for Paris, not wanting to return to Russia as a failure.[15]
Paris was better prepared for Prokofiev's musical style. He renewed his contacts with the Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and with Stravinsky, and returned to some of his older, unfinished works, such as the Third Piano Concerto. The Love for Three Oranges finally premièred in Chicago in December 1921, under the composer's baton. The work was performed throughout Europe in that time, and the reception was good thanks to the success in Chicago.[16].
In March 1922, Prokofiev moved with his mother to the town of Ettal in the Bavarian Alps for over a year so he could concentrate fully on his composing. Most of his time was spent on an old opera project, The Fiery Angel, based on the novel The Fiery Angel by Valery Bryusov. By this time his later music had acquired a certain following in Russia, and he received invitations to return there, but he decided to stay in Europe. In 1923, he married the Spanish singer Lina Llubera (1897-1989), before moving back to Paris.
There, a number of his works (for example the Second Symphony) were performed, but the critical reception was lukewarm,[17] perhaps because he could no longer really lay claim to being a "novelty." He did not particularly like Stravinsky's later works and, even though he was quite friendly with members of "Les Six," he musically had very little in common with them.
Around 1927, the virtuoso's situation brightened; he had some exciting commissions from Diaghilev and made a number of concert tours in Russia; in addition, he enjoyed a very successful staging of The Love for Three Oranges in Leningrad (as Saint Petersburg was then known). Two older operas (one of them The Gambler) were also played in Europe and in 1928 Prokofiev produced his Third Symphony, which was broadly based on his unperformed opera The Fiery Angel. The years 1931 and 1932 saw the completion of his fourth and fifth piano concertos.
In 1929, he suffered a car accident, which slightly injured his hands and prevented him from touring Moscow, but in turn permitted him to enjoy contemporary Russian music. After his hands healed, he made a new attempt at touring the United States, and this time he was received very warmly, propped up by his recent success in Europe. This, in turn, propelled him to commence a major tour throughout Europe.
In the early 1930s, Prokofiev was starting to long for Russia again;[18] he moved more and more of his premieres and commissions to his home country instead of Paris. One such was Lieutenant Kije, which was commissioned as the score to a Russian film. Another commission, from the Kirov Theater in Leningrad, was the ballet Romeo and Juliet.
Prokofiev was soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Piero Coppola, in the first recording of his third piano concerto, recorded in London by His Master's Voice in June 1932. The recording has exceptionally clear sound and Prokofiev's own virtuosic performance remains very impressive. Prokofiev also recorded some of his solo piano music for HMV in Paris in February 1935; these recordings were issued on CD by Pearl and Naxos.[19] In 1938, he conducted the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra in a recording of the second suite from his Romeo and Juliet ballet; this performance was also later released on LP and CD. Another reported recording with Prokofiev and the Moscow Philharmonic was of the Prokofiev First Violin Concerto with David Oistrakh as soloist; Everest Records later released this recording on a LP, along with a performance of Khachaturian's violin concerto with that composer conducting the Philharmonic with much inferior sound compared to the EMI recording with Khachaturian and Oistrakh.[20]
Return to Soviet Union
In 1935, Prokofiev moved back to the Soviet Union permanently; his family joined him a year later. At this time, the official Soviet policy towards music changed; a special bureau, the "Composers' Union," was established in order to keep track of the artists and their activities. By limiting outside influences, these policies would gradually cause almost complete isolation of Soviet composers from the rest of the world. Willing to adapt to the new circumstances (whatever misgivings he had about them in private), Prokofiev wrote a series of "mass songs" (Opp. 66, 79, 89), using the lyrics of officially approved Soviet poets, and also the oratorio Zdravitsa (Hail to Stalin) (Op. 85), which secured his position as a Soviet composer and put an end to his persecution. At the same time Prokofiev also composed music for children (Three Songs for Children and Peter and the Wolf, among other) as well as the gigantic Cantata for the Twentieth Anniversary of the October Revolution, which was, however, never performed. The première of the opera Semyon Kotko was postponed because the producer Vsevolod Meyerhold was imprisoned and executed.
In 1938, Prokofiev collaborated with the great Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein on the score to the historical epic Alexander Nevsky. For this he composed some of his most inventive dramatic music. Although the film had very poor sound recording, Prokofiev adapted much of his score into a cantata, which has been extensively performed and recorded.
In 1941, Prokofiev suffered the first of several heart attacks, resulting in a gradual decline in health. Because of the war, he was periodically evacuated to the south together with a large number of other artists. This had consequences for his family life in Moscow, and his relationship with the 25-year-old Mira Mendelson (1915-1968) finally led to his separation from his wife Lina, although they remained married with no talk of divorce. (Marriage to foreigners had been made illegal in the Soviet Union, although the USSR had recognized their marriage by granting them both apartments when they returned.)
The outbreak of war inspired Prokofiev to a new opera project, War and Peace, which he worked on for two years, along with more film music for Sergei Eisenstein (Ivan the Terrible) and the second string quartet. However, the Soviet government had opinions about the opera which resulted in numerous revisions. [21] In 1944, Prokofiev moved to an estate outside of Moscow, to compose his Fifth Symphony (Op. 100) which would turn out to be the most popular of all his symphonies, both within Russia and abroad.[22] Shortly afterwards, he suffered a concussion from a fall. He never fully recovered from this injury, and it severely lowered his productivity rate in later years, though some of his last pieces were as fine as anything he had composed before.[23]
Prokofiev had time to write his postwar Sixth Symphony and a ninth piano sonata (for Sviatoslav Richter) before the Party suddenly changed its opinion about his music.[24] The end of the war allowed attention to be turned inwards again and the Party tightened its reins on domestic artists. Prokofiev's music was now seen as a grave example of formalism, and dangerous to the Soviet people.
On February 20, 1948, Prokofiev's wife Lina was arrested for 'espionage', as she tried to send money to her mother in Catalonia. She was sentenced to 20 years, but was eventually released after Stalin's death and later left the Soviet Union. 1948 was the same year that Prokofiev left his family for Mira.
His latest opera projects were quickly cancelled by the Kirov Theatre. This snub, in combination with his declining health, caused Prokofiev to withdraw more and more from active musical life. His doctors ordered him to limit his activities, which resulted in him spending only an hour or two each day on composition. The last public performance of his lifetime was the première of the Seventh Symphony in 1952, a piece of somewhat bittersweet character.[25] The music was written for a children's television program.
Igor Stravinsky characterized him as the greatest Russian composer of his day, other than Stravinsky himself.[26]
Prokofiev died at the age of 61 on March 5, 1953: the same day as Stalin. He had lived near Red Square, and for three days the throngs gathered to mourn Stalin making it impossible to carry Prokofiev's body out for the funeral service at the headquarters of the Soviet Composer's Union. Paper flowers and a taped recording of the funeral march from Romeo and Juliet had to be used, as all real flowers and musicians were reserved for Stalin's funeral. He is buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.[27]
The leading Soviet musical periodical reported Prokofiev's death as a brief item on page 116. The first 115 pages were devoted to the death of Stalin. Usually Prokofiev's death is attributed to cerebral haemorrhage (bleeding into the brain). Nevertheless it is known that he was persistently ill for eight years before he died, and was plagued during that length of time by headaches, nausea and dizziness[28], the precise nature of Prokofiev's terminal illness is uncertain.
Lina Prokofieva outlived her estranged husband by many years, dying in London in early 1989. Royalties from her late husband's music provided her a modest income. Their sons Sviatoslav (born 1924), an architect, and Oleg (1928-1998), an artist, painter, sculptor and poet, have dedicated a large part of their lives to the promotion of their father's life and work.[29] [30]
Legacy
Prokofiev was the composer of numerous popular works. Among his best known works are the children's tale, "Peter and the Wolf," his film scores for two of the films of Sergei Eisenstein, Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible, and his ballet, "Romeo and Juliet," which contains some of the most inspired and poignant passages in his whole output.[31] However, there were numerous political and choreographic problems, and the premiere was postponed for several years.
The ballet was thought to have been composed around 1935 or 1936, on commission by the Kirov Ballet. The original version had a "happy" ending, but was never publicly mounted, partly due to increased fear and caution in the musical and theatrical community in the aftermath of the two notorious Pravda editorials criticizing Shostakovich and other "degenerate modernists." Suites of the ballet music were heard in Moscow and the United States, but the full ballet premiered in Brno, Czechoslovakia, on 30 December 1938. It is better known today from the significantly revised version that was first presented at the Kirov in Leningrad on January 11, 1940, with choreography by Leonid Lavrovsky. Prokofiev objected to this version.
Zhdanovism
Like many Soviet artists, Prokofiev had troubles with the authorities over his style of music. He was one of the targets of the Zhdanov Doctrine (also called zhdanovism or zhdanovschina, Russian: доктрина Жданова, ждановизм, ждановщина)–a Soviet cultural doctrine developed by the Central Committee secretary Andrei Zhdanov in 1946. It proposed that the world was divided into two camps: the imperialistic, headed by the United States; and democratic, headed by the Soviet Union. Zhdanovism soon became a Soviet cultural policy, requiring that Soviet artists, writers and intelligentsia in general had to conform to the party line in their creative works. Under this policy, artists who failed to comply with the government's wishes risked persecution. The policy remained in effect until 1952, when it was declared that it had a negative effect on Soviet culture.
The first decree was largely aimed at writers. A further decree was issued on 10 February 1948. Although formally aimed at Vano Muradeli's opera The Great Friendship, it signaled a sustained campaign of criticism and persecution against many of the Soviet Union's foremost composers, notably Dmitri Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Aram Khachaturian. They were accused of formalism and being "anti-popular."
Works
Important works include (in chronological order):
• Toccata in D minor, Op. 11, for piano
• Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16
• Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 19
• Scythian Suite, Op. 20, suite for orchestra
• Visions Fugitives, Op. 22, set of twenty piano pieces
• Symphony No. 1 in D major Classical, Op. 25, the first definitive neo-classical composition
• Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26
• The Love for Three Oranges, Op. 33, opera in four acts, includes the famous March from the Love for Three Oranges
• The Fiery Angel, Op. 37, opera in five acts
• Symphony No. 2 in D minor, Op. 40
• Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 44
• String Quartet No. 1 in B minor, Op. 50
• Symphonic Song, Op. 57
• Lieutenant Kije, Op. 60, suite for orchestra, includes the famous Troika
• Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63
• Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64, ballet in four acts
• Peter and the Wolf, Op. 67, a children's tale for narrator and orchestra
• Alexander Nevsky, Op. 78, cantata for mezzo-soprano, chorus, and orchestra
• Violin Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 80
• The three so-called War Sonatas:
• Piano Sonata No. 6 in A major, Op. 82
• Piano Sonata No. 7 in B-flat major, Op. 83
• Piano Sonata No. 8 in B-flat major, Op. 84
• Cinderella, Op. 87, ballet in three acts
• War and Peace, Op. 91, opera in thirteen scenes
• String Quartet No. 2 in F major, Op.92
• Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, Op. 100
• Symphony No. 6 in E-flat minor, Op. 111
• Ivan the Terrible, Op. 116, music for Eisenstein's classic film of the same name.
• The Tale of the Stone Flower, Op. 118, ballet in two acts
• Symphony-Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in E minor, Op. 125, written for Mstislav Rostropovich
• Symphony No. 7 in C-sharp minor, Op. 131
Bibliography
Autobiography and diaries
His autobiography was published in English as Prokofiev: Autobiography, Articles, Reminiscences. ISBN [login to see]
The first volume of Prokofiev's diaries was translated into English by Anthony Phillips and published by Faber and Faber in 2006.
Biographers
• David Nice
• Daniel Jaffe
• Harlow Robinson
• Israel Nestjev
• Simon Morrison
• Piero Rattalino
Music Analyses
• Stephen C. I. Fiess
• Neil Minturn
Notes
1. ↑ While Prokofiev himself believed April 23 to be his birth date, the posthumous discovery of his birth certificate showed that he was actually born four days later, on April 27. Nicolas Slonimsky. The Concise Edition of Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 8th ed. (New York: Schirmer Books, 1993), 793
2. ↑ answers.com
3. ↑ Phil Tulga, 2006, "He was a child prodigy on the order of Mozart, composing for piano at age five and writing an opera at nine." Peter and the Wolfphiltulga.com. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
4. ↑ Paul Shoemaker, [1]. musicweb-international.com. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
5. ↑ "The year was 1904, Prokofiev was thirteen, and it was clear to Maria Grigoryevna that the geographical isolation of Sontsovka was not conducive to the development of her son's burgeoning musical potential." [2]prokofiev.org. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
6. ↑ "In fact, Prokofiev's parents focused most of his educational energies on non-musical subjects, particularly mathematics and the sciences." [3] Retrieved September 19, 2008.
7. ↑ Alexander Glazunov (1865 - 1936).balletmet.org. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
8. ↑ Robert Layton, "Prokofiev's Demonic Opera" Found in the introductory notes to the Philips Label recording of The Fiery Angel
9. ↑ "His memoirs indicate that even in his early Conservatory years he was self-confident, generally critical of his fellow students, yet disapproving of criticism he often received from his teachers. His unfailing belief in his own innovative musical style and his criticism of fellow students was interpreted as arrogance by many around him. This arrogance and propensity to shock his teachers with his music earned him the reputation as an 'enfant terrible'—a label Prokofiev actually enjoyed." [4] Retrieved September 19, 2008.
10. ↑ "During this time his works are characterized by continued brilliance at the piano (e.g. Piano Concertos No. 1 & 2, Toccata Op. 11 in D Minor), and a struggle to master new forms (the one-act opera Maddalena, and several sketches for Orchestra including Autumnal and Dreams)" [5].prokofiev.org. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
11. ↑ "In contrast to other composers such as Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky who wilted under critical assaults, Prokofiev welcomed the disapproving reviews. Throughout his career, in fact he would purposely push the limits of his compositions, all the while provoking and shocking listeners and critics. He relished his role as 'enfant terrible' of the music world." [6].prokofiev.org. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
12. ↑ As detailed in Prokofiev's autobiography. Listen to Discovering Music from 1:00 to 3:02, particularly from 1:45 to 2:39 BBC Radio. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
13. ↑ "Prokofiev knew his prospects were much brighter in Western Europe. Blocked from heading west by war, Prokofiev headed east instead, toward the Pacific port of Vladivostock." [7].prokofiev.org. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
14. ↑ Sergei Prokofiev and S. Shlifstein (ed.) & Rose Prokofieva (translator). Sergei Prokofiev: Autobiography, Articles, Reminiscences.(The Minerva Group, Inc. (1960) 2000. ISBN [login to see] ), 50
15. ↑ "Having avoided returning to Russia, Prokofiev asked his mother, who was in poor health, to join him in Paris." [8].prokofiev.org. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
16. ↑ "When The Love for Three Oranges finally did premiere in Chicago in December 1920, it was an immediate hit. So successful was the reception in fact, that it was staged in opera houses throughout Europe." [9].prokofiev.org. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
17. ↑ "While the Second Symphony is more remembered for its inauspicious debut, it did have a few supporters." [10].prokofiev.org. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
18. ↑ "While his notoriety grew in Europe, Prokofiev longed to return to his homeland" [11] prokofiev.org. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
19. ↑ Pearl Records, Naxos Records, amazon.com
20. ↑ Everest Records, EMI
21. ↑ "Prokofiev wrote the first version of "War and Peace" during the Second World War. He revised it in the late forties and early fifties, during the period of the 1948 Zhdanov Decree, which attacked obscurantist tendencies in the music of leading Soviet composers." [12] Retrieved September 19, 2008.
22. ↑ "It quickly emerged as his most popular symphony and has remained to this day one of his greatest orchestral works." [13]Retrieved September 19, 2008.
23. ↑ "Prokofiev never fully recovered from this accident, although the greatness of works which were to follow gave no indication of it." [14].prokofiev.org. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
24. ↑ "This orgy of government denouncements, censorship, and intimidation became known as Zhdanovshchina ('Zhdanov's Terror'.) Prokofiev became the target in early 1948. Zhdanov denounced Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and Khatchaturian among other composers, as too cosmopolitan and formalist." [15].prokofiev.org. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
25. ↑ The Seventh Symphony is variously viewed as overly simplistic or banal by its critics, but with dark emotions beneath the surface.
26. ↑ Martin Kettle, First among equals. The Guardian (UK), September 19, 2008
27. ↑ "Prokofiev's body was later buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow." [16].prokofiev.org. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
28. ↑ C.M. Hingtgen, Semin Neurol. 19 Suppl 1 (1999) :59-61 The tragedy of Sergei Prokofiev. - PubMed Result.pubmed. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
29. ↑ Geoffrey Norris, January 23, 2003, Fifty years after the death of composer Sergei Prokofiev, Geoffrey Norris talks to his son and to Vladimir Ashkenazy, 'My father was naïve'. Telegraph (UK). Retrieved September 19, 2008.
30. ↑ Obituary: Oleg Prokofiev | Independent, The (London) | Find Articles at BNET.com Retrieved September 19, 2008.
31. ↑ "Now his most celebrated work has been given a new lease of life." The dictator's cut: Prokofiev's 'Romeo and Juliet' Independent (UK). Retrieved September 20, 2008.
References
• Shlifstein, S. & Rose Prokofieva, (translator), Sergei Prokofiev, [1960] (2000). Sergei Prokofiev: Autobiography, Articles, Reminiscences. Honolulu: University Press of the Pacific, ISBN [login to see] .
• Slonimsky, Nicolas. The Concise Edition of Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 8th ed. New York: Schirmer Books, 1993. ISBN 002872416X
• Taruskin, Richard. "Prokofiev, Sergei" The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. ed. Stanley Sadie. London: 1992. ISBN [login to see] .
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