April 22, 2013.Sergei Prokofiev.Tomorrow is the birthday of Sergey Prokofiev, one of the greatest composers of the 20th century; he was born on April 23, 1891.We have written about him pretty extensively before, so we thought we’d celebrate this anniversary by looking into some of his compositions.Prokofiev was tremendously versatile and wrote in practically all musical genres.He wrote for the piano, and not just sonatas, which are among the most profound pieces in his output, but also smaller pieces, among them the Toccata, Sarcasms, and twenty Visions fugitives.He also completed five piano concertos.A superb pianist himself, he transcribed some of his own symphonic pieces to piano and played them in concerts.He wrote a lot of instrumental music: sonatas (and other pieces) for violin and for cello; he composed a wonderful flute sonata, which later, on the urging of his good friend David Oistrakh, he transcribed for the violin.His violin and cello concertos are performed regularly.He wrote symphonic music throughout his entire life, from Scythian Suite, his response to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, in 1915 and Symphony no. 1, Classical, in 1916, to Symphony no. 7, which he completed while ill not long before his death in 1953.And of course the ever-popular ballets; operas, some successful (like Igrok), some less so; and even very decent film scores.
Prokofiev returned from France to the Soviet Union in 1936.He was promised independence and privilege, and for the rest of his life he did live a life very different from that of an average Soviet citizen.Still, he felt compelled to write “appropriate” music, for example a Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution, based on the writings of Marx, Lenin and Stalin, which he started almost immediately upon his arrival in Moscow.Unfortunately for Prokofiev, the music turned to be too unconventional, and wasn’t performed till much later, when both Prokofiev and Stalin were already dead.That didn’t stop Prokofiev from trying: he wrote such pieces as the cantata Zdravitsa, hailing Stalin, and music for the film Alexander Nevsky.These attempts to ingratiate himself with the Soviet leadership didn’t really help: Prokofiev, always under suspicion, completely fell from grace after the war, when the Party intensified its attacks on so-called “formalism.”In 1948 his first wife Lina was arrested on the usual trumped-up charges of espionage.Prokofiev had to work hard on creating “Soviet” music: instinctively, his music remained free of any traces of Social realism (in that he was very different from Shostakovich).The case in point is the trio of piano sonatas, sometimes called War sonatas, numbers 6, 7, 8.They were composed from 1939 through 1944.These sonatas are among the greatest in the piano repertoire of the 20th century.Number 6 was written in 1939-40, and first performed by the composer himself.Sviatoslav Richter became a great champion of this sonata.No. 7 was completed in 1942, and premiered by Richter.No. 8 was completed in 1944 and premiered by Emil Gilels.Here’s piano sonata No. 6 in A major, Op. 82, performed by Sviatoslav Richter in Locarno on September 8, 1966 (live recording).The sketch above of Sergei Prokofiev giving the premiere of his 3 Pieces Op.59 (above) was made in 1935 by Hilda Béatrice Wiener.
Prokofiev 2013
April 22, 2013. Sergei Prokofiev. Tomorrow is the birthday of Sergey Prokofiev, one of the greatest composers of the 20th century; he was born on April 23, 1891. We have written about him pretty extensively before, so we thought we’d celebrate this anniversary by looking into some of his compositions. Prokofiev was tremendously versatile and wrote in
practically all musical genres. He wrote for the piano, and not just sonatas, which are among the most profound pieces in his output, but also smaller pieces, among them the Toccata, Sarcasms, and twenty Visions fugitives. He also completed five piano concertos. A superb pianist himself, he transcribed some of his own symphonic pieces to piano and played them in concerts. He wrote a lot of instrumental music: sonatas (and other pieces) for violin and for cello; he composed a wonderful flute sonata, which later, on the urging of his good friend David Oistrakh, he transcribed for the violin. His violin and cello concertos are performed regularly. He wrote symphonic music throughout his entire life, from Scythian Suite, his response to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, in 1915 and Symphony no. 1, Classical, in 1916, to Symphony no. 7, which he completed while ill not long before his death in 1953. And of course the ever-popular ballets; operas, some successful (like Igrok), some less so; and even very decent film scores.
Prokofiev returned from France to the Soviet Union in 1936. He was promised independence and privilege, and for the rest of his life he did live a life very different from that of an average Soviet citizen. Still, he felt compelled to write “appropriate” music, for example a Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution, based on the writings of Marx, Lenin and Stalin, which he started almost immediately upon his arrival in Moscow. Unfortunately for Prokofiev, the music turned to be too unconventional, and wasn’t performed till much later, when both Prokofiev and Stalin were already dead. That didn’t stop Prokofiev from trying: he wrote such pieces as the cantata Zdravitsa, hailing Stalin, and music for the film Alexander Nevsky. These attempts to ingratiate himself with the Soviet leadership didn’t really help: Prokofiev, always under suspicion, completely fell from grace after the war, when the Party intensified its attacks on so-called “formalism.” In 1948 his first wife Lina was arrested on the usual trumped-up charges of espionage. Prokofiev had to work hard on creating “Soviet” music: instinctively, his music remained free of any traces of Social realism (in that he was very different from Shostakovich). The case in point is the trio of piano sonatas, sometimes called War sonatas, numbers 6, 7, 8. They were composed from 1939 through 1944. These sonatas are among the greatest in the piano repertoire of the 20th century. Number 6 was written in 1939-40, and first performed by the composer himself. Sviatoslav Richter became a great champion of this sonata. No. 7 was completed in 1942, and premiered by Richter. No. 8 was completed in 1944 and premiered by Emil Gilels. Here’s piano sonata No. 6 in A major, Op. 82, performed by Sviatoslav Richter in Locarno on September 8, 1966 (live recording). The sketch above of Sergei Prokofiev giving the premiere of his 3 Pieces Op.59 (above) was made in 1935 by Hilda Béatrice Wiener.