(1891-1953) - Russian and Soviet composer, one of the largest composers of the 20th century. People's Artist of the RSFSR (1947), laureate of the Stalin Prize (1943, 1946 - three times, 1947, 1951).
Sergei Prokofiev was born on April 11 (23), 1891 in the village of Sontsovka, Bakhmut district, Yekaterinoslav province (now the village of Krasnoye, Krasnoarmeysky district, Donetsk region, Ukraine). The mother, who was a good pianist, took upon herself to raise her son. The boy began studying music at the age of 5 and even then showed an interest in composing. His mother wrote down the plays he composed: rondos, waltzes, songs, “Indian gallop.” At the age of 9-10 years, the boy composer wrote 2 operas: “The Giant” and “On the Deserted Islands.” In 1902-1903 he took private lessons in theory and composition from Reinhold Gliere. From 1904 he studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in instrumentation, Anatoly Lyadov in composition, Y. Vitol in musical theoretical disciplines, A. N. Esipova in piano, N. N. Cherepnin in conducting. He graduated from the conservatory as a composer in 1909 and as a pianist in 1914.
Since 1908 he gives his first concerts performing his own works. In May 1918 he went on tour abroad, which lasted for fifteen years. Prokofiev toured in America, Europe, Japan, and Cuba.
In 1927, 1929 and 1932 Prokofiev undertook concert trips to the USSR. In 1933 (according to some sources in 1936) he returned to his homeland. He taught at the Moscow Conservatory.
In 1948, Prokofiev was attacked for the so-called. “formalism” and sympathy for Western music. Since 1949, Prokofiev has led the life of an ascetic. He almost never leaves the dacha, but even under the strictest medical regime he writes the opera “The Tale of a Real Man,” the ballet “The Stone Flower,” the Ninth Piano Sonata, the oratorio “Guardian of the World,” and much more. The last work that the composer had a chance to hear in the concert hall was the Seventh Symphony (1952). Prokofiev died in Moscow from a hypertensive crisis on March 5, 1953. Since he died on the same day as Stalin, his death went almost unnoticed.
Addresses in St. Petersburg - Petrograd - Leningrad
* 1914 - apartment building - 1st Rota, 4;
* 1915 - 1918 - apartment building - Fontanka River embankment, 122;
* 01. - 02.1927 - hotel "European" - Rakova street, 7.
An international competition named after Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev is held annually in St. Petersburg. The competition is held in three specialties: composition, symphony conducting and piano.
Essays
* Maddalena (1911; 2nd edition 1913),
* Player (according to F. M. Dostoevsky, 1929, Brussels; 1974, Moscow),
* Love for Three Oranges (according to C. Gozzi, 1921, Chicago; 1926, Leningrad),
* Fiery Angel (after V. Ya. Bryusov, 1927; concert performance 1954, Paris; 1955, Venice; 1983, Perm),
* Semyon Kotko (1940, Moscow),
* Betrothal in a monastery (Dueña, after R. Sheridan, 1946, Leningrad),
* War and Peace (opera) (based on L.N. Tolstoy, 1943; final edition 1952; 1946, Leningrad; 1955, ibid.).
* The Tale of a Real Man (according to B.P. Polevoy, concert performance 1948, Leningrad; 2nd edition 1960, Moscow);
* The Tale of a Jester Who Tricked Seven Jesters (1921, Paris),
* Leap of Steel (1927, Paris),
* Prodigal Son (1929, ibid.),
* On the Dnieper (1931, ibid.),
* Romeo and Juliet (based on W. Shakespeare, 1938, Brno; 1940, Leningrad),
* Cinderella (1945, Moscow),
* The Tale of the Stone Flower (according to P. P. Bazhov, 1954, Moscow);
Vocal and symphonic works
* For the 20th anniversary of the October Revolution, cantata (text-montage by Prokofiev from the works of K. Marx, F. Engels, V. I. Lenin, 1937)
* Alexander Nevsky, cantata (1939)
* Zdravitsa, cantata (for the 60th anniversary of Stalin, 1939)
* Winter Fire, suite (words by S. Ya. Marshak, 1949)
* Guarding the World, oratorio (words by S. Ya. Marshak, 1950)
* “The Ugly Duckling” for voice and piano
For orchestra
* 7 symphonies (1917 “Classical”; 1924; 1928; 1930 (2nd edition 1947); 1944; 1947; 1952),
* Ala and Lollius (Scythian Suite, 1915),
* symphonic tale Peter and the Wolf (1936),
* Two Pushkin Waltzes (1949), various suites, poems, overtures, etc.;
Instrumental concerts
* Five concertos for piano (1912; 1913 (2nd edition 1923); 1921; 1931; 1932 (for left hand))
* Two violin concertos (1917, 1935)
* Cello Concerto (1938)
* Symphony-concerto for cello (1952)
* Concertino for cello and orchestra (1952)
Chamber instrumental ensembles
* Two sonatas for violin and piano
* Sonata for solo violin
* Sonata for cello and piano
* Sonata for flute and piano
* 2 string quartets
Works for piano
* “Sonata No. 1 in F minor for piano” - op.1 (1907-1909)
* “4 Etudes for Piano” - op.2 (1909)
* “4 pieces for piano” - op.3 (1907-1908)
* “4 pieces for piano” - op.4 (1908)
* “Concerto No. 1 in D-flat major for piano and orchestra” - op.10 (1911-1912)
* “Toccata in D minor” - op.11 (1912)
* “10 pieces for piano” - op.12 (1906-1913)
* “Sonata No. 2 in D minor for piano” - op.14 (1912)
* “Concerto No. 2 in G minor for piano and orchestra” - op.16 (1912-1913)
* “Sarcasms” - op.17 (1912-1914)
* “Fleetingness” - op.22 (1915-1917)
* “Concerto No. 3 in C major for piano and orchestra” - op.26 (1917-1921)
* “Sonata No. 3 in A minor for piano” - op.28 (1907-1917)
* “Sonata No. 4 in C minor for piano” - op.29 (1908-1917)
* “Tales of an Old Grandmother” - op.31 (1918)
* “4 pieces for piano” - op.32 (1918)
* “Sonata No. 5 in C major for piano” - op.38 (1923)
* “Divertimento” - op.43b (1938)
* “6 transcriptions for piano” - op.52 (1930-1931)
* “Concerto No. 4 (for the left hand) for piano and orchestra” - op.53 (1931)
* “2 sonatinas for piano” - op.54 (1931-1932)
* “Concerto No. 5 in G major for piano and orchestra” - op.55 (1931)
* “3 pieces for piano” - op.59 (1933-1934)
* “Music for Children” - op.65 (1935)
* "Romeo and Juliet" - 10 pieces for piano - op.75 (1937)
* “Sonata No. 6 in A major for piano” - op.82 (1939-1940)
* “Sonata No. 7 in B-flat major for piano” - op.83 (1939-1942)
* “Sonata No. 8 in B-flat major for piano” - op.84 (1939-1944)
* “3 pieces for piano” - op.96 (1941-1942)
* “Cinderella” - 10 pieces for piano - op.97 (1943)
* “Cinderella” - 6 pieces for piano - op.102 (1944)
* “Sonata No. 9 in C major for piano” - op.103 (1939-1944)
Also: romances, songs; music for drama theater performances and films.
Among the many memories about one of the great, uniquely original musicians of our era - Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev - one that he himself told at the beginning of his short autobiography is especially interesting: “The entrance exam was quite impressive. A man with a beard was being examined in front of me, bringing as all his luggage an unaccompanied romance. I entered, bent under the weight of two folders containing four operas, two sonatas, a symphony and quite a few piano pieces. "I like it!" - said Rimsky-Korsakov, who conducted the exam.”
Prokofiev was 13 years old at the time! And if at this age one can “bend under the weight” of such creative baggage, then the composer’s biography deserves attention, apparently, from the very early years of his life. In the chronicles of Russian composers we do not find cases of “child prodigy.” Beginning with Glinka, and indeed from pre-Glinka times, the desire to write manifested itself in a more mature, youthful age, and not in childhood, and at first it was limited to piano pieces and romances. Prokofiev put opera claviers and the symphony score on the examination table; he behaved independently and confidently; he judged music decisively, as they say, “with complete knowledge of the subject,” and he had more than enough self-esteem.
The biography of this peculiar man began in the provincial wilderness, in Sontsovka - not far from Yekaterinoslav, where his father was the manager of an estate. Here, under the guidance of his mother, a good pianist, music lessons began when the future author of “The Love for Three Oranges” was not yet five years old. Prokofiev began to invent and compose music around the same time, and he never abandoned this activity. It was an organic need every day of his life. The definition of “composer” was as natural for Prokofiev as “man”.
Two operas - “The Giant” and “On the Deserted Islands”, composed and even recorded by Prokofiev at the age of 9-10, of course, cannot be taken into account when considering his creative path; they are childishly naive. But they can serve as evidence of talent, perseverance, and an indicator of the desire for some kind of scale.
The eleven-year-old composer was introduced to S.I. Taneyev. A great musician and strict teacher recognized the boy's undoubted talent and recommended that he study music seriously. The next chapter of Prokofiev’s biography is already completely unusual: during the summer months of 1902 and 1903, Taneyev’s student R. M. Gliere studied composition with Seryozha Prokofiev. The result of the first summer was a four-movement symphony, and the result of the second summer was the opera “A Feast in the Time of Plague.” It was, as Prokofiev recalled many years later, “a real opera, with vocal parts, an orchestral score and an overture in sonata form.”
At the age of 13, Prokofiev, as is known, embarked on the path of professional music studies within the walls of the St. Petersburg Conservatory.
Studying with A.K. Lyadov, N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov in composition and with A.A. Winkler and A. Esipova in piano, S. Prokofiev was not limited to completing class assignments. He wrote a lot, not always coordinating how and what to write with academic rules. Even then, the creative self-will so typical of Prokofiev was evident, the source of many conflicts with “recognized authorities”, the source of a purely individual, Prokofiev style of writing.
In December 1908, seventeen-year-old Prokofiev performed for the first time in a public concert. Among other piano pieces, he played “Obsession,” in which one can hear typically Prokofiev’s acutely dissonant harmony, springy rhythm, and deliberately dry, daring motorism. Criticism reacted instantly: “The young author, who has not yet completed his artistic education, belonging to the extreme movement of modernists, goes much further in his courage than modern Frenchmen.” The label is stuck: “extreme modernist.” Let us remember that by the end of the first decade of the century, modernism flourished magnificently and gave more and more new shoots. Therefore, Prokofiev had quite a lot of “definitions” that often sounded like abusive nicknames. Prokofiev did not find a common language with the conservatory “bosses” and teachers. He became closest friends only with N.N. Tcherepnin, who taught conducting. During these same years, Prokofiev began a friendship with N. Ya. Myaskovsky, a respectable musician, ten years older than him.
Young Prokofiev became a frequent guest of the “Evenings of Contemporary Music”, where all sorts of new items were performed. Prokofiev was the first performer in Russia of piano pieces by Arnold Schoenberg, who had not yet created his own dodecaphonic system, but wrote quite “sharply”.
Judging by the dedication written by Prokofiev on the score of the symphonic film “Dreams”: “To the author who began with “Dreams” (i.e. Scriabin), Prokofiev did not escape the hobby that gripped the vast majority of young musicians. But for Prokofiev this passion only slipped, leaving no noticeable trace. By his character, Prokofiev was a clear, decisive, business-like, athletic person, and least of all resembled a composer who was close to Scriabin's sophistication, dreaminess, or - in another way - ecstasy.
Already in the “March” for piano, part of the “Ten Pieces” cycle (1914), one can hear the resilient, strong-willed, catchy manner typical of Prokofiev in subsequent decades, which is close to Mayakovsky’s writing style of those years.
Two successive piano concertos (1912, 1913) are evidence of the composer’s creative maturity. They are different: in the First, the desire to shock and stun the audience at all costs makes itself felt; The second concert is much more poetic. Prokofiev himself wrote about his concerts: “Reproaches for the pursuit of external brilliance and a certain “footballiness” of the First Concerto led to a search for greater depth of content in the Second.”
The public and the overwhelming majority of critics greeted Prokofiev's appearance on the St. Petersburg concert stage with friendly boos. In the feuilleton of the Petersburg newspaper they wrote that “Prokofiev sits down at the piano and begins to either wipe the keys or try which ones sound higher or lower.”
By 1914, Prokofiev “did away” with the conservatory in both specialties - composition and pianism.
As a reward, his parents offered him a trip abroad. He chose London. The opera and ballet troupe of Sergei Diaghilev toured there, the repertoire of which was of great interest to Prokofiev. In London he was captivated by Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe and two of Stravinsky's ballets, The Firebird and Petrushka.
In conversations with Diaghilev, the first, still unclear, outlines of a ballet on a Russian prehistoric theme emerged. The initiative belonged to Diaghilev, and it was undoubtedly “The Rite of Spring” that prompted him to these thoughts.
Upon returning to Russia, Prokofiev gets to work. As has often happened in the history of ballet theater, a weak dramatic basis, even with excellent music, does not lead to success. This was the case with Prokofiev’s concept of the ballet “Ala and Lolliy”, the libretto for which was composed by the poet Sergei Gorodetsky. The music is clearly influenced by Stravinsky. This is understandable, given that the atmosphere of Scythian “barbarism” in “Aly and Lollia” is the same as in “The Rite of Spring” and even some of the plot moves are very similar. And besides, music of such gigantic impressive power as “The Rite of Spring” could not fail to capture the young Prokofiev. Somewhat later - between 1915 and 1920 - the ballet “The Tale of a Jester Who Tricked Seven Jesters” appeared. This time Prokofiev writes the libretto himself, borrowing the plot of Russian fairy tales from the collection of A. Afanasyev. The composer was a success with mischievous music of a Russian character. The ballet turned out to be lively, replete with witty episodes and reminiscent of “buffoon games”. In it, Prokofiev “had plenty of fun” with irony, grotesque, sarcasm - so typical of him.
Many of the young Prokofiev’s contemporaries and even researchers of his work overlooked the “lyrical current” in his music, breaking through the acutely satirical, grotesque, sarcastic images, through the deliberately rough, ponderous rhythms. And there are many of them, these lyrical, shy intonations in the piano cycles “Fleetness” and “Sarcasm”, in the secondary theme of the first part of the Second Sonata, in romances based on poems by Balmont, Apukhtin, Akhmatova.
From here the threads will stretch to “Tales of an Old Grandmother”, “Romeo and Juliet”, to the music of Natasha Rostova, to “Cinderella”, to Pushkin’s waltzes. Let us note that these works are dominated by strong, but shy feelings, “afraid” of their external expression. Prokofiev is ironic about the exaggerations of the romantic “world of excited feelings.” For such anti-romantic skepticism - among many other works - the romance “The Magician” based on the poems of Agnivtsev is very indicative.
Prokofiev's anti-romantic tendencies are also reflected in his sympathy for prose and prosaic texts. Here we can talk about the influences of Mussorgsky, especially since Prokofiev often prefers the type of melody that is close to speech intonations. In this regard, his “The Ugly Duckling” for voice and piano, which can hardly be called a romance, is very indicative. Andersen's wise and kind fairy tale, instilling faith in goodness and light, attracted Prokofiev with its humanism.
One of the first performances of “The Ugly Duckling” was heard by A. M. Gorky in a concert in which he read the first chapter of his “Childhood”. Admired by “The Duckling,” Gorky made a guess: “... but he wrote this about himself, about himself!”
In January 1916, Prokofiev had to go through an ordeal that made him remember the evening of the premiere of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. This was the first performance of the Scythian Suite, which he himself conducted. The public loudly expressed their indignation at the “wild work.” A reviewer for “Theater Sheet” wrote: “It is simply incredible that such a piece, devoid of any meaning, could be performed at a serious concert... These are some kind of daring, impudent sounds that express nothing but endless bragging.”
Prokofiev stoically withstands this kind of critical assessment and this kind of reaction from the audience. Having attended public performances by D. Burliuk, V. Kamensky, V. Mayakovsky, he gets used to the idea that innovative trends in any art cannot but cause violent reactions from the public, which has its own established tastes and considers any violation of them an attack on personality and dignity , decency.
In the pre-revolutionary years, Prokofiev was busy working on the opera “The Gambler” based on the story by Dostoevsky. Here he comes even closer to Mussorgsky. For many reasons, Prokofiev will postpone The Gambler for almost ten years; its premiere will take place in Brussels only in 1929.
While working on The Player, perhaps in contrast to the innovations generously scattered in the score, Prokofiev conceived a symphony built according to the strict canon of classical examples of this genre. Thus arises one of the most charming works of the young Prokofiev, his Classical Symphony. Cheerful, bright, without a single “wrinkle on the forehead” music, with just its theme touches another emotional sphere, dreamy lyrics, this is the melody of violins in an extremely high register, sounding at the beginning of the second movement. The first performance of the Classical Symphony, dedicated to B.V. Asafiev, took place under the direction of the author after the revolution, in 1918. A.V. Lunacharsky was present at the concert.
In a conversation with him, Prokofiev expressed a desire to go on a long concert train abroad. Lunacharsky did not object. So, in 1918, Prokofiev went abroad.
At first he gave concerts in Japan, and from there he headed to the USA. In his memoirs, Prokofiev writes: “From Yokahama, with a wonderful stop in Honolulu, I moved to San Francisco. There they did not immediately let me ashore, knowing that Russia was ruled by “maximalists” (as the Bolsheviks were called in America at that time) - a people not entirely understandable and, probably, dangerous. After staying on the island for three days and questioning him in detail (“Have you been in prison?” - “I was.” - “That’s bad. Where?” - “You, on the island.” - “Oh, you want to joke!”), I was allowed into the United States."
Three and a half years spent in the USA added the opera “The Love for Three Oranges” and several chamber works to the list of Prokofiev’s works.
Leaving Russia, Prokofiev took with him the theater magazine “Love for Three Oranges,” which published the script of the fairy tale of the same name by the Italian playwright Carlo Gozzi, revised by V. Meyerhold. Based on it, Prokofiev wrote the libretto and music of the opera.
“The Love for Three Oranges” can be called an ironic fairy tale, in which reality, fantasy, and theatrical conventions are intertwined into a fascinating performance, endowed with a bright stage form, akin to the Italian “commedia dell’arte.” During the time - almost half a century - that separates us from the premiere of “The Love for Three Oranges”, this opera has entered the repertoire of many theaters.
For the first time, after much ordeal, it was staged in Chicago at the end of 1921. Two weeks before the premiere of Oranges, the first performance of the Third Piano Concerto took place there, in Chicago. The author played the solo part. In this concert, the “Russian spirit” reigns in the language, in the images, sometimes soulful like a pipe (introduction), sometimes ominously fabulous in Koscheev’s way, sometimes sweeping, like the generous power of Russian youth. Of the five piano concertos (the Fourth and Fifth were written in the early 30s), it is the Third that enjoys the greatest popularity to this day, perhaps also because the voice of piano “omnipotence” is heard in it, making one remember the pathos of the concerts of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov . This feature of the concert was figuratively and vividly expressed by the poet Konstantin Balmont: “And the invincible Scythian beats the tambourine of the sun.”
Having moved to Europe, to Paris, at the beginning of 1920, Prokofiev renewed his ties with Diaghilev, but not for long. The meeting with Stravinsky turned into a quarrel, and this led to changes in the relationship with Diaghilev. A most experienced impresario, a man with an excellent “sense of smell,” Diaghilev felt that Prokofiev could not count on success with that part of the public that some respectfully call “elite,” others more soberly call them snobs. In short, she, the “elite,” did not like the Violin Concerto, written long ago but first performed in Paris in 1923, which, in her opinion, was not “peppered” enough. And then Prokofiev, wanting to take revenge, “peppered” the Second Symphony so much that it recoiled even the “left side” of the hall. Prokofiev was not in the “Parisian tone”, not in favor. This means, according to Diaghilev’s logic, there is no need to know him.
In the diplomatic world, in influential “salons”, interest in the “land of the Bolsheviks” grew day by day. This did not escape Diaghilev’s attention. After two years of coldness, Sergei Diaghilev turned to Prokofiev in the old, friendly way. It was about a ballet from... Soviet life. I. Ehrenburg was supposed to be the author of the libretto. The final choice fell on G. Yakulov. The title of the ballet “Steel Leap” was intriguing. Staged by choreographer Leonid Myasin, "Leap of Steel" neither in Paris nor in London, where it was shown during the tour of Diaghilev's troupe, was not successful and, strictly speaking, could not have had it. The ballet, devoid of cross-cutting action, consisted of separate, unrelated episodes: the train with the bagmen, the Commissioners, the toffees and cigarette makers, the Orator. In the second (last) scene of the ballet on stage, the ballet troupe demonstrated the movement of machines, machine tools, and the whine of steam hammers.
In 1927, Sergei Prokofiev made a large concert tour of the Soviet Union. He was enchanted by the Leningrad production of Three Oranges and the reception he received as a composer and pianist in Moscow, Leningrad, Kharkov, Kyiv, and Odessa. It was as if he had re-breathed the air of his native land.
Of the works of the late 20s, the most interesting are the Third Symphony (we will return to it later) and the ballet “Prodigal Son”, staged in May 1929. Here Prokofiev again showed the power of his talent. The music of “The Prodigal Son” captivates with its wise simplicity, warmth, and nobility of theme. The contrasting scenes: the bacchanalia of the feast and the morning after a riotous night, and then the scene of the return of the hero of the ballet-parable to his father’s roof, full of sorrow and humility, make a strong impression. The ballet “Prodigal Son” is the closest approach to the three ballets written by Prokofiev after returning to his homeland, the ballets that increased his world fame.
Prokofiev had long dreamed of returning home. In the memoirs of one of his French friends, Sergei Sergeevich quotes: “The air of a foreign land does not arouse inspiration in me, because I am Russian and there is nothing more harmful for a person than living in exile, being in a spiritual climate that does not correspond to his race. I must again plunge into the atmosphere of my homeland, I must again see real winter and spring, I must hear Russian speech, talk with people close to me. And this will give me what is so lacking here, for their songs are my songs.”
In 1933, Sergei Prokofiev returned to his homeland. But the homeland has changed. Over the sixteen post-revolutionary years, a new audience has grown up with its own beliefs, demands, and tastes. This was not the audience that Prokofiev remembered from his youth, and not the one that he met abroad. Artistic and aesthetic culture has grown enormously, tightly bound to the revolutionary worldview, which makes it possible to freely, truthfully perceive and interpret the phenomena of life in the same way, understanding where history is moving. Trying his hand at new conditions for him, Prokofiev accepts the offer to write music for the film “Lieutenant Kizhe”. This is where Prokofev’s inherent musical wit made itself felt! The era of Pavlov’s barracks drill, the cheerless whistling of flutes accompanied by the beat of drums, the couriers galloping on crossbars with their eyes bulging from zeal, was an era when cutesy ladies-in-waiting and cooks sang a hundred times a day: “The blue dove is moaning, he is moaning day and night ... "Freedom for music! Moreover, the music is ironic. Prokofiev composed exactly the kind of music that was expected from him: sharp, extremely precise, instantly merging with the action, with the person, with the landscape. “Kizhe’s Wedding”, and “Troika”, and the eerie drum roll to which the “criminal Kizhe” was led to Siberia - all this sounded extremely expressive thanks to the grotesqueness that unites the eerie and the funny.
Thus began a new, most important stage in Prokofiev’s creative biography. In the same year, 1933, he wrote the music for the production of “Egyptian Nights” at the Moscow Chamber Theater and again proved that even in this genre, which gives the composer seemingly the most modest opportunities, it is possible to create works of high merit.
Prokofiev repeatedly turns to the genre of film music and music in the drama theater. His music for two films by Sergei Eisenstein: “Alexander Nevsky” and “Ivan the Terrible” left a particularly great impression. In the music for “Alexander Nevsky” (1938), Prokofiev continued the line of epic symphonism coming from Borodin. Such episodes as “Rus under the Mongol Yoke”, “Battle of the Ice”, and the chorus “Rise up, Russian people” are captivating with their realistic power and strict monumentality. It is not the illustration for the film frame, but the symphonic generalization of the theme, concretized on the screen, that occupies the composer. Despite the fact that music is tightly connected with the image, it has an independent, very high value, as evidenced by the cantata “Alexander Nevsky” for orchestra, choir and soloist created on its basis.
The music for the film “Ivan the Terrible” (1942) was also written in this regard. After Prokofiev’s death, conductor A. Stasevich combined the most significant episodes of music into the oratorio “Ivan the Terrible” - a work of enormous, stunning power.
The second half of the 30s was marked by the composition of one of Prokofiev's best works - the ballet Romeo and Juliet. Staged at the beginning of 1940 by L. Lavrovsky on the stage of the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater. S. M. Kirov, it played a huge role in the history of world choreographic culture, being the first performance that fully embodied Shakespeare’s tragedy through the means of music, dance and pantomime. G. Ulanova - Juliet, K. Sergeev - Romeo, R. Gerbek - Tybalt, A. Lopukhov - Mercutio are rightfully among the most outstanding performers of Shakespearean roles. With his ballet, Prokofiev raised the level of ballet music to a level that it had not reached since Tchaikovsky, Glazunov and Stravinsky, which in turn set new challenges for every composer writing ballet music. The symphonic principles that determine the style and essence of the music of Romeo and Juliet were further developed in two of Prokofiev’s ballets - Cinderella (1944) and The Tale of the Stone Flower (1950).
With “Cinderella” was born one of the most poetic performances about the sad life of a stepdaughter, humiliated and ridiculed by her evil stepmother and her daughters Zlyuka and Krivlyaka. In those distant years, when romances were written based on the poems of Balmong, Apukhtin and Akhmatova, full of the charm of “The Old Grandmother's Tale,” the seeds were sown that rose in the score of “Cinderella” with music radiating waves of humanity and love of life. In every episode where Cinderella appears or where she is only “mentioned”, the music is filled with fragrant warmth and affection. Of everything written by Prokofiev, “Cinderella” is closest to the ballet dramaturgy of Tchaikovsky, who also thought more than once about a ballet based on this plot...
Prokofiev's last ballet is “The Tale of the Stone Flower.” Bazhov’s “Malachite Box” was filled with wonderful Russian music, generated by fantastic and real images of ancient tales of Ural stone cutters and the brightest of them, the image of the Copper Mountain of the mistress, either a beautiful woman, or an evil malachite lizard keeping the secret of a stone flower.
Next to ballets, his operas occupy an important place in Prokofiev’s creative biography. The composer followed a difficult path in this genre. Starting with the one-act “Maddalena,” a bloody drama set against the backdrop of the lush life of 15th-century Venice, he turns to his next opera, Dostoevsky’s “The Gambler,” and from him to the already mentioned fairy tale by Carlo Gozzi, “The Love for Three Oranges,” the first opera has won lasting success. After the ironic, light and cheerful music of “Oranges,” the composer suddenly plunges into the darkness of the Middle Ages in an opera based on the plot of V. Bryusov’s story “The Fire Angel,” where eroticism and the horrors of the Inquisition alternate with frenzied prophecies and cabalistics. The music, written under the influence of expressionist aesthetics, which was completely unusual for Prokofiev, was later used by him in the Third Symphony.
For many years, Prokofiev did not turn to the opera genre. And only in 1939 I became interested in V. Kataev’s story “I am the son of the working people.” Based on it, he wrote the opera “Semyon Kotko”. Prokofiev spoke in a completely new language in many episodes of this opera, obviously restoring in his memory childhood impressions of Ukraine, about the songs that rang in Sontsovka, about the atmosphere itself, saturated with the fertile Ukrainian warmth. Is this where the lyrical intonations in the duet dialogues between Semyon Kotko and his beloved Sofia Tkachenko, or the characteristics of Frosya and Mikolka, delighting with their touching naivety, arose? Despite the inherent merits of Semyon Kotko, Prokofiev’s predilection for prosaism and conversational style of intonation initially prevented Prokofiev’s first opera on a modern plot from taking a place in the repertoire of our theaters. This manner will be reflected to an even greater extent in the last opera, “The Tale of a Real Man” (1948), based on the book by B. Polevoy.
Sergei Prokofiev is an outstanding Russian composer and a person of unique destiny. A man who has amazing abilities and entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory when he was only 13. A man who went abroad after the revolution, but returned to the USSR - with honor and without the stigma of a “defector”. A person with unshakable determination, who was not broken by life's difficulties. He was favored by the authorities, received the highest state awards, and then, during his lifetime, was consigned to oblivion and disgrace. A man who is called the “sole genius” of the twentieth century and whose amazing works delight listeners around the world.
Brief biography Sergei Prokofiev and read many interesting facts about the composer on our page.
Brief biography of Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev comes from the Ukrainian village of Sontsovka. There are different versions of the date of his birth, but it is advisable to indicate the one that he himself indicated in his “Autobiography” - April 11 (23), 1891. It seems that he was already born a composer, because thanks to his mother, Maria Grigorievna, who played the piano excellently, the Prokofievs’ house was full of music. Interest in the instrument prompted little Seryozha to start learning to play. Since 1902, Sergei Prokofiev began teaching music R.M. Gliere.
Prokofiev became a student at the Moscow Conservatory in 1904. Five years later he graduated from the composition department, and after another five from the piano department, becoming the best graduate. He began giving concerts in 1908. The debut was extremely favorably assessed by critics, and both his performing talent and composer's originality were noted. Since 1911, sheet music of his works has been published. The turning point in the fate of young Prokofiev was his acquaintance with S.P. Diaghilev in 1914. Thanks to the union of the entrepreneur and the composer, four ballets were born. In 1915, Diaghilev organized Prokofiev's first foreign performance with a program consisting of his compositions.
Prokofiev perceived the revolution as destruction, “massacre and game.” Therefore, the next year I went to Tokyo, and from there to New York. He lived in France for a long time, touring the old and new worlds as a pianist. In 1923, he married the Spanish singer Lina Codina, and they had two sons. Arriving for performances in the Soviet Union, Prokofiev sees an exceptionally cordial, even luxurious, reception from the authorities, a grandiose success with the public that he had never seen abroad, and also receives an offer to return and the promise of the status of “first composer.” And in 1936, Prokofiev moved to Moscow with his family and property. The authorities did not deceive him - a luxurious apartment, well-trained servants, orders pouring in as if from a cornucopia. In 1941, Prokofiev left his family for Mira Mendelsohn.
The year 1948 began with unexpected dramatic events. Prokofiev’s name was mentioned in the party resolution “On the opera “The Great Friendship” by V. Muradeli.” The composer was classified as a “formalist”. As a result, some of his works, in particular the Sixth Symphony, were banned, while others were almost never performed. However, already in 1949 these restrictions were lifted by Stalin’s personal order. It turned out that even the “first composer” of the country does not belong to the untouchable caste. Less than ten days after the publication of the devastating decree, the composer’s first wife, Lina Ivanovna, was arrested. She was sentenced to 20 years in the camps for espionage and treason; she would be released only in 1956. Prokofiev’s health noticeably deteriorated, doctors advised him to hardly work. Nevertheless, in 1952, he personally attended the first performance of his Seventh Symphony, and wrote music even on the last day of his life. On the evening of March 5, 1953, Sergei Prokofiev's heart stopped...
Prokofiev - composer
From Prokofiev's biography we know that at the age of five Seryozha came up with and played his first piece on the piano (the notes were recorded by Maria Grigorievna). Having visited Moscow productions in 1900 " Faust" And " Sleeping beauty“, the child was so inspired by what he heard that just six months later his first opera, “The Giant,” was born. By the time I entered the conservatory, I had accumulated several folders of essays.
The idea of his first big opera based on the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky " Player", which Prokofiev decided to transfer to the opera stage in his youth, was discussed by the composer primarily with S. Diaghilev. Who, however, was not interested in the idea. Unlike the chief conductor of the Mariinsky Theater A. Coates, who supported her. The opera was completed in 1916, the roles were assigned, rehearsals began, but due to an unfortunate series of obstacles, the premiere never took place. After some time, Prokofiev made a second edition of the opera, but the Bolshoi Theater staged it only in 1974. During the composer's lifetime, only the second edition was staged by the Brussels La Monnaie Theater in 1929, where the opera was performed in French. The last work written and performed in pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg was the First Symphony. During the period of living abroad the following were created: operas " Love for Three Oranges" and "Fire Angel", three symphonies, many sonatas and plays, music for the film "Lieutenant Kizhe", concerts for cellos, piano, violins with an orchestra.
The return to the USSR is the time of Prokofiev’s rapid creative rise, when works were born that became his “calling card” even for those who are little familiar with classical music - ballet "Romeo and Juliet" and the symphonic fairy tale “Peter and the Wolf”. In 1940, the Opera House named after. K.S. Stanislavsky gives the premiere of Semyon Kotko. At the same time, work on the opera “Betrothal in a Monastery” was completed, where M. Mendelssohn co-authored the libretto.
In 1938, S. Eisenstein’s film “Alexander Nevsky” was released, which a few years later was destined to become a symbol of the fight against the Nazi invaders. The music of this film, like the director’s second monumental film “Ivan the Terrible,” was written by Sergei Prokofiev. The war years were marked by evacuation to the Caucasus, as well as work on three major works: the Fifth Symphony, ballet "Cinderella", opera " War and Peace" The author of the libretto for this opera and subsequent works by the composer was his second wife. The post-war period is notable primarily for two symphonies - the Sixth, which is considered a kind of requiem for the victims of the war, and the Seventh, dedicated to youth and hopes.
Interesting Facts:
- The version of the opera The Gambler, written for the Mariinsky Theater in 1916, was never staged on its stage. The premiere of the second edition took place only in 1991.
- During Prokofiev's lifetime, only 4 of his operas were staged in the USSR. At the same time, not a single one at the Bolshoi Theater.
- Sergei Prokofiev left two legal widows. A month before the arrest of L. Prokofieva, who did not give him a divorce either for reasons of her own safety, or because she sincerely did not want to let her loved one go, the composer remarried. He was advised to take advantage of the legal provisions of the decree prohibiting marriages with foreigners, which recognized the church marriage with Lina Ivanovna, concluded in Germany, as invalid. Prokofiev hastened to legitimize relations with M. Mendelssohn, thereby exposing his ex-wife to the blows of the Soviet repressive machine. After all, with the stroke of a pen and against her will, she turned from Prokofiev’s wife into a lonely foreigner maintaining relationships with other foreigners in Moscow. Upon returning from the camp, the composer's first wife restored all her marital rights through the courts, including a significant part of the inheritance.
- The composer was a brilliant chess player . “Chess is the music of thought” is one of his most famous aphorisms. Once he even managed to win a game against the world chess champion H.-R. Capablanca.
- From 1916 to 1921, Prokofiev collected an album of autographs from his friends who answered the question: “What do you think about the sun?” Among those who responded were K. Petrov-Vodkin, A. Dostoevskaya, F. Chaliapin, A. Rubinstein, V. Burliuk, V. Mayakovsky, K. Balmont. Prokofiev's work is often called sunny, optimistic, and cheerful. Even the place of his birth in some sources is called Solntsevka.
- Prokofiev’s biography notes that in the first years of the composer’s performances in the United States, he was called a “musical Bolshevik” there. The American public turned out to be too conservative to understand his music. In addition, she already had her own Russian idol - Sergei Rachmaninov.
- Upon his return to the USSR, Prokofiev was given a spacious apartment in a house on Zemlyanoy Val, 14, where, in particular, lived: pilot V. Chkalov, poet S. Marshak, actor B. Chirkov, artist K. Yuon. They also allowed us to bring with us a blue Ford purchased abroad, and even get a personal driver.
- Contemporaries noted Sergei Sergeevich’s ability to dress with taste. He was not embarrassed by either bright colors or bold combinations of clothes. He loved French perfumes and expensive accessories such as ties, good wines and gourmet dishes.
- Sergei Prokofiev kept a detailed personal diary for 26 years. But after moving to the Soviet Union, I decided that it would be wiser not to do this anymore.
- After the war, Prokofiev mainly lived in a dacha in the village of Nikolina Gora near Moscow, which he bought with money from the fifth Stalin Prize. In Moscow, his home was three rooms in a communal apartment, where, in addition to the composer and his wife, Mira Abramovna’s stepfather also lived.
- The composer often included fragments and melodies of earlier works in his works. Examples include:
- the music of the ballet “Ala and Lolliy”, which S. Diaghilev refused to stage, was reworked by Prokofiev into the Scythian Suite;
- the music of the Third Symphony is taken from the opera “The Fiery Angel”;
- The Fourth Symphony was born from the music of the ballet “Prodigal Son”;
- the theme “Tatar Steppe” from the film “Ivan the Terrible” formed the basis of Kutuzov’s aria in the opera “War and Peace”. - “Steel Leap” first saw the Russian stage only in 2015, 90 years after its creation.
- The composer finished work on the duet of Katerina and Danila from the ballet “The Tale of the Stone Flower” a few hours before his death.
- Life of S.S. Prokofiev and I.V. Stalin's death ended on the same day, which is why the composer's death was announced on the radio with a delay, and the organization of the funeral was significantly complicated.
Sergei Prokofiev and cinema
The creation of music for films by a composer of this level has no precedent in art. In 1930–40, Sergei Prokofiev wrote music for eight films. One of them, “The Queen of Spades” (1936), was never released due to the fire at Mosfilm, which destroyed the films. Prokofiev's music for his first film, Lieutenant Kizhe, became incredibly popular. Based on it, the composer created a symphonic suite, which was performed by orchestras around the world. Two ballets were subsequently created to this music. However, Prokofiev did not immediately accept the proposal of the filmmakers - his first reaction was refusal. But after reading the script and a detailed discussion of the director’s plan, he became interested in the idea and, as he noted in his Autobiography, he worked quickly and with pleasure on the music for “Lieutenant Kizha.” The creation of the suite required more time, re-orchestration and even reworking of some themes.
Unlike “Lieutenant Kizhe”, the proposal to write music for the film “ Alexander Nevskiy“Prokofiev accepted without hesitation. They had known Sergei Eisenstein for a long time; Prokofiev even considered himself a fan of the director. The work on the film became a triumph of true co-creation: sometimes the composer wrote a musical text, and the director based the filming and editing of the episode on its basis, sometimes Prokofiev looked at the finished material, tapping the rhythms with his fingers on the wood and after a while bringing back the finished score. The music of “Alexander Nevsky” embodied all the main features of Prokofiev’s talent and deservedly entered the golden fund of world culture. During the war, Prokofiev created music for three patriotic films: “Partisans in the steppes of Ukraine”, “Kotovsky”, “Tonya” (from the film collection “Our Girls”), as well as for the biographical film “Lermontov” (together with V. Pushkov).
Last in time, but not least in importance, was Prokofiev’s work on S. Eisenstein’s film “Ivan the Terrible,” which began in Alma-Ata. The music of “Ivan the Terrible” continues the themes of “Alexander Nevsky” with its folk-epic power. But the second joint film of the two geniuses consists not only of heroic scenes, but also tells the story of a boyar conspiracy and diplomatic intrigue, which required a more diverse musical canvas. This work of the composer was awarded the Stalin Prize. After Prokofiev’s death, the music of “Ivan the Terrible” served as the basis for the creation of an oratorio and ballet.
Despite the fact that the amazing fate of Sergei Prokofiev could form the basis of an interesting film script, there are still no feature films about the composer’s life. For various anniversaries - from the day of birth or death - only television films and programs were created. Perhaps this is due to the fact that no one undertakes to unambiguously interpret the ambiguous actions of Sergei Sergeevich. For what reasons did he return to the USSR? Was the Soviet period of his work conformism or innovation? Why did his first marriage break up? Why did he allow Lina Ivanovna to rashly refuse to evacuate from wartime Moscow and not at least take the children out? And did he even care about anything other than his own vanity and creative fulfillment - the fate of his arrested first wife and his own sons, for example? There are no answers to these and many other pressing questions. There are opinions and speculations that may be unfair to the great composer.
Sergei Prokofiev in the lives of outstanding musicians
- Sergey Taneyev said about nine-year-old Seryozha Prokofiev that he has outstanding abilities and absolute pitch.
- During the recording of the music for the film “Lieutenant Kizhe,” the symphony orchestra was led by the young conductor Isaac Dunaevsky. Subsequently, in personal correspondence, Dunaevsky expressed an ambiguous attitude towards Prokofiev due to the latter’s privileged position.
- The biography of Prokofiev indicates that the composer Boris Asafiev was a classmate at the Conservatory and a long-time friend of Prokofiev. Despite this, at the First Congress of Soviet Composers in 1948, a speech was read on his behalf, in which the work of the “formalist” Prokofiev was equated with fascism. In addition, Asafiev, on behalf of Zhdanov, edited the resolution “On the opera “Great Friendship” by V. Muradeli,” in which, by the way, he was appointed chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Union of Composers.
- The ballet “On the Dnieper” became the debut production for two choreographers of different generations - Serge Lifar as choreographer of the Paris Opera in 1930, and Alexei Ratmansky at the American Ballet Theater (2009).
- Mstislav Rostropovich was very friendly with Sergei Prokofiev, for whom the composer created the Symphony-Concerto for cello and orchestra.
- The role of Polina in the Bolshoi Theater's premiere production of the opera The Gambler (1974) was Galina Vishnevskaya's last role before emigrating.
- Galina Ulanova, the first performer of the role of Juliet, recalled that she was one of those who believed that “there is no sadder story in the world than Prokofiev’s music in ballet.” The composer's melody, its sharply changing tempos and moods created problems in understanding the concept and performing the role. Years later, Galina Sergeevna will say that if she were asked what the music of “Romeo and Juliet” should be, she would answer - only the one that Prokofiev wrote.
- S.S. Prokofiev is Valery Gergiev's favorite composer. His career as a conductor at the Kirov (Mariinsky) Theater began with the opera “War and Peace”. Perhaps for this reason, the Mariinsky Theater is the only one in the world whose repertoire includes 12 productions of Prokofiev’s works. For the composer’s 125th birthday in April 2016, the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra played all 7 of his symphonies over three anniversary days. It was Valery Gergiev who saved the composer’s dacha from destruction by purchasing it and donating it to his charitable foundation, which plans to create a cultural center there.
As often happens with geniuses, interest in music Sergei Prokofiev increases the more the more time passes from the day it was written. Having outstripped not only her generation of listeners, she, even in the 21st century of dissonance, is not a frozen classic, but a living source of energy and the power of true creativity.
Video: watch a film about S. Prokofiev
Prokofiev Sergei Sergeevich was born on April 11 (23), 1891 in the village of Sontsovka, Ekaterinoslav province. A love of music was instilled in the boy by his mother, who was a good pianist and often played Chopin and Beethoven for her son. Prokofiev received his primary education at home.
From an early age, Sergei Sergeevich became interested in music and already at the age of five he composed his first work - a small piece “Indian Gallop” for piano. In 1902, composer S. Taneyev heard Prokofiev’s works. He was so impressed by the boy’s abilities that he himself asked R. Gliere to give Sergei lessons in composition theory.
Studying at the conservatory. World tour
In 1903 Prokofiev entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Among Sergei Sergeevich’s teachers were such famous musicians as N. Rimsky-Korsakov, Y. Vitola, A. Lyadova, A. Esipova, N. Cherepnina. In 1909, Prokofiev graduated from the conservatory as a composer, in 1914 as a pianist, in 1917 as an organist. During this period, Sergei Sergeevich created the operas “Maddalena” and “The Gambler”.
For the first time, Prokofiev, whose biography was already known in the musical environment of St. Petersburg, performed his works in 1908. After graduating from the conservatory, since 1918, Sergei Sergeevich toured a lot, visited Japan, the USA, London and Paris. In 1927, Prokofiev created the opera The Fiery Angel. In 1932, he recorded his Third Concert in London.
Mature creativity
In 1936, Sergei Sergeevich moved to Moscow and began teaching at the conservatory. In 1938 he completed work on the ballet Romeo and Juliet. During the Great Patriotic War, he created the ballet Cinderella, the opera War and Peace, and music for the films Ivan the Terrible and Alexander Nevsky.
In 1944, the composer received the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR. In 1947 - the title of People's Artist of the RSFSR.
In 1948, Prokofiev completed work on the opera The Tale of a Real Man.
Last years
In 1948, a resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks was issued, in which Prokofiev was sharply criticized for “formalism.” In 1949, at the First Congress of the Union of Composers of the USSR, Asafiev, Khrennikov and Yarustovsky spoke out with condemnation about the opera “The Tale of a Real Man.”
Since 1949, Prokofiev practically never left his dacha, continuing to actively create. The composer created the ballet “The Tale of the Stone Flower” and the symphony-concert “Guardian of the World.”
The life of composer Prokofiev was cut short on March 5, 1953. The great musician died of a hypertensive crisis in a communal apartment in Moscow. Prokofiev was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.
Personal life
In 1919, Prokofiev met his first wife, the Spanish singer Lina Codina. They got married in 1923 and soon had two sons.
In 1948, Prokofiev married Mira Mendelson, a student at the Literary Institute, whom he met in 1938. Sergei Sergeevich did not file for divorce from Lina Kodina, since in the USSR marriages concluded abroad were considered invalid.
Other biography options
- The future composer created his first operas at the age of nine.
- One of Prokofiev's hobbies was playing chess. The great composer said that playing chess helps him create music.
- The last work that Prokofiev was able to hear in the concert hall was his Seventh Symphony (1952).
- Prokofiev died on the day of his death
Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev - the greatest children's composer of the 20th century
The 20th century was a difficult time, when terrible wars and great achievements of science took place, when the world plunged into apathy and again rose from the ashes.
A century when people lost and found art again, when new music, new painting, a new picture of the universe were born.
Much of what was valuable before was lost or lost its meaning, giving way to something new, not always better.
A century when classical melodies began to sound quieter, less bright for adults, but at the same time revealed their amazing potential for the younger generation. One could even say that in a certain sense, starting from the 20th century, the classics lost something important for adults, but somehow they sounded especially alive for children.
This is guaranteed by the popularity of the melodies of Tchaikovsky and Mozart, the incessant excitement that arises around the animated creations of the Disney studio, whose works are valuable precisely for the very music that sounds for fairy-tale heroes and those to whom their stories are revealed on the screen.
There are many other examples, but the most significant is the music of Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev, a composer whose intense and difficult work made him one of the most, if not the most, recognizable, quoted, performed composers of the 20th century.
Of course, Prokofiev did a lot, a lot for the “adult” music of his time, but what he did as a children’s composer is unimaginably more valuable.
Prokofiev attached particular importance to the piano
Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev is a prominent figure among the musicians of the twentieth century. He was the most famous composer of the Soviet Union and at the same time became one of the most important musicians for the whole world.
He created music, simple and complex, in some ways very close to the bygone “golden age” of classics, and in some ways unimaginably distant, even dissonant, he was always looking for something new, developing, making his sound unlike anything else.
For this, Prokofiev was loved, idolized, admired, and his concerts always attracted full houses. And at the same time, at times he was so new and self-willed that they did not understand him, so much so that once at one of the concerts half the audience got up and left, and another time the composer was almost declared an enemy of the Soviet people.
But still he was, he created, he amazed and delighted. He delighted adults and children, created, like Mozart, like Strauss and Bach, something new that no one could come up with before him. For Soviet music, Prokofiev became the same as he became for Russian music just a century earlier.
“A composer, like a poet, sculptor, painter, is called upon to serve man and the people. He must decorate human life and protect it. First of all, he is obliged to be a citizen in his art, to glorify human life and lead people to a bright future,” - this is how Prokofiev saw his role, echoing his words with Glinka.
As a children's composer, Prokofiev was not only inventive, melodic, poetic, bright, they say that he was able, while preserving a piece of childhood in his own heart, to create music that was understandable and pleasant to a child's heart, as well as to those who still remembered what it was like to be a child .
About the three orange princesses
Throughout his life, Prokofiev worked on form, style, manner of performance, rhythm and melody, his famous polyphonic patterning and dissonant harmony.
All this time he created both children's and adult music. One of Prokofiev’s first children’s works was an opera in ten scenes, “The Love for Three Oranges.” Written based on the fairy tale of the same name by Carlo Gozzi, this work was light and cheerful, as if inspired by the traditional sound of mischievous Italian theater.
The work told about princes and kings, good magicians and evil witches, enchanted curses and how important it is not to become despondent.
“The Love for Three Oranges” was a reflection of Prokofiev’s young talent, who sought to combine his emerging style and still fresh memories of a carefree childhood.
A new melody for an old tale
No less significant, but more mature and, perhaps, brighter, much more famous work of Prokofiev was “Cinderella”.
This ballet, dynamic, marked by elements of the beautiful music of romanticism, which the author had mastered and complemented by that time, was like a breath of fresh air when clouds were gathering over the world.
“Cinderella” was released in 1945, when the fire of the great war was dying down in the world, it seemed to call for rebirth, to cast away the darkness from the heart and smile at a new life. Its harmonious and gentle sound, the inspiring motif of Charles Perrault's bright fairy tale and the excellent production gave the old story a new, life-affirming beginning.
“...I am especially glad that I saw you in a role that, along with many other images of world fiction, expresses the wonderful and victorious power of a childish, submissive to circumstances and self-true purity... That power is dear to me in its threatening contrast to that, also age-old, deceitful and cowardly , the groveling court element, the current forms of which I dislike to the point of madness..."
This is what Boris Pasternak wrote to Galina Ulanova about her role in the ballet “Cinderella,” thereby paying a compliment not only to the performer of the role, but also to her creator.
Ural tales
Prokofiev was not only a composer, but also an excellent pianist Sergei Sergeevich’s last children’s work was published after his death; they say that even on the fateful day itself he was working on the orchestration of the “Stone Flower” numbers.
Sonorous and unlike anything else, but for some reason very close to many, evoking a feeling of contact with something mysterious and beautiful, the melodies of this work gave musical life to the no less unusual and unlike anything else Ural tales of P.P. Bazhova.
Prokofiev’s music, which he did not hear on stage, and the fabulous, sacred motifs of “The Malachite Box”, “The Mountain Master”, “The Stone Flower” became the basis of a truly unique ballet, revealing not only the amazing facets of musical art, but also the world of hidden legends of the Ural Mountains , which has become accessible and close to young listeners, and listeners who have retained their youth of spirit.
Prokofiev himself said that his children's music contains a lot of important and bright things for him.
The smells and sounds of childhood, the wandering of the moon across the plains and the crow of a rooster, something close and dear to the dawn of life - this is what Prokofiev put into his children's music, because it turned out to be understandable to him and to mature people, but, like him, who retained the heart of a piece of childhood. Therefore, she became close to the children, whose world Prokofiev always sought to understand and feel.
About pioneers and gray predators
Among Prokofiev’s works, the work “Peter and the Wolf” has special significance. This work, where each character is performed by a separate musical instrument, specially written by the maestro for children, absorbed all the best that Sergei Sergeevich sought to perpetuate in music for his most sensitive viewer.
A simple and instructive story about friendship, mutual assistance, knowledge of the world, how everything around works and how a worthy person should behave, is presented through Prokofiev’s elegant and very lively music, complemented by the voice of the reader, effectively interacting with various musical instruments in this symphonic tale .
The premiere of the work took place in 1936; one might say, by creating a fairy tale for children about a young pioneer, Prokofiev demonstrated that he had returned to his homeland forever.
The important role of the reader in the first version of Peter and the Wolf was played by Natalia Sats, who not only had excellent performing talent, but was also the world's first female opera director.
Subsequently, Prokofiev’s work, which gained worldwide fame, became close and understandable to children all over the Earth, was repeatedly republished and embodied on stage, on screens, and on the radio.
“Peter and the Wolf” was embodied as a cartoon by the Disney studio, thanks to which the slightly modified Soviet pioneer became on a par with the world-famous fairy-tale heroes, to whom the studio gave the best animated birth.
Jazz, blues, and rock variations of the symphonic tale were released; in 1978, rock idol David Bowie performed as the reader of “Peter and the Wolf,” and a short cartoon based on Prokofiev’s fairy tale won the Golden Knight Oscar as recently as 2007.
The pedagogical value of “Peter and the Wolf” is of particular importance - the symphonic tale is used, like many of Prokofiev’s works, to train young musicians in specialized schools, but, in addition, the story about the adventures of a brave and kind pioneer almost from its very appearance has become an element of general education school music programs.
For many years now, Prokofiev’s fairy tale has been helping to reveal to children the mystery of music, the correct taste for symphonic classics, the idea of morality, and universal human values.
In a simple and accessible form, Prokofiev managed to embody important and necessary things, for other ways of demonstrating which sometimes enormous efforts are spent and thick book volumes are written.
The most children's music
Prokofiev spent the last years of his life outside the city, but continued to work despite the strict medical regime In addition to “Cinderella” and “The Stone Flower,” there are many more works by Prokofiev written for children. A piano piece, soft and nostalgic, “Old Grandmother's Tales.”
Mischievous and dynamic, similar in its daring to “The Love for Three Oranges” is the ballet “The Tale of a Jester Who Tricked Seven Jesters.” A serious and wise “realistic” suite “Winter Fire” based on poems by S. Marshak about the life of pioneers.
A sparkling patter song "Chatterbox", inspired by the poems of Agnia Barto. Prokofiev created for children as if for himself - with great pleasure.
But among the works of the children's composer Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev, there is one that is, perhaps, of greater value than “The Stone Flower” or “Cinderella”. Piano cycle “Children's Music” - 12 pieces that tell in the author’s inimitable light and gentle manner about the everyday life of children’s days and those special moments that are so sharp, bright and unexpectedly capable of turning these everyday life into a fairy tale, an adventure or just a memory for a lifetime.
The piano cycle “Children's Music” has become a real treasure for teachers teaching children how to play the keys. Prokofiev himself, a brilliant pianist, managed to create something that was fully accessible only to children, intended for children who want to hear the music they personally extracted from behind the black lid of the piano.
He made “Children's Music” fully responsive not only to the capabilities, but also to the needs of a young pianist studying the secrets of sound. The piano cycle combines smoothness and sharpness, transitions of rhythms and harmonies, the ability to use either the simplest or complex combinations of keys in such a way that the young virtuoso can learn and, while learning, smile at his excellent results.
“Children's Music” - heartfelt, bright, filled with crystal purity and tenderness, unusualness and fabulousness, became Prokofiev's gift to beginning pianists and their teachers, who received an easy and convenient means of maintaining the attention of their student and developing their abilities.