GREAT SON OF THE DONETSK LAND SERGEY PROKOFIEV

Considered one of the largest, most influential and most performed composers of the 20th century. He was also a pianist and conductor. Two years ago, on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of the great composer’s birth, concerts and festivals were organized in Ukraine, Russia, France, Germany and other countries with which the master’s name is associated. Donbass, where the musician was born and spent his childhood, declared 2011 The Year of Prokofiev.

From Sontsovka

Controversies often flared up around the work of this composer, since originality and originality always cause contradictory reactions. However, not only fans Prokofiev feel the strength and brightness of his talent. What is now called charisma was inherent in the composer. Strict, collected, extremely picky about everything related to his work, he argued with performers and directors, once even scolded David Oistrakh right at a concert, and told Galina Ulanova: “You need drums, not music.”

For 50 years creative activity he wrote 130 musical works. The composer's talent was embodied in a wide genre palette: ballets, operas, symphonies, music for films and, of course, music for children.

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great musician, UNESCO declared 1991 The Year of Prokofiev. At the same time, through the efforts of grateful fellow countrymen, a memorial zone was created in the village of Krasnoye Prokofiev. The St. Peter and Paul Church was restored, in which the future musician was baptized.

DATA

Svyatoslav Richter wrote: “Once on a sunny day I was walking along Arbat and saw an unusual person. He carried a defiant force and passed me by like a phenomenon. In bright yellow shoes, with a red-orange tie. I couldn't help but turn around after him - it was Prokofiev».

In the name Prokofiev named Donetsk Concert Hall regional philharmonic society, academic orchestra and a music academy. More than a decade has passed international festival“Prokofiev’s Spring”, into which the competition of young pianists “In the Homeland of Sergei Prokofiev” is organically intertwined. Prize established Sergei Prokofiev, which is awarded to musicians for creative achievements.

Updated: April 13, 2019 by: Elena

The biography of Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev (1891 - 1953) 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. Glier 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, orchestral score and 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 becomes a frequent guest of "Evenings" modern music", where all sorts of new works 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 painting “Dreams”: “To the author who began with “Dreams” (i.e. Scriabin), Prokofiev did not escape the passion that gripped the vast majority of young musicians. But for Prokofiev this passion only slipped , without leaving a noticeable mark. By his nature, Prokofiev - a clear, decisive, businesslike, athletic person, 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) - evidence creative maturity composer. They are different: in the First, the desire to shock at any cost makes itself felt, to stun the audience; The Second Concerto is much more poetic. Prokofiev himself wrote about his concerts: “Reproaches for the pursuit of external splendor and a certain “footballiness” of the First Concert 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 toured there ballet troupe Sergei Diaghilev, whose repertoire 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 the Rite of Spring undoubtedly 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 " ugly duck"for voice and piano, which can hardly be called a romance. Wise and good fairy tale Andersen, who instills faith in goodness and light, attracted Prokofiev with her humanism.

One of the first performances" The ugly duckling“listened to 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 impudent, impudent sounds that express nothing but endless bragging."

Prokofiev stoically withstands this kind of critical assessment and this kind of reaction from the audience. Being present at public speaking 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, dignity, and 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. First performance 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) - the people are not entirely understandable and, probably, dangerous. Having been kept on the island for three days and questioned 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 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. Ballet deprived end-to-end, represented separate, unrelated episodes: a train with bagmen, Commissioners, 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. Contrasting scenes: an orgy of a feast and the morning after a riotous night, and then a scene full of sorrow and humility the return of the hero of the ballet-parable to his father’s roof, - produce 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 to plunge into the atmosphere of my homeland, I must see real winter and spring again, 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 an 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. And “Kizhe’s Wedding”, and “Troika”, and the terrible 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 music for the production of "Egyptian Nights" in 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” created on its basis for orchestra, choir and soloist.

The music for the film “Ivan the Terrible” (1942) was written in the same way. 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 best works Prokofiev - 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, he played a huge role in the history of world choreographic culture, being the first performance that fully embodied by means of music, dance and pantomime Shakespearean tragedy. 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 the 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 more than once thought about a ballet based on this plot...

Prokofiev's last ballet is "The Tale of the Stone Flower". " Malachite Box“Bazhova 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 worked in this genre the hard way. 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.

The fate of two polarly different operas was completely different: the lyrical comedy “Betrothal in a Monastery” (1940) and the monumental epic “War and Peace” (1941-1952). The first of them is a lacy stylization of a comic opera of the 18th century, with typical characters of the Italian comedy theater: the grumpy father of a young beauty, betrothed to a rich merchant, but loving a handsome, poor young man; with an ugly, nosy chaperone, who set her goal to marry the merchant rejected by the beauty; with a parallel developing intrigue of the second pair of lovers and with a finale in which all three couples safely go down the aisle. Speaking of stylization, we did not mean “imitation,” but only a trend, a touch of the genre features of the opera music of Mozart and Rossini, which give Prokofiev’s music a new charm.

Is it necessary to prove how unusual and incredibly difficult the creative feat of creating an opera based on the plot of the epic novel “War and Peace” is? The first difficulty is the relationship between the scale of the literary original and the maximum stage time possible in opera. Even the first edition created by Prokofiev, lasting two evenings, could not cover Tolstoy’s epic in all its details, although the opera involves 73 characters (!), not counting the guests at the ball, soldiers, peasants, and partisans.

In Prokofiev's "War and Peace" there are scenes that leave an impression that is truly unforgettable: Natasha's first ball; scene in Otradnoye: conversation between Natasha and Sonya at the window and Prince Andrei’s thoughts about spring; Natasha's failed escape from Akhrosimova's house; the Rostovs' visit to old man Bolkonsky. One of the most stunning episodes of the opera is the scene of Andrei Bolkonsky's delirium and death. And, although the opera has many excellent episodes in Act III: before the Battle of Borodino, the Shevardinsky Redoubt, and the final, very impressive scene - the Smolensk Road and the triumph of Russian weapons - the greatest impression is left by the music telling about mental world heroes of personal drama: Natasha, Andrei, Pierre Bezukhov, Anatole, etc.

Prokofiev returned to War and Peace several times, making adjustments to the dramaturgy, adding some, changing or even removing other episodes, apparently not being satisfied with what had been achieved. With the opera "War and Peace" he introduced into the history of Russian classical opera a grandiose work, rich in patriotic ideas.

Prokofiev wrote “War and Peace” in difficult times, while in evacuation in the Caucasus: in Nalchik and Tbilisi. Conceived before the war, the opera “came out” in a single stream, undoubtedly as a response of the patriotic composer to the terrible events of the war years.

In the same years, the three-part symphonic suite “1941” (“In battle, “At night” and “For the brotherhood of peoples”) and the cantata for soloists, choir and orchestra “The Ballad of a Boy Who Remained Unknown” with poems by Pavel Antokolsky appeared. works, as well as in the songs “The Oath of a Tank Driver”, “The Love of a Warrior”, “Son of Kabarda”, the composer strives for a wide range of genres in which the themes that worried him, like every Soviet person, can be expressed. If in these works. The theme of war is given directly, in an “opened form,” while in others it is contained in the depths of the plan and is perceived through the prism of complex associations.

This is his Seventh Piano Sonata, captivating with the power of its figurative structure, which is based on the clash and fierce struggle of two hostile elements. It was created during the most intense time of the war, when the fate of the country was being decided, when images of life and death were so tragically intertwined. That bright world, in the name and for the salvation of which the battle is being fought, is revealed in the amazingly melodious music of the second part. This music is of deep nobility, warmth and purity. The ending is fast and forceful. An avalanche of sounds, raging, uncontrollable, at the same time harsh and jubilant, unfolds and rushes forward, relying on the steel elasticity of the rhythm.

None of the nine piano sonatas does not have a literary program. And yet, the figurative structure of each is quite clear. In the Sixth Sonata (1940), will and clarity triumph, alongside humor and lyricism, but in the finale they are confronted with a harsh and angry theme; in the Eighth (1944) the lyrics dominate, only emphasized by contrasting themes; in the last, Ninth Sonata (1947), everything is light, transparent, shrouded in a haze of either dreaminess or sadness, like on a fine autumn day.

Sergei Prokofiev was a magnificent pianist, a renowned performer of his music. But other pianists, such as Sofronitsky, Neuhaus, Gilels, Yudina, Richter, and after them younger ones, introduced Prokofiev’s sonatas into their repertoire, discovering more and more depths in this rich world of images, ideas, and states of mind.

In Prokofiev's sonatas it is easier to establish patterns of content and arrange them in a sequential series than in his symphonies, which are largely associated with theatrical music or with thematic material intended for other genres and forms. The second symphony was, to a certain extent, experimental in nature and was written, in the composer’s words, to “conquer Paris” or consolidate the “conquest.” The material for the Third Symphony was, as indicated, the music of the opera "Fiery Angel", in the Fourth, just like Stravinsky's "Symphony of Psalms", commissioned for the 50th anniversary of the Boston Orchestra, all thematic themes are directly related to the ballet "Prodigal Son". And only the last three symphonies - the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh - were written, like the Classical, as works with a pre-thought-out concept. About the Fifth Symphony (1944), the author wrote: “I conceived it as a symphony of the greatness of the human spirit.” It truly has majesty and will, the breadth and brightness of Borodin's epic tale about the hero, features that make the symphony similar to Prokofiev's most monumental works, the music for Alexander Nevsky, Ivan the Terrible, and the opera War and Peace.

Written in the late 40s, the Sixth Symphony, according to the author, should be associated with the recent past, with echoes of the war years. Its dense, gloomy atmosphere brings to mind the Second Symphony, oversaturated with expressionist complexities. A perfect contrast, the antipode of these symphonies, is the radiant and youthful Seventh, composed in 1952, one of Sergei Sergeevich’s last works. Everything about it is simple, wise and light. The lyrical excitement of Part I, the charming waltz of a school ball - II, meditation - III and the sunny, youthful, ringing, like the beach in Artek, finale. After Haydn, not many such wonderfully cheerful symphonies were written in the entire history of this genre.

Prokofiev loved children and willingly turned to music for young listeners. In the cheerful "Chatterbox" based on the poems of Agnia Barto (1939), about "Peter and the Wolf" - fascinating story about the fearless pioneer (1936), in the exciting suite “Winter Fire” (1949), understandable even to the smallest, everywhere where Prokofiev addresses children, one hears and feels love for the new growth - the future of the Earth.

Great musician, Prokofiev was also a great worker, who devoted fifty years out of his sixty-two years to composing music. His enormous talent, after flourishing vigorously in his youth, was subjected to difficult tests on foreign soil. After a fifteen-year absence, returning to his homeland, Prokofiev felt an irresistible need to comprehend what had happened over the years in our country. Smart, carefully “reading” the book of life, he comprehended the greatness of the revolutionary transformations that covered all aspects of the activity of Soviet society and Soviet people. In 1937, for the twentieth anniversary of October, he created a Cantata, taking texts from the “Communist Manifesto”, “Theses on Feuerbach”, from V. I. Lenin’s book “What is to be done?”, and from the Constitution of the Soviet Union. Arose unusual work enormous artistic and journalistic power.

And at the end of 1950, a solemn and strict oratorio “Guardian of the World” was performed based on the poems of S. Marshak. “I wanted to express in this piece my thoughts about peace and war, the confidence that there will be no war, that the peoples of the earth will defend peace, save civilization, children, our future,” the author wrote.

The cardinal advantage (or, if you want, disadvantage) of my life has always been the search for an original, my own musical language. I hate imitation, I hate hackneyed tricks... You can be abroad for as long as you like, but you must definitely return to your homeland from time to time for the real Russian spirit.

S. Prokofiev

The future composer spent his childhood in a musical family. His mother was a good pianist, and the boy, falling asleep, often heard the sounds of Beethoven’s sonatas coming from afar, several rooms away.

When Seryozha was 5 years old, he composed his first piece for piano. Taneyev became acquainted with his childhood compositional experiences in 1902, and on his advice, composition lessons began with Gliere. In 1904-14, Prokofiev studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with Rimsky-Korsakov (instrumentation), Vitols (musical form), Lyadov (composition), Esipova (piano). On final exam Prokofiev brilliantly performed his First Concerto, for which he was awarded the Rubinstein Prize. The young composer eagerly absorbs new trends in music and soon finds his own path as an innovative musician. Performing as a pianist, Prokofiev often included his own works in his programs, which evoked a strong reaction from listeners.

In 1918, Prokofiev left for the USA, then began a series of trips to foreign countries - France, Germany, England, Italy, Spain. In an effort to win a worldwide audience, he gives many concerts and writes major works - the operas “The Love for Three Oranges” (1919), “Fiery Angel” (1927); ballets “Leap of Steel” (1925, inspired by the revolutionary events in Russia), “Prodigal Son” (1928), “On the Dnieper” (1930); instrumental music.

At the beginning of 1927 and at the end of 1929, Prokofiev performed with great success in the Soviet Union. In 1927, his concerts took place in Moscow, Leningrad, Kharkov, Kyiv and Odessa. “The reception that Moscow gave me was out of the ordinary. ...The reception in Leningrad turned out to be even warmer than in Moscow,” the composer wrote in his Autobiography. At the end of 1932, Prokofiev decides to return to his homeland.

Since the mid-30s, Prokofiev's creativity has reached its peak. He creates one of his masterpieces - the ballet Romeo and Juliet based on Shakespeare (1936); lyrical-comic opera “Betrothal in a Monastery” (“Duenna”, after Sheridan - 1940); cantatas “Alexander Nevsky” (1939) and “Zdravitsa” (1939); a symphonic tale based on his own text “Peter and the Wolf” with character instruments (1936); Sixth Piano Sonata (1940); cycle of piano pieces “Children's Music” (1935). In the 30-40s. Prokofiev's music is performed by the best Soviet musicians: Golovanov, Gilels, Sofronitsky, Richter, Oistrakh. The highest achievement Soviet choreography became the image of Juliet created by Ulanova. In the summer of 1941, at a dacha near Moscow, Prokofiev wrote the fairy tale ballet Cinderella, commissioned from him by the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater.

The news of the outbreak of war with Nazi Germany and the subsequent tragic events caused a new creative upsurge in the composer. He creates the grandiose heroic-patriotic opera-epic “War and Peace” based on the novel by L. Tolstoy (1943), and works with director Eisenstein on the historical film “Ivan the Terrible” (1942). Disturbing images, reflections of military events and at the same time indomitable will and energy are characteristic of the music of the Seventh Piano Sonata (1942). Majestic confidence is captured in the Fifth Symphony (1944), in which the composer, in his words, wanted to “glorify the free and happy person, his mighty powers, his nobility, his spiritual purity.”

In the post-war period, despite a serious illness, Prokofiev created a lot significant works: Sixth (1947) and Seventh (1952) symphonies, Ninth Piano Sonata (1947), new edition the opera War and Peace (1952), the Cello Sonata (1949) and the Symphony-Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (1952). The late 40s and early 50s were overshadowed by noisy campaigns against the “anti-people formalist” trend in Soviet art and persecution of many of its best representatives. Prokofiev turned out to be one of the main “formalists” in music. The public defamation of his music in 1948 further worsened the composer's health.

Prokofiev spent the last years of his life at his dacha in the village of Nikolina Gora, surrounded by his beloved Russian nature, he continued to compose continuously, violating the prohibitions of doctors. Difficult life circumstances also affected creativity. Along with genuine masterpieces, among the works of recent years there are works of a “simplified concept” - the overture “Meeting of the Volga with the Don” (1951), the oratorio “Guardian of the World” (1950), the suite “Winter Bonfire” (1950), some pages of the ballet “The Tale” about the stone flower" (1950), Seventh Symphony. Prokofiev died on the same day as Stalin, and the farewell to the great Russian composer last way were overshadowed by nationwide excitement in connection with the funeral of the great leader of the peoples.

The style of Prokofiev, whose work spans four and a half decades of the turbulent 20th century, has undergone a very great evolution. Prokofiev paved the way for the new music of our century along with other innovators of the beginning of the century - Debussy. Bartok, Scriabin, Stravinsky, composers of the Novo-Viennese school. He entered art as a daring subverter of the dilapidated canons of late romantic art with its exquisite sophistication. Developing in a unique way the traditions of Mussorgsky, Borodin, Prokofiev introduced into music unbridled energy, pressure, dynamism, the freshness of primordial forces, perceived as “barbarism” (“Obsession” and Toccata for piano, “Sarcasms”; symphonic “Scythian Suite” based on the ballet “Ala and Lolly"; First and Second piano concertos). Prokofiev's music echoes the innovations of other Russian musicians, poets, painters, and theater workers. “Sergei Sergeevich plays on the most tender nerves of Vladimir Vladimirovich,” said V. Mayakovsky about one of Prokofiev’s performances. Bittering and rich Russian-village imagery through the prism of refined aesthetics is characteristic of the ballet “The Tale of the Jester Who Told Seven Jesters” (based on fairy tales from the collection of A. Afanasyev). Lyricism was relatively rare at that time; in Prokofiev he is devoid of sensuality and sensitivity - he is shy, gentle, delicate (“Fleetingness”, “Tales of an Old Grandmother” for piano).

Brightness, diversity, and increased expression are typical of the style of the foreign fifteenth anniversary. This is the opera “The Love for Three Oranges”, splashing with fun and enthusiasm, based on the fairy tale by Gozzi (“a glass of champagne”, according to Lunacharsky’s definition); the magnificent Third Concerto with its vigorous motor pressure, set off by the wonderful pipe melody of the beginning of the 1st movement, the soulful lyricism of one of the variations of the 2nd movement (1917-21); the intensity of strong emotions of “Fire Angel” (based on the novel by Bryusov); the heroic power and scope of the Second Symphony (1924); “cubist” urbanism of “Steel Skok”; lyrical introspection of “Thoughts” (1934) and “Things in Themselves” (1928) for piano. The style of the period of the 30-40s is marked by wise self-restraint characteristic of maturity, combined with the depth and national soil of artistic concepts. The composer strives for universal human ideas and themes, generalizing images of history, bright, realistically concrete musical characters. This line of creativity especially deepened in the 40s due to the difficult trials that befell Soviet people during the war years. Revealing the values ​​of the human spirit and deep artistic generalizations become Prokofiev’s main aspiration: “I adhere to the conviction that a composer, like a poet, sculptor, painter, is called to serve man and the people. It should glorify human life and lead people to a bright future. This, from my point of view, is the unshakable code of art.”

Prokofiev left a huge creative heritage— 8 operas; 7 ballets; 7 symphonies; 9 piano sonatas; 5 piano concertos (of which the Fourth is for one left hand); 2 violin, 2 cello concertos (Second - Symphony-concert); 6 cantatas; oratorio; 2 vocal-symphonic suites; many piano pieces; pieces for orchestra (including “Russian Overture”, “ Symphonic song", "Ode to the End of the War", two "Pushkin Waltzes"); chamber works (Overture on Jewish themes for clarinet, piano and string quartet; Quintet for oboe, clarinet, violin, viola and double bass; 2 string quartets; two sonatas for violin and piano; Sonata for cello and piano; a number of vocal works with words Akhmatova, Balmont, Pushkin)

Prokofiev's work has received worldwide recognition. The enduring value of his music lies in generosity and kindness, in adherence to high humanistic ideas, in wealth artistic expression his works.

A man-phenomenon, in bright yellow shoes, checkered, with a red-orange tie, carrying a defiant force - this is how the great Russian pianist described Prokofiev. This description fits both the personality of the composer and his music perfectly. Prokofiev’s work is a treasury of our musical and national culture, but the composer’s life is no less interesting. Having left for the West at the very beginning of the revolution and living there for 15 years, the composer became one of the few “returnees,” which turned into a deep personal tragedy for him.

It is impossible to summarize the work of Sergei Prokofiev: he wrote a huge amount of music, worked in a completely different genres, ranging from small piano pieces to film scores. Irrepressible energy constantly pushed him to various experiments, and even the cantata glorifying Stalin amazes with its completely brilliant music. Unless he wrote a concerto for bassoon with a folk orchestra, and the work of this great Russian composer will be discussed in this article.

Childhood and first steps in music

Sergei Prokofiev was born in 1891 in the village of Sontsovka, Ekaterinoslav province. From early childhood, two of his characteristics were determined: an extremely independent character and an irresistible craving for music. At the age of five, he already begins to compose small pieces for piano, and at 11 he writes a real children's opera, “The Giant,” intended for performance at a home theater evening. At the same time, a young, at that time still unknown, composer, Reinhold Gliere, was sent to Sontsovka to teach the boy the basic skills of composing technique and playing the piano. Gliere turned out to be an excellent teacher; under his strict guidance, Prokofiev filled several folders with his new works. In 1903, with all this wealth, he went to enter the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Rimsky-Korsakov was impressed by such diligence and immediately enrolled him in his class.

Years of study at the St. Petersburg Conservatory

At the conservatory, Prokofiev studied composition and harmony with Rimsky-Korsakov and Lyadov, and piano playing with Esipova. Lively, inquisitive, sharp and even caustic in his tongue, he gains not only many friends, but also ill-wishers. At this time, he begins to keep his famous diary, which he will only finish with his move to the USSR, recording in detail almost every day of his life. Prokofiev was interested in everything, but most of all he was interested in chess. He could stand for hours at tournaments, watching the masters play, and he himself achieved significant success in this area, of which he was incredibly proud.

Prokofiev's piano work was replenished at this time with the First and Second Sonatas and the First Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. The composer's style was determined immediately - fresh, completely new, bold and daring. He seemed to have neither predecessors nor followers. In reality, this is, of course, not entirely true. The themes of Prokofiev's work emerged from the short but very fruitful development of Russian music, logically continuing the path begun by Mussorgsky, Dargomyzhsky and Borodin. But, refracted in the energetic mind of Sergei Sergeevich, they gave birth to a completely original musical language.

Having absorbed the quintessence of the Russian, even Scythian spirit, Prokofiev’s work acted on listeners like a cold shower, causing either stormy delight or indignant rejection. He literally burst into music world— He graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory as a pianist and composer, playing his First Piano Concerto at the final exam. The commission, represented by Rimsky-Korsakov, Lyadov and others, was horrified by the defiant, dissonant chords and the striking, energetic, even barbaric manner of playing. However, they could not help but understand that they were facing a powerful phenomenon in music. The high commission's rating was five with three pluses.

First visit to Europe

As a reward for successfully graduating from the conservatory, Sergei receives a trip to London from his father. Here he became closely acquainted with Diaghilev, who immediately recognized remarkable talent in the young composer. He helps Prokofiev arrange a tour in Rome and Naples and gives an order to write a ballet. This is how “Ala and Lolliy” appeared. Diaghilev rejected the plot because of its “banality” and gave advice next time to write something on a Russian theme. Prokofiev began working on the ballet “The Tale of the Jester Who Tricked Seven Jesters” and at the same time began to try his hand at writing an opera. The canvas for the plot was Dostoevsky’s novel “The Gambler,” which the composer had loved since childhood.

Prokofiev does not ignore his favorite instrument. In 1915, he began to write a cycle of piano pieces, “Fleetingness,” while discovering a lyrical gift that no one had previously suspected in the “football composer.” Prokofiev's lyrics are a special topic. Incredibly touching and tender, dressed in a transparent, finely calibrated texture, it first of all captivates with its simplicity. Prokofiev's work showed that he was a magnificent melodist, and not just a destroyer of traditions.

The foreign period of Sergei Prokofiev's life

In fact, Prokofiev was not an emigrant. In 1918, he turned to Lunacharsky, the then People's Commissar of Education, with a request for permission to travel abroad. He was given a foreign passport and accompanying documents without an expiration date, in which the purpose of the trip was to establish cultural relations and health improvement. The composer's mother remained in Russia for a long time, which caused Sergei Sergeevich a lot of anxiety until he was able to summon her to Europe.

First, Prokofiev goes to America. Literally a few months later, another greatest Russian pianist and composer, Sergei Rachmaninov, arrives there. Competing with him was Prokofiev’s main task at first. Rachmaninov immediately became very famous in America, and Prokofiev jealously celebrated his every success. His attitude towards his senior colleague was very mixed. The name of Sergei Vasilyevich often appears in the composer's diaries of this time. Noting his incredible pianism and appreciating his qualities as a musician, Prokofiev believed that Rachmaninov unnecessarily pandered to the tastes of the public and wrote little of his own music. Sergei Vasilyevich really wrote very little in more than twenty years of life outside Russia. At first after emigrating, he was in a deep and prolonged depression, suffering from acute nostalgia. The work of Sergei Prokofiev, it seemed, did not suffer at all from the lack of connection with his homeland. It remained just as brilliant.

Life and work of Prokofiev in America and Europe

On a trip to Europe, Prokofiev again meets with Diaghilev, who asks him to rework the music of “The Fool”. The production of this ballet brought the composer his first sensational success abroad. It was followed by the famous opera “The Love for Three Oranges”, the march from which became the same encore piece as Rachmaninov’s C-sharp-minor Prelude. This time, America submitted to Prokofiev - the premiere of the opera “The Love for Three Oranges” took place in Chicago. Both of these works have a lot in common. Humorous, sometimes even satirical - as, for example, in “Love”, where Prokofiev ironically portrayed sighing romantics as weak and painful characters - they sparkle with typically Prokofiev energy.

In 1923, the composer settled in Paris. Here he meets the charming young singer Lina Kodina (stage name Lina Lubera), who will later become his wife. An educated, sophisticated, stunning Spanish beauty, she immediately attracted the attention of others. Her relationship with Sergei was not very smooth. For a long time he did not want to legitimize their relationship, believing that the artist should be free from any obligations. They got married only when Lina became pregnant. They were an absolutely brilliant couple: Lina was in no way inferior to Prokofiev - neither in independence of character, nor in ambition. Quarrels often broke out between them, followed by tender reconciliation. Lina’s devotion and sincerity of feelings is evidenced by the fact that she not only followed Sergei to a country that was foreign to her, but also, having drank the cup of the Soviet punitive system to the bottom, was faithful to the composer until the end of her days, remaining his wife and caring for his legacy.

The work of Sergei Prokofiev at that time experienced a noticeable bias towards the romantic side. From his pen came the opera “Fire Angel” based on Bryusov’s novella. The gloomy medieval flavor is conveyed in the music with the help of dark, Wagnerian harmonies. This was a new experience for the composer, and he worked on this work with enthusiasm. As always, he succeeded in doing this perfectly. The thematic material of the opera was later used in the Third Symphony, one of the most frankly romantic works, of which not many include the work of the composer Prokofiev.

The air of a foreign land

There were several reasons for the composer's return to the USSR. The life and work of Sergei Prokofiev were rooted in Russia. After living abroad for about 10 years, he began to feel that the air of a foreign land was negatively affecting his condition. He constantly corresponded with his friend, composer N. Ya. Myaskovsky, who remained in Russia, finding out the situation in his homeland. Of course, the Soviet government did everything to get Prokofiev back. This was necessary to strengthen the country's prestige. Cultural workers were regularly sent to him, describing in vivid colors what a bright future awaited him in his homeland.

In 1927, Prokofiev made his first trip to the USSR. They received him with delight. In Europe, despite the success of his writings, he did not find proper understanding and sympathy. Rivalries with Rachmaninov and Stravinsky were not always resolved in Prokofiev’s favor, which hurt his pride. In Russia, he hoped to find what he so lacked - a true understanding of his music. The warm reception given to the composer on his trips in 1927 and 1929 made him seriously think about his final return. Moreover, friends from Russia excitedly told him in their letters how wonderful it would be for him to live in the country of the Soviets. The only one who was not afraid to warn Prokofiev against returning was Myaskovsky. The atmosphere of the 30s of the 20th century had already begun to thicken overhead, and he understood perfectly well what could really await the composer. However, in 1934, Prokofiev made the final decision to return to the Union.

Homecoming

Prokofiev completely sincerely accepted communist ideas, seeing in them, first of all, the desire to build a new, free society. He was impressed by the spirit of equality and anti-bourgeoisism, which he diligently supported state ideology. To be fair, it should be said that many Soviet people also shared these ideas quite sincerely. Although the fact that Prokofiev’s diary, which he kept punctually throughout all previous years, ends just with his arrival in Russia, makes one wonder whether Prokofiev was really so ignorant of the competence of the USSR security agencies. Outwardly it was open Soviet power and loyal to her, although he understood everything perfectly.

Nevertheless, the native air had an extremely fruitful influence on Prokofiev’s work. According to the composer himself, he sought to get involved in work on Soviet themes as quickly as possible. Having met the director, he enthusiastically gets to work on the music for the film “Alexander Nevsky”. The material turned out to be so self-sufficient that it is now performed at concerts in the form of a cantata. In this work, full of patriotic enthusiasm, the composer expressed love and pride towards his people.

In 1935, Prokofiev completed one of his best works, the ballet Romeo and Juliet. However, the audience did not see him soon. Censors rejected the ballet because of its happy ending, which did not live up to Shakespeare's original, and dancers and choreographers complained that the music was unsuitable for dance. The new plasticity and psychologization of movements required by the musical language of this ballet were not immediately understood. The first performance took place in Czechoslovakia in 1938; in the USSR, audiences saw it in 1940, when the main roles were played by Konstantin Sergeev. It was they who managed to find the key to understanding the stage language of movements to Prokofiev’s music and glorify this ballet. Until now, Ulanova is considered the best performer of the role of Juliet.

"Children's" work of Prokofiev

In 1935, Sergei Sergeevich and his family first visited the children's musical theater under the direction of N. Sats. Prokofiev was no less captivated by the action on stage than his sons. He was so inspired by the idea of ​​​​working in a similar genre that he wrote in a short time musical fairy tale"Peter and the Wolf." During the course of this performance, the children have the opportunity to get acquainted with the sound of various musical instruments. Prokofiev’s work for children also includes the romance “Chatterbox” based on the poems of Agnia Barto and the suite “Winter Fire”. The composer loved children very much and enjoyed writing music for this audience.

The end of the 1930s: tragic themes in the composer’s work

At the end of the 30s of the 20th century, Prokofiev's musical work was imbued with alarming intonations. This is his triad of piano sonatas, called “military” - the Sixth, Seventh and Eighth. They were completed at different times: the Sixth Sonata - in 1940, the Seventh - in 1942, the Eighth - in 1944. But the composer began working on all these works at approximately the same time - in 1938. It is not known whether there is more in these sonatas - 1941 or 1937. Sharp rhythms, dissonant harmonies, funeral bells literally overwhelm these compositions. But at the same time, typically Prokofiev’s lyricism was most clearly manifested in them: the second parts of the sonatas are tenderness intertwined with strength and wisdom. The premiere of the Seventh Sonata, for which Prokofiev received the Stalin Prize, took place in 1942, performed by Svyatoslav Richter.

Prokofiev's case: second marriage

There was also drama in the composer’s personal life at this time. The relationship with Ptashka—that’s what Prokofiev called his wife—was cracking at all the seams. An independent and sociable woman, accustomed to social communication and experiencing an acute shortage of it in the Union, Lina constantly visited foreign embassies, which attracted close attention from the state security department. Prokofiev told his wife more than once that it was worth limiting such reprehensible communication, especially during an unstable international situation. The composer's biography and work suffered greatly from Lina's behavior. However, she did not pay any attention to the warnings. Quarrels often broke out between the spouses, and the relationship, already stormy, became even more tense. While relaxing in a sanatorium, where Prokofiev was alone, he met a young woman, Mira Mendelssohn. Researchers are still arguing whether it was specifically sent to the composer in order to protect him from his wayward wife. Mira was the daughter of a Gosplan employee, so this version does not seem very unlikely.

She was not distinguished by any special beauty or any creative abilities, wrote very mediocre poetry, not hesitating to quote them in her letters to the composer. Her main advantages were her adoration for Prokofiev and complete submission. Soon the composer decided to ask Lina for a divorce, which she refused to give him. Lina understood that as long as she remained Prokofiev’s wife, she had at least some chance of surviving in this country that was hostile to her. What followed was an absolutely amazing situation, which in legal practice even got its name - “Prokofiev’s case.” Official bodies of the Soviet Union explained to the composer that since his marriage to Lina Codina was registered in Europe, from the point of view of the laws of the USSR it was invalid. As a result, Prokofiev married Mira without dissolving his marriage to Lina. Exactly a month later, Lina was arrested and sent to a camp.

Prokofiev Sergei Sergeevich: creativity in the post-war years

What Prokofiev subconsciously feared happened in 1948, when the infamous government decree was issued. Published in the newspaper Pravda, it condemned the path taken by some composers as false and alien to the Soviet worldview. Prokofiev was among these “lost” people. The characteristics of the composer's work were as follows: anti-national and formalistic. It was a terrible blow. For many years, he doomed A. Akhmatova to “silence” and pushed D. Shostakovich and many other artists into the shadows.

But Sergei Sergeevich did not give up, continuing to create in his style until the end of his days. Prokofiev's symphonic work of recent years became the result of his entire career as a composer. The seventh symphony, written a year before his death, is a triumph of wise and pure simplicity, the light to which he walked for many years. Prokofiev died on the same day as Stalin. His departure went almost unnoticed due to nationwide grief over the death of the beloved leader of the peoples.

Prokofiev's life and work can be briefly described as a constant striving for light. Incredibly life-affirming, it brings us closer to the idea embodied by the great Beethoven in his swan song - the Ninth Symphony, where in the finale the ode “To Joy” sounds: “Embrace millions, merge in the joy of one.” The life and work of Prokofiev is the path of a great artist, who dedicated his entire life to the service of Music and its great Mystery.

Publications in the Music section

7 works by Prokofiev

Sergei Prokofiev is a composer, pianist and conductor, author of operas, ballets, symphonies and many other works, known and popular throughout the world in our time. Read stories about Prokofiev's seven important works and listen to musical illustrations from Melodiya.

Opera "The Giant" (1900)

The musical abilities of the future classic of Russian music Sergei Prokofiev manifested themselves in early childhood, when, at the age of five and a half, he composed his first piece for piano, “Indian Gallop.” It was written down with notes by the young composer’s mother, Maria Grigorievna, and Prokofiev recorded all his subsequent compositions on his own.

In the spring of 1900, inspired by the ballet The Sleeping Beauty by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, as well as the operas Faust by Charles Gounod and Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin, 9-year-old Prokofiev composed his first opera, The Giant.

Despite the fact that, as Prokofiev himself recalled, his “ability to write down” “did not keep up with his thoughts,” this naive children’s composition in the genre of commedia dell’arte already showed the future professional’s serious approach to his work. The opera had, as it should be, an overture; each of the characters in the composition had its own exit aria - a kind of musical portrait. In one of the scenes, Prokofiev even used musical and stage polyphony - when the main characters are discussing a plan to fight the Giant, the Giant himself passes by and sings: "They want to kill me".

Having heard excerpts from “The Giant,” the famous composer and conservatory professor Sergei Taneyev recommended that the young man take up music seriously. And Prokofiev himself proudly included the opera in the first list of his works, which he compiled at the age of 11.

Opera "Giant"
Conductor - Mikhail Leontyev
The author of the restoration of the orchestral version is Sergei Sapozhnikov
Premiere at the Mikhailovsky Theater on May 23, 2010

First piano concerto (1911–1912)

Like many young authors, in early period Sergei Prokofiev did not find love or support from critics for his work. In 1916, newspapers wrote: “Prokofiev sits down at the piano and begins to either wipe the keys or try which ones sound higher or lower.”. And regarding the first performance of Prokofiev’s “Scythian Suite,” which was conducted by the author himself, critics spoke as follows: “It is simply incredible that such a piece, devoid of any meaning, could be performed at a serious concert... These are some kind of impudent, impudent sounds that express nothing but endless bragging.”.

However, no one doubted Prokofiev’s performing talent: by that time he had established himself as a virtuoso pianist. Performed by Prokofiev, however, mainly own compositions, among which the listeners especially remembered the First Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, which, thanks to its energetic “percussive” character and bright, memorable motive of the first movement, received the unofficial nickname “On the Skull!”

Concerto No. 1 for piano and orchestra in D-flat major, Op. 10 (1911–1912)
Vladimir Krainev, piano
Academic Symphony Orchestra of the MFF
Conductor - Dmitry Kitayenko
1976 recording
Sound engineer - Severin Pazukhin

1st Symphony (1916–1917)

Igor Grabar. Portrait of Sergei Prokofiev. 1941. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Zinaida Serebryakova. Portrait of Sergei Prokofiev. 1926. State Central Museum theatrical arts them. Bakhrushina, Moscow

In defiance of conservative critics, wanting, as he himself wrote, to “tease the geese,” in the same 1916, 25-year-old Prokofiev wrote an opus completely opposite in style - the First Symphony. Prokofiev gave it the author’s subtitle “Classical”.

A modest orchestra of the Haydn type and classical musical forms They hinted that if “father Haydn” had lived to see those days, he could well have written such a symphony, seasoning it with bold melodic turns and fresh harmonies. Created a hundred years ago “to spite everyone,” Prokofiev’s First Symphony still sounds fresh and is included in the repertoire of the best orchestras in the world, and Gavotte, its third movement, has become one of the most popular classical pieces of the 20th century.

Prokofiev himself subsequently included this gavotte as an insert number in his ballet Romeo and Juliet. The composer also had a secret hope (he himself later admitted this) that he would ultimately emerge victorious from the confrontation with the critics, especially if over time the First Symphony actually became a classic. Which is exactly what happened.

Symphony No. 1 “Classical”, D major, Op. 25

Conductor - Evgeny Svetlanov
1977 recording

I. Allegro

III. Gavotte. Non troppo allegro

Fairy tale "Peter and the Wolf" (1936)

Until the end of his days, Prokofiev retained the spontaneity of his worldview. Being partly a child at heart, he had a good sense of the child’s inner world and repeatedly wrote music for children: from the fairy tale “The Ugly Duckling” (1914) based on the text of a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen to the suite “The Fire in Winter” (1949), composed in the last years of his life .

Prokofiev's first composition after returning to Russia in 1936 from a long emigration was the symphonic fairy tale for children "Peter and the Wolf", commissioned by Natalia Sats for the Central Children's Theater. Fairy tale young listeners fell in love and was remembered thanks to the bright musical portraits of the characters, which are still familiar to many schoolchildren not only in Russia, but also abroad. For children, “Peter and the Wolf” performs an educational function: the fairy tale is a kind of guide to the instruments of a symphony orchestra. With this work, Prokofiev anticipated a guide to the symphony orchestra for young people (Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell) written almost ten years later and similar in concept by the English composer Benjamin Britten.

"Peter and the Wolf", symphonic fairy tale for children, Op. 67
State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the USSR
Conductor - Evgeny Svetlanov
1970 recording

Ballet "Romeo and Juliet" (1935–1936)

A recognized masterpiece of the twentieth century, many of whose numbers top the international charts classical music, - Sergei Prokofiev's ballet "Romeo and Juliet" - had a difficult fate. Two weeks before the scheduled premiere, the general meeting creative team The Kirov Theater decided to cancel the performance in order to avoid, as everyone believed, a complete failure. Perhaps such sentiments in the artists were partly inspired by the article “Confusion Instead of Music,” published in the Pravda newspaper in January 1936, which harshly criticized theater music Dmitry Shostakovich. Both the theater community and Prokofiev himself perceived the article as an attack on modern Art in general, and decided, as they say, not to get into trouble. At that time, a cruel joke even spread among the theater community: “There is no sadder story in the world than Prokofiev’s music in ballet!”

As a result, the premiere of Romeo and Juliet took place only two years later at the National Theater in Brno in Czechoslovakia. But the domestic public saw the production only in 1940, when the ballet was finally staged at the Kirov Theater. And despite another attack of the government’s struggle against so-called “formalism,” the ballet “Romeo and Juliet” by Sergei Prokofiev was even awarded the Stalin Prize.

"Romeo and Juliet", ballet in four acts (9 scenes), Op. 64
Symphony Orchestra of the State Academic Bolshoi Theater USSR
Conductor - Gennady Rozhdestvensky
1959 recording
Sound engineer - Alexander Grossman

Act I. Scene one. 3. The street wakes up

Act I. Scene two. 13. Dance of the Knights

Act I. Scene two. 15. Mercutio

Cantata for the 20th anniversary of October (1936–1937)

In 1936, Sergei Prokofiev, an emigrant of the first post-revolutionary wave, a mature, successful and sought-after composer and pianist, returned to Soviet Russia. He was greatly impressed by the changes in the country, which had become completely different. Playing by the new rules also required some adjustments in creativity. And Prokofiev created a number of works, at first glance, of an openly “courtly” nature: the Cantata for the 20th anniversary of October (1937), written on the texts of the classics of Marxism-Leninism, the cantata “Zdravitsa”, composed for the 60th anniversary of Stalin (1939), and cantata “Flourish, mighty land”, dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the October Revolution (1947). True, given Prokofiev’s peculiar sense of humor, which every now and then manifested itself in his musical language, so far music critics cannot give a definite answer to the question whether the composer wrote these works sincerely and seriously or with a certain amount of irony. For example, in one of the parts of the cantata “For the 20th Anniversary of October,” which is called “The Crisis is Overdue,” the sopranos sing (or rather, squeak) in the highest register, “The crisis is overdue!”, descending in semitones. This sound of a tense theme seems comical - and such ambiguous decisions are found at every turn in Prokofiev’s “pro-Soviet” works.

Cantata for the 20th anniversary of October for two mixed choirs, symphony and military orchestras, orchestra of accordions and noise instruments, op. 74 (shortened version)

State choir chapel
Artistic director - Alexander Yurlov
Symphony Orchestra of the Moscow Philharmonic
Conductor - Kirill Kondrashin
1967 recording
Sound engineer - David Gaklin

Texts by Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin:

Introduction. A ghost haunts Europe, the specter of communism

Philosophers

Revolution

Music for the film “Alexander Nevsky” (1938)

Composers of the first half of the twentieth century had to do a lot for the first time, and the examples of new art they created are now considered textbooks. This fully applies to film music. Just seven years after the appearance of the first Soviet sound film (The Road to Life, 1931), Sergei Prokofiev joined the ranks of cinema figures. Among his works in the genre of film music, a large-scale symphonic score stands out, written for Sergei Eisenstein’s film “Alexander Nevsky” (1938), later reworked into a cantata under the same name (1939). Many of the images that Prokofiev laid down in this music (the mournful scene of the “dead field”, the soulless and mechanical-sounding attack of the crusaders, the joyful counterattack of the Russian cavalry) are to this day a stylistic reference point for film composers around the world.

“Alexander Nevsky”, cantata for mezzo-soprano, choir and orchestra (to lyrics by Vladimir Lugovsky and Sergei Prokofiev), op. 78

Larisa Avdeeva, mezzo-soprano (Field of the Dead)
State Academic Choir of Russia named after A. A. Yurlov
Choirmaster - Alexander Yurlov
State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the USSR
Conductor - Evgeny Svetlanov
1966 recording
Sound engineer - Alexander Grossman

Song about Alexander Nevsky

Battle on the Ice

Field of the Dead