118-611: Sergei Prokofiev 's Lieutenant Kijé (Russian: Поручик Киже , Poruchik Kizhe ) music was originally written to accompany the film of the same name , produced by the Belgoskino film studios in Leningrad in 1933–34 and released in March 1934 . It was Prokofiev's first attempt at film music , and his first commission. In the early days of sound cinema , among the various distinguished composers ready to try their hand at film music, Prokofiev
236-417: A C major crescendo, is repeated on tenor saxophone, an instrument relatively new to the orchestra at that time. The cornet fanfare then returns to close the movement. The principal theme (C) for this movement is based on an old song, "The little grey dove is cooing", for which Prokofiev provided an optional part for baritone voice. The song theme is developed using a range of instruments, before giving way to
354-540: A ballet commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev of the Ballets Russes . Diaghilev commissioned three further ballets from Prokofiev— Chout , Le pas d'acier and The Prodigal Son —which, at the time of their original production, all caused a sensation among both critics and colleagues. But Prokofiev's greatest interest was opera, and he composed several works in that genre, including The Gambler and The Fiery Angel . Prokofiev's one operatic success during his lifetime
472-605: A ballet scenario. Prokofiev's inexperience with ballet led him to revise the work extensively in the 1920s, following Diaghilev's detailed critique, prior to its first production. The ballet's premiere in Paris on 17 May 1921 was a huge success and was greeted with great admiration by an audience that included Jean Cocteau , Igor Stravinsky and Maurice Ravel . Stravinsky called the ballet "the single piece of modern music he could listen to with pleasure", while Ravel called it "a work of genius". During World War I, Prokofiev returned to
590-747: A cheerful evocation of the nirvana Stalin wanted everyone to believe he had created" (i.e. in Zdravitsa ) then subsequently, in the three sonatas, "expressed his true feelings". As evidence, Jaffé has pointed out that the central movement of Sonata No. 7 opens with a theme based on the Robert Schumann lied "Wehmut" ("Sadness", from the Liederkreis , Op. 39 ): its words translate, "I can sometimes sing as if I were glad, yet secretly tears well and so free my heart. Nightingales … sing their song of longing from their dungeon's depth … everyone delights, yet no one feels
708-471: A concussion after fainting in his apartment due to untreated chronic hypertension . The composer Dmitry Kabalevsky visited him in hospital and found him semi-conscious, and "with a heavy heart, I left him, I thought it was the end." He never fully recovered from the injury, and, following medical advice, restricted his composing activity. Prokofiev had time to write his postwar Sixth Symphony and his Ninth Piano Sonata (for Sviatoslav Richter ) before
826-571: A contract was offered to the composer. Prokofiev made his first foreign trip in 1913, travelling to Paris and London where he first encountered Sergei Diaghilev 's Ballets Russes . In 1914, Prokofiev finished his career at the Conservatory by entering the 'battle of the pianos', a competition open to the five best piano students for which the prize was a Schroeder grand piano; Prokofiev won by performing his own Piano Concerto No. 1 . Soon afterwards, he journeyed to London where he made contact with
944-430: A day. In spring 1949, Prokofiev wrote his Cello Sonata in C major, Op. 119 , for the 22-year-old Mstislav Rostropovich , who gave the first performance in 1950, with Sviatoslav Richter. For Rostropovich, Prokofiev also extensively recomposed his Cello Concerto, transforming it into a Symphony-Concerto , a landmark in the cello and orchestra repertory today. The last public performance he attended, on 11 October 1952,
1062-531: A fashion"—he was just one of many students in a heavily attended class—and regretted that he otherwise "never had the opportunity to study with him"). He also shared classes with the composers Boris Asafyev and Nikolai Myaskovsky , the latter becoming a close and lifelong friend. As a member of the Saint Petersburg music scene, Prokofiev developed a reputation as a musical rebel, while getting praise for his original compositions, which he performed himself on
1180-447: A form that he believed would be consistent with the official Soviet concept of art . In the first years of the silent film era , from the 1890s, films were generally accompanied by live music, often improvised, provided by piano or pump organ . In the early 20th century, larger cinemas began to use orchestras, which would accompany the film with out-of-copyright classical pieces or, increasingly, with original compositions. The score for
1298-604: A fortnight after the triumphant premieres on 30 December 1944 of his Eighth Piano Sonata and, on the same day, the first part of Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible . With the premiere of his Fifth Symphony, which was programmed alongside Peter and the Wolf and the Classical Symphony (conducted by Nikolai Anosov ), Prokofiev appeared to reach the peak of his celebrity as a leading Soviet composer. On 20 January 1945, Prokofiev suffered
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#17328592519321416-400: A general artistic direction, since he is himself not immune to error". According to Prokofiev, Stravinsky "became incandescent with rage" and "we almost came to blows and were separated only with difficulty". As a result, "our relations became strained and for several years Stravinsky's attitude toward me was critical." In March 1922, Prokofiev moved with his mother to the town of Ettal in
1534-466: A large-scale cantata for mezzo-soprano , orchestra and chorus, which was extensively performed and recorded. In the wake of Alexander Nevsky' s success, Prokofiev composed his first Soviet opera, Semyon Kotko , which was intended to be produced by the director Vsevolod Meyerhold . The opera's première was postponed because Meyerhold was arrested on 20 June 1939 by the NKVD , and shot on 2 February 1940. At
1652-523: A modest income, and she acted as storyteller for a recording of her husband's Peter and the Wolf (released on CD by Chandos Records ) with Neeme Järvi conducting the Scottish National Orchestra . Their sons Sviatoslav (1924–2010), an architect, and Oleg (1928–1998), an artist, painter, sculptor and poet, dedicated much of their lives to promoting their father's work. Darius Milhaud Too Many Requests If you report this error to
1770-638: A musical career at such an early age, and considered the possibility of his attending a good high school in Moscow. By 1904, his mother had decided instead on Saint Petersburg , and she and Prokofiev visited the then capital to explore the possibility of moving there for his education. They were introduced to composer Alexander Glazunov , a professor at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory , who asked to see Prokofiev and his music; Prokofiev had composed two more operas, Desert Islands and The Feast during
1888-454: A petition in court to begin divorce proceedings against his estranged wife. Five days later the court ruled that the marriage had no legal basis since it had taken place in Germany , and had not been registered with Soviet officials, thus making it null and void. After a second judge upheld the verdict, he and his partner Mira wed on 13 January 1948. On 20 February 1948, Prokofiev's first wife Lina
2006-443: A second theme introduced by the tenor saxophone; this in turn is replaced, as the movement draws to its close, with the return of the "little grey dove" tune, now ornamented by birdsong. The movement begins with and is regularly visited by a broad, ceremonial and somewhat pompous melody (D) , played on brass and woodwind. In between these formal-sounding statements are a cheerful cornet solo and various elaborations and variations on
2124-426: A shriek which wakens the tsar. Enraged, he demands that his officials produce the culprit or face banishment for life. Meanwhile, a clerk's slip of the pen while compiling a military duty roster results in the inclusion in the list of a fictitious officer, "Lieutenant Kijé". When the tsar inspects the list he is intrigued by this name, and asks that the officer be presented to him. The court officials are too terrified of
2242-513: A significant musical work. The guiding light behind the invitation was Boris Gusman , the assistant director of the Bolshoi Theatre and a leading film critic. Gusman was a strong supporter of Prokofiev's ambition to rehabilitate himself in the Soviet Union, and had negotiated with the Moscow orchestra for a series of concerts that would showcase the returned composer's talent. Prokofiev's task
2360-539: A very successful staging of The Love for Three Oranges in the Mariinsky Theatre . In 1928, Prokofiev completed his Third Symphony , which was broadly based on his unperformed opera The Fiery Angel . The conductor Serge Koussevitzky characterized the Third as "the greatest symphony since Tchaikovsky 's Sixth ". In the meantime, under the influence of the teachings of Christian Science , Prokofiev had turned against
2478-432: A year in Moscow or St Petersburg taking piano lessons. Sergei Prokofiev was inspired by hearing his mother practicing the piano in the evenings, mostly works by Chopin and Beethoven , and wrote his first piano composition at the age of five, an "Indian Gallop", which was written down by his mother: it was in the F Lydian mode (a major scale with a raised 4th scale degree), as the young Prokofiev felt "reluctance to tackle
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#17328592519322596-573: Is buried in Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery . The leading Soviet musical periodical reported Prokofiev's death as a brief item on page 116 (the first 115 pages were devoted to Stalin's death). Prokofiev's death is usually attributed to cerebral hemorrhage . He had been chronically ill for eight years. Prokofiev's wife Mira Mendelson spent her final years living in the Moscow apartment they had shared. She occupied her time organizing her husband's papers, promoting his music, and writing her memoirs, having been strongly encouraged by Prokofiev to embark on
2714-427: Is no official record, but according to a variety of witnesses, Prokofiev did not attend on the first day, and had to be fetched, arriving on day two wearing a brown suit and baggy-kneed trousers tucked into his felt boots. Ilya Ehrenburg , who was not in the hall, claimed in his memoirs that Prokofiev fell asleep, woke up suddenly and loudly asked who Zhdanov was. The cellist Mstislav Rostropovich heard that Prokofiev
2832-649: The Bavarian Alps, where for over a year he concentrated on an opera project, The Fiery Angel , based on the novel by Valery Bryusov . His later music had acquired a following in Russia, and he received invitations to return there, but decided to stay in Europe. In 1923, Prokofiev married the Spanish singer Carolina Codina (1897–1989, stage name Lina Llubera) before moving back to Paris. In Paris, several of his works, including
2950-571: The Civil War , Prokofiev obtained permission from the Bolshevik government to travel abroad, and left for America. His biographers have maintained that he did not "flee the country"; rather that he embarked on a concert tour, which he extended when he became convinced that his career prospects would be better served in America and western Europe. He remained in America until March 1922; he then stayed briefly in
3068-805: The Classical . The name was Prokofiev's own; the music is in a style that, according to Prokofiev, Joseph Haydn would have used if he were alive at the time. The music is more or less Classical in style but incorporates more modern musical elements (see Neoclassicism ). The symphony was also an exact contemporary of Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major , Op. 19, which was scheduled to premiere in November 1917. The first performances of both works had to wait until 21 April 1918 and 18 October 1923, respectively. Prokofiev stayed briefly with his mother in Kislovodsk in
3186-716: The Georgian SSR , where he lived in Tbilisi from 11 November 1941 until 29 June 1942. While there he began to compose the original version of War and Peace . While in the Georgian SSR he also composed his Second String Quartet and Piano Sonata No. 7 . His relationship with the 25-year-old writer and librettist Mira Mendelson had finally led to his separation from his wife Lina. Despite their acrimonious separation, Prokofiev tried to persuade Lina and their sons to accompany him as evacuees out of Moscow, but Lina opted to stay. During
3304-475: The Great Depression , which inhibited both new opera and ballet productions, though audiences for Prokofiev's appearances as a pianist were, in Europe at least, undiminished. But Prokofiev saw himself as a composer first and foremost, and increasingly resented the time lost to composition through his appearances as a pianist. Having been homesick for some time, Prokofiev began to build substantial bridges with
3422-603: The Octet and the Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments . For his part, Stravinsky described Prokofiev as the greatest Russian composer of his day, after himself. Prokofiev met Boris Krasin in the violinist Joseph Szigeti 's Paris apartment in 1924. In 1927, Prokofiev made his first concert tour in the Soviet Union . Over more than two months, he spent time in Moscow and Leningrad (as St Petersburg had been renamed), where he enjoyed
3540-416: The Saint Petersburg Conservatory , Prokofiev initially made his name as an iconoclastic composer-pianist, achieving notoriety with a series of ferociously dissonant and virtuosic works for his instrument, including his first two piano concertos. In 1915, Prokofiev made a decisive break from the standard composer-pianist category with his orchestral Scythian Suite , compiled from music originally composed for
3658-674: The Second Piano Concerto of 1913 was "Prokofiev's ticket of admission to the highest circles of Russian modernism". When the First World War broke out in August 1914, Prokofiev avoided military service, possibly because he was the only son of a widow. During the war years he continued to compose; in May 1918, in the period of upheaval following the October Revolution and the beginning of
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3776-534: The Second Symphony , were performed, but their reception was lukewarm and Prokofiev sensed that he "was evidently no longer a sensation". Still, the Symphony appeared to prompt Diaghilev to commission Le pas d'acier ( The Steel Step ), a "modernist" ballet score intended to portray the industrialisation of the Soviet Union. It was enthusiastically received by Parisian audiences and critics. Around 1924, Prokofiev
3894-418: The expressionist style and the subject matter of The Fiery Angel . He now preferred what he called a "new simplicity", which he found more sincere than the "contrivances and complexities" of so much modern music of the 1920s. In 1928–29, Prokofiev composed his last ballet for Diaghilev, The Prodigal Son . When first staged in Paris on 21 May 1929, choreographed by George Balanchine with Serge Lifar in
4012-509: The latter of which caused a scandal at its premiere (23 August 1913, Pavlovsk). According to one account, the audience left the hall with exclamations of "'To hell with this futuristic music! The cats on the roof make better music!'", but the modernists were in rapture. In 1911, help arrived from renowned Russian musicologist and critic Alexander Ossovsky , who wrote a supportive letter to music publisher Boris P. Jurgenson (son of publishing-firm founder Peter Jurgenson [1836–1904]); thus
4130-676: The "Romance" movement formed the basis of the main theme in Sting 's 1985 anti-war song " Russians ". The 1938 performance of the suite by Koussevitsky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, recorded on 78rpm discs , provided the only commercially available recording until the advent of the LP era in the 1950s; a broadcast performance by the Cleveland Orchestra under Fritz Reiner in December 1945
4248-444: The "haunting sounds of the tenor saxophone " that punctuate the Kijé music. The critic Ernest Chapman refers to Prokofiev's "unfailingly witty and melodious score". It comprises only about 15 minutes of music, written as a series of 16 short fragments or leitmotifs which are repeated at appropriate times during the film's duration, to highlight specific moments in the drama. This approach
4366-485: The 11-year-old Prokofiev's insistence, with the budding composer making his first attempt to write a symphony. The following summer, Glière revisited Sontsovka to give further tuition. When, decades later, Prokofiev wrote about his lessons with Glière, he gave due credit to his teacher's sympathetic method but complained that Glière had introduced him to "square" phrase structure and conventional modulations , which he subsequently had to unlearn. Nonetheless, equipped with
4484-607: The 1916 classic The Birth of a Nation , compiled by Joseph Carl Breil from various classical works and some original writing, was a landmark in film music, and inspired notable composers of the day to provide scores for silent films. Among these were the Americans Victor Herbert and Mortimer Wilson , from France Darius Milhaud and Arthur Honegger , and the Germans Gottfried Huppertz and Edmund Meisel . In 1927 developments in sound technology brought
4602-563: The 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution , originally intended for performance during the anniversary year but effectively blocked by Kerzhentsev, who demanded at the work's audition before the Committee on Arts Affairs, "Just what do you think you're doing, Sergey Sergeyevich, taking texts that belong to the people and setting them to such incomprehensible music?" The Cantata was not performed until 5 April 1966, just over 13 years after
4720-484: The Buffoon who Outwits Seven Other Buffoons".) Under Diaghilev's guidance, Prokofiev chose his subject from a collection of folk tales by the ethnographer Alexander Afanasyev ; the story, concerning a buffoon and a series of confidence tricks, had been previously suggested to Diaghilev by Igor Stravinsky as a possible subject for a ballet, and Diaghilev and his choreographer Léonide Massine helped Prokofiev to shape it into
4838-543: The Caucasus. After completing the score of Seven, They Are Seven , a "Chaldean invocation" for chorus and orchestra, Prokofiev was "left with nothing to do and time hung heavily on my hands". Believing that Russia "had no use for music at the moment", Prokofiev decided to try his fortunes in America until the turmoil in his homeland had passed. He set out for Moscow and Petersburg in March 1918 to sort out financial matters and to arrange for his passport. In May, he headed for
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4956-464: The Conservatory and studied organ to avoid conscription . In 1916, he debuted his Toccata . Shortly after this he composed The Gambler based on Fyodor Dostoyevsky 's novel of the same name , but rehearsals were plagued by problems, and the scheduled 1917 première had to be cancelled because of the February Revolution . In the summer of that year, Prokofiev composed his first symphony ,
5074-459: The Divertimento, Op. 43 (which he had started in 1925) and revised his Sinfonietta , Op. 5/48, a work started in his days at the Conservatory. In October of that year, he had a car crash while driving his family back to Paris from their holiday: as the car turned over, Prokofiev pulled some muscles on his left hand. Prokofiev was therefore unable to perform in Moscow during his tour shortly after
5192-615: The End of the War , Festive Poem , Cantata for the Thirtieth Anniversary of October , Ballad of an Unknown Boy , the 1934 piano cycle Thoughts , and Piano Sonatas Nos. 6 and 8. Such was the perceived threat behind the banning of the works that even works that had avoided censure were no longer programmed. By August 1948, Prokofiev was in severe financial straits, his personal debt amounting to 180,000 rubles. On 22 November 1947, Prokofiev filed
5310-450: The Kijé theme, which together give the movement a celebratory feel, both boisterous and sentimental. The principal melody in this movement (E) is taken from an old Hussar song, for which Prokofiev provided an optional baritone part. The melody first appears in a slow and somewhat dissonant statement, after which the pace quickens: sleigh bells, rapid pizzicato strings, and piano combine to give
5428-547: The March from The Love for Three Oranges , the suite Lieutenant Kijé , the ballet Romeo and Juliet —from which "Dance of the Knights" is taken—and Peter and the Wolf . Of the established forms and genres in which he worked, he created—excluding juvenilia —seven completed operas, seven symphonies , eight ballets , five piano concertos , two violin concertos , a cello concerto , a symphony-concerto for cello and orchestra , and nine completed piano sonatas . A graduate of
5546-772: The Plague , and was working on his fourth, Undina . Glazunov was so impressed that he urged Prokofiev's mother to have her son apply for admission to the Conservatory. He passed the introductory tests and enrolled that year. Several years younger than most of his class, Prokofiev was viewed as eccentric and arrogant and annoyed a number of his classmates by keeping statistics on their errors. During that period, he studied under, among others, Alexander Winkler for piano, Anatoly Lyadov for harmony and counterpoint, Nikolai Tcherepnin for conducting , and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov for orchestration (though when Rimsky-Korsakov died in 1908, Prokofiev noted that he had only studied with him "after
5664-644: The Soviet Union. Following the dissolution of the RAPM in 1932, he acted increasingly as a musical ambassador between his homeland and western Europe, and his premieres and commissions were increasingly under the auspices of the Soviet Union. One such was Lieutenant Kijé , which was commissioned as the score to a Soviet film . Another commission, from the Kirov Theatre (as the Mariinsky had now been renamed) in Leningrad,
5782-730: The St Petersburg Evenings of Contemporary Music. There he performed several of his more adventurous piano works, such as his highly chromatic and dissonant Etudes, Op. 2 (1909). His performance of it impressed the organisers of the Evenings sufficiently for them to invite Prokofiev to give the Russian premiere of Arnold Schoenberg 's Drei Klavierstücke, Op. 11 . Prokofiev's harmonic experimentation continued with Sarcasms for piano, Op. 17 (1912) , which makes extensive use of polytonality . He composed his first two piano concertos around then,
5900-516: The Terrible ), and the ballet Cinderella (Op. 87), one of his most melodious and celebrated compositions. Early that year, he also played excerpts from War and Peace to members of the Bolshoi Theatre collective, but the Soviet government had opinions about the opera that resulted in many revisions. In 1944, Prokofiev composed his Fifth Symphony (Op. 100) at a composer's colony outside Moscow. He conducted its first performance on 13 January 1945, just
6018-588: The US, having obtained official permission to do so from Anatoly Lunacharsky , the People's Commissar for Education, who told him: "You are a revolutionary in music, we are revolutionaries in life. We ought to work together. But if you want to go to America I shall not stand in your way." Arriving in San Francisco after having been released from questioning by immigration officials on Angel Island on 11 August 1918, Prokofiev
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#17328592519326136-688: The US. The version with optional baritone voice has rarely found its way on to disc; Erich Leinsdorf recorded this version twice, with the Philharmonia Orchestra for EMI and with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for RCA. Vladimir Ashkenazy with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Andrei Laptev (2010) provide 21st-century examples. A DVD of the Bolshoi Ballet production, featuring Raisa Struchkova and Vladimir Vasiliev ,
6254-572: The Wolf , Romeo and Juliet , Cinderella , Alexander Nevsky , the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies , On Guard for Peace , and the Piano Sonatas Nos. 6–8. The Nazi invasion of the USSR spurred Prokofiev to compose his most ambitious work, an operatic version of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace ; he co-wrote the libretto with Mira Mendelson , his longtime companion and later second wife. In 1948, Prokofiev
6372-533: The accident, but he was able to enjoy watching performances of his music from the audience. Prokofiev also attended the Bolshoi Theatre 's "audition" of his ballet Le pas d'acier , and was interrogated by members of the Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians (RAPM) about the work: he was asked whether the factory portrayed "a capitalist factory, where the worker is a slave, or a Soviet factory, where
6490-513: The arrival of "talking pictures". In these, accompanying music was originally recorded on a disc , separately from the film images, but within two years the " Movietone " system enabled sound to be captured on the film itself. Music could now be aligned specifically with the film's on-screen action—the so-called " diegetic " approach. Early pioneers of this method were the Germans Friedrich Hollaender and Karol Rathaus , who provided
6608-601: The ballet. With his left hand healed, Prokofiev toured the United States successfully at the start of 1930, propped up by his recent European success. That year, Prokofiev began his first non-Diaghilev ballet On the Dnieper , Op. 51, a work commissioned by Serge Lifar , who had been appointed maitre de ballet at the Paris Opéra . In 1931 and 1932, he completed his fourth and fifth piano concertos. The following year saw
6726-449: The basis of the first commercial recording of the work, issued in the following year. While Prokofiev was in the United States for the Boston premiere he was greatly sought after by film producers, but although he was flattered and attracted by their offers he never composed a Hollywood film score. The suite rapidly gained popularity, particularly in the US; the choreographer Michel Fokine used
6844-450: The black notes". By seven, he had also learned to play chess . Chess remained a passion of his, and he became acquainted with world chess champions José Raúl Capablanca , whom he beat in a simultaneous exhibition match in 1914, and Mikhail Botvinnik , with whom he played several matches in the 1930s. At age nine, he was composing his first opera, The Giant , as well as an overture and various other pieces. Opera remained thereafter as
6962-517: The completion of the Symphonic Song , Op. 57, which Prokofiev's friend Myaskovsky —thinking of its potential audience in the Soviet Union—told him "isn't quite for us… it lacks that which we mean by monumentalism—a familiar simplicity and broad contours, of which you are extremely capable, but temporarily are carefully avoiding." By the early 1930s, both Europe and America were suffering from
7080-543: The composer's baton, on 30 December 1921. Diaghilev became sufficiently interested in the opera to request Prokofiev play the vocal score to him in June 1922, while they were both in Paris for a revival of Chout , so he could consider it for a possible production. Stravinsky, who was present at the audition, refused to listen to more than the first act. When he then accused Prokofiev of "wasting time composing operas", Prokofiev retorted that Stravinsky "was in no position to lay down
7198-465: The composer's death. Forced to adapt to the new circumstances (whatever private misgivings he had about them), Prokofiev wrote a series of " mass songs " (Opp. 66, 79, 89), using the lyrics of officially approved Soviet poets. In 1938, he collaborated with Eisenstein on the historical epic Alexander Nevsky , composing some of his most inventive and dramatic music. Although the film had very poor sound recording, Prokofiev adapted much of his score into
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#17328592519327316-606: The composers' union, Tikhon Khrennikov , who said that the person Prokofiev snubbed was the Stalinist official Matvei Shkiryatov . The decree, published on 11 February, denounced six artists—Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Khachaturian, Shebalin , Popov , and Myaskovsky , in that order—for the crime of "formalism", described as a "renunciation of the basic principles of classical music" in favor of "muddled, nerve-racking" sounds that "turned music into cacophony". Eight of Prokofiev's works were banned from performance: The Year 1941 , Ode to
7434-459: The cultural authorities, The Story of a Real Man , were quickly cancelled by the Kirov Theatre . The snub, in combination with his declining health, caused Prokofiev to progressively withdraw from public life and from various activities, even chess, and increasingly devote himself to his own work. After he had a stroke on 7 July 1949, his doctors ordered him to limit his composing to an hour
7552-510: The early 1930s, the Great Depression diminished opportunities for Prokofiev's ballets and operas to be staged in America and Western Europe. Prokofiev, who regarded himself as a composer foremost, resented the time taken by touring as a pianist, and increasingly turned to the Soviet Union for commissions of new music; in 1936, he finally returned to his homeland with his family. His greatest Soviet successes included Lieutenant Kijé , Peter and
7670-516: The eighteenth century". The language he chose combined elements of humour and romance with an underlying melancholy—he interpreted the story as more tragic than comic. Prokofiev had heard Ravel 's Boléro in Paris, and had been much impressed by the French composer's use of the saxophone , an instrument then rarely used in orchestral compositions outside France but which suited Prokofiev's intentions perfectly. The composer Gerard McBurney has pointed out
7788-698: The end of the same year, Prokofiev was commissioned to compose Zdravitsa (literally "Cheers!", but sometimes subtitled Hail to Stalin in English) (Op. 85) to celebrate Joseph Stalin 's 60th birthday. Later in 1939, Prokofiev composed his Piano Sonatas Nos. 6 , 7 , and 8 , Opp. 82–84, widely known today as the "War Sonatas". Premiered respectively by Prokofiev (No. 6: 8 April 1940), Sviatoslav Richter (No. 7: Moscow, 18 January 1943) and Emil Gilels (No. 8: Moscow, 30 December 1944), they were subsequently championed in particular by Richter. Biographer Daniel Jaffé argued that Prokofiev, "having forced himself to compose
7906-479: The expatriate Prokofiev to write the accompanying music. In some respects Prokofiev was a surprising choice; he was at this stage better known abroad than in the Soviet Union, and had acquired a reputation for dissonance. Moreover, his ballet Le pas d'acier had fared badly at Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre in 1929. The composer's first response was to refuse the commission; a member of the production team recalled that Prokofiev "categorically rejected my proposal. His time
8024-535: The five-movement Kijé suite was first performed in December 1934, and quickly became part of the international concert repertoire. It has remained one of the composer's best-known and most frequently recorded works. Elements of the suite's score have been used in several later films, and in two popular songs of the Cold War era. Sergei Prokofiev graduated from the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1914, having by then acquired an early reputation as an avant-garde composer. His biographer Israel Nestyev asserts that
8142-453: The genre Prokofiev was most fond of working in. In 1902, Prokofiev's mother met Sergei Taneyev , director of the Moscow Conservatory , who initially suggested that Prokofiev should start lessons in piano and composition with Alexander Goldenweiser . Unable to arrange that, Taneyev instead arranged for composer and pianist Reinhold Glière to spend the summer of 1902 in Sontsovka teaching Prokofiev. The first series of lessons culminated, at
8260-584: The hearse was not allowed near Prokofiev's house, his coffin had to be moved by hand through back streets in the opposite direction of the masses of people going to visit Stalin's body. About 30 people attended the funeral, Shostakovich among them. Although they had not seemed to get along when they met, in the later years their interactions had become far more amicable, with Shostakovich writing to Prokofiev, "I wish you at least another hundred years to live and create. Listening to such works as your Seventh Symphony makes it much easier and more joyful to live." Prokofiev
8378-450: The impresario Sergei Diaghilev. Diaghilev commissioned Prokofiev's first ballet, Ala and Lolli ; but when Prokofiev brought the work in progress to him in Italy in 1915 he rejected it as "non-Russian". Urging Prokofiev to write "music that was national in character", Diaghilev then commissioned the ballet Chout ("The Buffoon"). (The original Russian-language full title was Сказка про шута, семерых шутов перешутившего, meaning "The Tale of
8496-497: The impression of a fast winter's journey by means of the troika , a traditional Russian three-horse sled. The ride is accompanied at regular intervals by the song theme, which brings the movement to its close with a slow repetition of its final phrase. This final movement is largely a mélange of earlier themes, a series of reminiscences of Kijé's imaginary life. The opening cornet fanfare returns, as does Kijé's leitmotif, together with "The little grey dove", this time intertwined with
8614-528: The internal meaning of each event, the personality of each hero", and warned them not to expect mere musical "illustrations". He attended rehearsals and made detailed notes of the action and the acting. The period setting of the film appealed to Prokofiev; Robinson comments that the Kijé score is one of several works, including the Classical Symphony , The Love of Three Oranges , Cinderella , and War and Peace , that show "the composer's fondness for
8732-476: The introduction of a little slapstick comedy seems quite in keeping with the Russian tradition." Prokofiev's contribution to the film is not acknowledged in this review. Soon after the film's release, Prokofiev received an invitation from the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra to create an orchestral suite from his Kijé film music—probably the first instance of a film score being adapted into
8850-554: The latter. Work on the memoirs was difficult for her; she left them incomplete at her death. Mendelson died of a heart attack in Moscow in 1968, 15 years after Prokofiev. Inside her purse a message dated February 1950 and signed by Prokofiev and Mendelson instructed: "We wish to be buried next to each other." Their remains are buried together at Novodevichy Cemetery. Lina Prokofiev outlived her ex-husband by many years, dying in London in early 1989. Royalties from his music provided her with
8968-399: The money on high living—in fact, they have stolen it. The tsar denounces Kijé as a thief, and posthumously demotes him from general to private. Despite his lack of experience in composing film music, Prokofiev began his Kijé score confidently, later writing: "I somehow had no doubts whatever about the musical language for the film". He told the producers, "What is important to me is the era,
9086-488: The most accomplished". Robinson rates the Kijé suite among the composer's greatest compositions, alongside Romeo and Juliet and the Second Violin Concerto as "accessible, simple and melodic". In his Essential Canon of Classical Music (2001), David Dubal remarks on how the Kijé music has thrived in popular culture: "Bits and pieces are used everywhere". Having begun life as a 1930s film soundtrack, parts of
9204-406: The music for The Blue Angel (1930) and The Murderer Dimitri Karamazov (1931) respectively. By this time in the Soviet Union, the young Dmitri Shostakovich had already begun his prolific career as a composer of film sound-tracks, with The New Babylon in 1929 and Alone in 1931. When planning their proposed film Lieutenant Kijé in 1932, the Belgoskino studios of Leningrad asked
9322-493: The music in his ballet Russian Soldier , performed at the Boston Opera House on 23 January 1942. A further ballet version, Lieutenant Kijé , was devised for Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet in 1963 by Alexander Lapauri [ fr ] and Olga Tarasova, with Raisa Struchkova in a leading role. The music critic David Gutman has called the suite "[o]ne of [Prokofiev's] most popular compositions today [and] also one of
9440-402: The necessary theoretical tools, Prokofiev started experimenting with dissonant harmonies and unusual time signatures in a series of short piano pieces he called "ditties" (after the so-called "song form", more accurately ternary form , on which they were based), laying the basis for his own musical style. Despite his growing talent, Prokofiev's parents hesitated over starting their son on
9558-508: The pain, the deep sorrow in the song." Sonata No. 7 received a Stalin Prize (Second Class) and No. 8 a Stalin Prize (First Class). Meanwhile, Romeo and Juliet was staged by the Kirov Ballet , choreographed by Leonid Lavrovsky , on 11 January 1940. To the surprise of all of its participants, the dancers having struggled to cope with the music's syncopated rhythms and almost having boycotted
9676-420: The piano. In 1909, he graduated from his class in composition with unimpressive marks. He continued at the Conservatory, studying piano under Anna Yesipova and continuing his conducting lessons under Tcherepnin. In 1910, Prokofiev's father died and Sergei's financial support ceased. Fortunately, he had started making a name for himself as a composer and pianist outside the Conservatory, making appearances at
9794-423: The political developments in what he still considered his homeland, and was keen to resume contacts there. He was accorded VIP status when he paid his first visit to the Soviet Union in 1927, for a recital tour. Further trips followed, and in 1930 Prokofiev took a flat in Moscow, although Paris remained his principal home. During this period of rapprochement he consciously sought to simplify his musical language into
9912-405: The previous four years. That year, Prokofiev composed one of his most famous works, Peter and the Wolf , for Natalya Sats ' Central Children's Theatre . Sats also persuaded him to write two songs for children, "Sweet Song", and "Chatterbox"; they were eventually joined by "The Little Pigs" and published as Three Children's Songs , Op. 68. Prokofiev also composed the gigantic Cantata for
10030-413: The princess Gagarina , after which the tsar grants him lands and money and promotes him to general and commander of the army. When Paul demands Kijé's immediate presence, the cornered officials announce that "General Kijé" has, unfortunately, died. A lavish funeral is held, with full military honours. The parsimonious tsar demands the return of Kijé's fortune, but is told by the courtiers that Kijé has spent
10148-489: The production, the ballet was an instant success and became recognised as the crowning achievement of Soviet dramatic ballet. Prokofiev had been considering making an opera out of Leo Tolstoy 's epic novel War and Peace , when news of the German invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 made the subject seem all the more timely. Because of the war, he was evacuated together with a large number of other artists, initially to
10266-546: The small German town of Ettal before moving to Paris in October 1923. Rather than treating Prokofiev as a fugitive or exile, the Moscow government chose to consider him as a general ambassador for Soviet culture, and the composer returned the compliment by registering in France as a citizen of the Soviet Union , the new state formed on 30 December 1922 by Russia and the states of the former Russian Empire. Prokofiev expressed support for
10384-785: The so-called " Zhdanov Doctrine ". On the day before the decree was published, 10 February 1948, Prokofiev was at a ceremony in the Kremlin to mark his elevation to the status of People's Artist of the RSFSR . The decree followed a three-day conference of more than 70 composers, musicians and music lecturers convened on 10 January, presided over by Zhdanov. Prokofiev was berated by a minor composer, Viktor Bely , who accused him of "innovation for innovation's sake" and "artistic snobbishness", but unlike Dmitri Shostakovich , Aram Khachaturian and others, Prokofiev gave no speech. His silence set off rumors that he had been deliberately defiant and uncooperative. There
10502-553: The story was a 1927 screenplay by the critic and novelist Yury Tynyanov , written for the Soviet film director Sergei Yutkevich . This project failed, and Tynyanov recast his script into a novella that was published in January 1928. In the early 1930s, when the Belgoskino studios announced their interest in making the film, Tynyanov produced a second script. The story has been described by Prokofiev's biographer Harlow Robinson as "a satire on
10620-470: The stupidity of royalty and the particularly Russian terror of displeasing one's superior". By his own account Prokofiev was at this time "restive, and afraid of falling into academism"; a later critic thought the Kijé story provided ideal material for this "so-often caustic and witty composer". In the Russian Imperial Palace , while Tsar Paul I sleeps, a dalliance between two courtiers ends with
10738-406: The suite are organised and titled as follows (bolded capitals identify specified themes): A distant, mournful fanfare (A) , played on a cornet representing a bugle, is followed by a brisk military march initiated by a duet for side drum and piccolo. A passage for brass precedes the introduction of a theme or leitmotif (B) associated with the phantom Kijé which, after a reprise of the march and
10856-647: The suite began to appear in later films, such as the British The Horse's Mouth (1958) and Woody Allen 's 1975 parody on Russian literature, Love and Death . In the world of pop music, the "Troika" movement has been adapted several times, beginning in 1952 as "Midnight Sleighride", a jazz band arrangement by Eddie Sauter and Bill Finegan . In 1975 the "Troika" tune was used extensively in Greg Lake 's best-selling pop song " I Believe in Father Christmas ", and
10974-478: The suite to appeal to Soviet audiences hearing concert music for the first time. In an article in Izvestia in 1934 he wrote of such music: "Above all, it must be melodious; moreover the melody must be simple and comprehensible without being repetitive or trivial ... The simplicity should not be an old-fashioned simplicity but a new simplicity". He worked quickly, and had finished the piece by 8 July 1934. Because it
11092-604: The summer of 1877, the Prokofievs moved to a small estate in the Smolensk governorate. Eventually, Sergei Alekseyevich found employment as a soil engineer, employed by one of his former fellow-students, Dmitri Sontsov, to whose estate in the Ukrainian steppes the Prokofievs moved. By the time of Prokofiev's birth, Maria—having previously lost two daughters—had devoted her life to music; during her son's early childhood, she spent two months
11210-400: The title role, the audience and critics were particularly struck by the final scene, in which the prodigal son drags himself across the stage on his knees to be welcomed by his father. Diaghilev had recognised that in the music to the scene, Prokofiev had "never been more clear, more simple, more melodious, and more tender". Only months later, Diaghilev died. That summer, Prokofiev completed
11328-478: The tsar to admit that a mistake has been made, and are in a dilemma until it occurs to them to blame "Kijé" for the nocturnal disturbance. They inform the tsar, who duly orders the imaginary lieutenant flogged and sent to Siberia . When the real culprit confesses, Kijé is pardoned by the tsar and reinstated in the imperial court with the rank of colonel. The courtiers, in fear of the tsar, are forced to extend their creation's phantom career; thus, he supposedly marries
11446-542: The understanding that Piotrovsky would remain involved. But the ballet's original happy ending (contrary to Shakespeare ) provoked controversy among Soviet cultural officials, and the ballet's production was postponed indefinitely when the staff of the Bolshoi was overhauled at the behest of the chairman of the Committee on Arts Affairs, Platon Kerzhentsev . In 1936, Prokofiev and his family settled permanently in Moscow, after shifting back and forth between Moscow and Paris for
11564-716: The war years, restrictions on style and the demand that composers write in a 'socialist realist' style were slackened, and Prokofiev was generally able to compose in his own way. The Violin Sonata No. 1 , Op. 80, The Year 1941 , Op. 90, and the Ballade for the Boy Who Remained Unknown , Op. 93 all came from this period. In 1943, Prokofiev joined Eisenstein in Alma-Ata , the largest city in Kazakhstan , to compose more film music ( Ivan
11682-569: The wedding music. In what Orrin Howard in a programme note for the Los Angeles Philharmonic describes as "a wistful, touching farewell", the music reaches its conclusion with a distant rendition of the fanfare. Prokofiev conducted the first performance of the suite in Paris on 21 December 1934. The piece received its American premiere on 14 October 1937, when Serge Koussevitzky conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra ; this performance formed
11800-472: The worker is the master? If it is a Soviet factory, when and where did Prokofiev examine it, since from 1918 to the present he has been living abroad and came here for the first time in 1927 for two weeks [sic]?" Prokofiev replied, "That concerns politics, not music, and therefore I won't answer." The RAPM condemned the ballet as a "flat and vulgar anti-Soviet anecdote, a counter-revolutionary composition bordering on Fascism". The Bolshoi had no option but to reject
11918-595: Was The Love for Three Oranges , composed for the Chicago Opera and performed over the following decade in Europe and Russia. After the Revolution of 1917 , Prokofiev left Russia with the approval of Soviet People's Commissar Anatoly Lunacharsky , and resided in the United States, then Germany, then Paris, making his living as a composer, pianist and conductor. In 1923 he married a Spanish singer, Carolina (Lina) Codina , with whom he had two sons; they divorced in 1947. In
12036-408: Was a departure in film music from the established form of broad symphonic movements, and was described by Prokofiev's biographer Daniel Jaffé as "well ahead of its time ... one of the most celebrated [film scores] of that era". The film, directed by Alexander Feinzimmer , was made at the Belgoskino studios where the music was recorded under the direction of Isaak Dunayevsky . The Moscow premiere
12154-565: Was an agronomist from a mercantile family in Moscow. Prokofiev's mother, Maria (née Zhitkova), came from a Saint Petersburg family of former serfs who had been owned by the Sheremetev family, under whose patronage serf-children were taught theatre and arts from an early age. She was described by Reinhold Glière , Prokofiev's first composition teacher, as "a tall woman with beautiful, clever eyes … who knew how to create an atmosphere of warmth and simplicity about her." After their wedding in
12272-635: Was another example of Prokofiev's bad luck in operatic matters. The failure also cost him his American solo career since the opera took too much time and effort. He soon found himself in financial difficulties, and in April 1920, he left for Paris , not wanting to return to Russia as a failure. In Paris, Prokofiev reaffirmed his contacts with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes . He also completed some of his older, unfinished works, such as his Third Piano Concerto . The Love for Three Oranges finally premièred in Chicago, under
12390-514: Was arrested and charged with espionage for trying to send money to her mother in Spain. After nine months of interrogation, she was sentenced by a three-member Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR to 20 years of hard labor. She was released eight years later on 30 June 1956 and in 1974 left the Soviet Union. Prokofiev's latest opera projects, among them his desperate attempt to appease
12508-599: Was attacked for producing "anti-democratic formalism ". Nevertheless, he enjoyed personal and artistic support from a new generation of Russian performers, notably Sviatoslav Richter and Mstislav Rostropovich : he wrote his Ninth Piano Sonata for the former and his Symphony-Concerto for the latter. Prokofiev was born in 1891 in a rural estate in Sontsovka, Bakhmut uezd , Yekaterinoslav Governorate , Russian Empire (now known as Sontsivka , Pokrovsk Raion , Donetsk Oblast , Ukraine). His father, Sergei Alekseyevich Prokofiev,
12626-405: Was chatting to the person next to him when a senior figure sitting nearby warned him to be quiet. Prokofiev asked: "Who are you?" The official said that his name did not matter, but that Prokofiev had better pay attention to him, to which Prokofiev retorted: "I never pay attention to comments from people who haven't been introduced to me." This possibly apocryphal story was corroborated by the head of
12744-470: Was held on 7 March 1934 , after which the film was released in London as The Tsar Wants to Sleep and in Paris as Le Lieutenant Nantes . Prokofiev did not rate the film highly, although he was pleased with his music. After the New York release in December 1934, the critic for The New York Times described the film as "calculated to entertain lovers of detail and genuine atmosphere in semi-historical films. Even
12862-411: Was introduced to Christian Science . He began to practice its teachings, which he believed to be beneficial to his health and to his fiery temperament and to which he remained faithful for the rest of his life, according to biographer Simon Morrison . Prokofiev and Stravinsky restored their friendship, though Prokofiev particularly disliked Stravinsky's "stylization of Bach " in such recent works as
12980-423: Was not an obvious choice for the commission. Based in Paris for almost a decade, he had a reputation for experimentation and dissonance , characteristics at odds with the cultural norms of the Soviet Union . By early 1933, however, Prokofiev was anxious to return to his homeland, and saw the film commission as an opportunity to write music in a more popular and accessible style. After the film's successful release,
13098-630: Was not issued until many years later. In 1951 Westminster issued Hermann Scherchen 's recording of the suite with the Vienna Symphony , since which many recordings of the work have been issued under a variety of labels. The first stereo recording was by Reiner with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for RCA (March 1957). A 2008 edition of the Muze survey of recordings lists 19 available versions by orchestras from Eastern and Western Europe, Asia and
13216-416: Was not straightforward; the film's 15 minutes of musical material were fragmentary and scored for a small chamber orchestra . According to Prokofiev's own account, producing the suite was "a devilish job", which, he said, "gave me much more trouble than the music for the film itself, since I had to find the proper form, re-orchestrate the whole thing, polish it up and even combine some of the themes." He wanted
13334-596: Was published (Op. 60) by his regular music publisher in Paris, the French transliteration "Kijé" (rather than the American "Kizhe" or any other) was adopted in the work's title. The Kijé suite is scored for: baritone voice (optional); piccolo ; two flutes ; two oboes ; two clarinets ; two bassoons ; tenor saxophone ; four horns ; cornet ; two trumpets ; three trombones ; tuba ; bass drum ; snare drum ; triangle ; cymbals ; tambourine ; sleigh bells ; celesta ; piano ; harp ; and strings . The five movements of
13452-434: Was released in 2007. Sergei Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (27 April [ O.S. 15 April] 1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor who later worked in the Soviet Union . As the creator of acknowledged masterpieces across numerous music genres , he is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century. His works include such widely heard pieces as
13570-425: Was scheduled far into the future, he had never written music for film and he didn't know 'what kind of sauce' to put on it." But, attracted by the story, Prokofiev quickly changed his mind and accepted, seeing this first venture into film music as an opportunity to demonstrate his ability to appeal to a mass Soviet audience. Lieutenant Kijé was one of the earliest sound films made in the Soviet Union. The origin of
13688-477: Was soon compared to other famous Russian exiles, such as Sergei Rachmaninoff . His debut solo concert in New York led to several further engagements. He also received a contract from the music director of the Chicago Opera Association , Cleofonte Campanini , for the production of his new opera The Love for Three Oranges , but due to Campanini's illness and death, the premiere was postponed. The delay
13806-460: Was the ballet Romeo and Juliet , composed to a scenario created by Adrian Piotrovsky and Sergei Radlov following the precepts of "drambalet" (dramatised ballet, officially promoted at the Kirov to replace works based primarily on choreographic display and innovation). Following Radlov's acrimonious resignation from the Kirov in June 1934, a new agreement was signed with the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow on
13924-577: Was the première of the Seventh Symphony , his last completed work. The symphony was written for the Children's Radio Division. Prokofiev died at age 61 on 5 March 1953, the same day as Joseph Stalin . He had lived near Red Square , and for three days throngs gathered to mourn Stalin, making it impossible to hold Prokofiev's funeral service at the headquarters of the Soviet Composers' Union. Because
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