Sergei Prokofiev

1891–1953, RUSSIAN

One of the most versatile and imaginative composers of the first half of the 20th century, Prokofiev created masterpieces in many traditional forms and also in new fields such as film music.

SERGEI PROKOFIEV, 1930s
This portrait was painted when the composer was at the height of his career. The painter, Sergei Yurievich Sudeikin, was best known as a designer of theater sets and costumes.

IN PROFILE

Sviatoslav Richter

Prokofiev had close links with some leading Soviet musicians, especially Sviatoslav Richter (1915–1997), widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century. Richter gave the first performances of several of Prokofiev’s works, including the Piano Sonata No. 7 in 1943. It is one of three piano sonatas Prokofiev wrote during World War II and Richter spoke of it reflecting the anxieties of a world in which “chaos and uncertainty reign.” However, he also thought it expressed a “will for victory” and affirmed “the irrepressible life force.”

SOVIET MUSICIAN SVIATOSLAV RICHTER AT THE PIANO

Prokofiev’s career divides into three distinct phases. In the first phase, during the period leading up to the Russian Revolution in 1917, he was a provocative firebrand emerging as one of the country’s most exciting and progressive composers. In the second, he left Russia following the Revolution and spent most of the next two decades abroad, establishing a worldwide reputation. The third phase saw his return to spend his later years in his homeland, where he was seen as a cultural hero but fell foul of the repressive Soviet regime.

Prokofiev was born in the village of Sontsovka, Ukraine, into a comfortable middle-class family. His father was manager of an agricultural estate and his mother was a talented amateur pianist. Two elder sisters had died as infants and he was brought up as an adored only child. He began piano lessons with his mother when he was four and within a year was writing his own pieces for the instrument. At the age of 10, he composed his first opera, performed by relatives and playmates, and in 1904 he passed the entrance examination for the St. Petersburg Conservatory.

SERGEI PROKOFIEV, 1900
Prokofiev is shown here at his piano, aged nine. The following year—having already received piano lessons from his mother for six years—the young musician composed his first opera.

The early years

Prokofiev studied at the Conservatory for the next decade. He had various distinguished teachers, most notably Rimsky-Korsakov, but they left no real mark on him, as he tended to regard them as stuffy traditionalists. The most important works of his student days are his first and second piano concertos, premiered in 1912 and 1913 respectively, with himself as soloist on each occasion. Their tense, percussive muscularity contrasted sharply with the lyricism of much Russian music of the time and they provoked strong reactions—both for and against. At the premiere of the second concerto, some people are said to have booed, hissed, or walked out, but when Prokofiev played the first concerto as his graduation piece at the Conservatory in 1914, he was awarded the coveted Rubinstein Prize.

In that same year, World War I began. Prokofiev was excused military service because his father was dead and he was his mother’s only support. Thus he was able to pursue his career and continued to attract attention with his self-assured personality and brashly confident music. His compositions of this time include the savagely colorful Scythian Suite (premiered in 1916)—inspired by Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and intended to create similar outrage— and Symphony No. 1 (the “Classical” Symphony, premiered in 1918), which has a sprightly melodic charm that shows a different side to his personality. Prokofiev conducted the premieres of both these works (displaying “barbaric abandon” on the podium, according to one reviewer).

LINA LLUBERA, EARLY 1920s
Prokofiev met the Spanish singer Lina Llubera when he was living in the US. The couple married in 1923, but Prokofiev later left his wife for a younger woman.

Travel and exile

Prokofiev welcomed the Revolution, but the chaos and civil war created an unfavorable environment for a musician. In 1918, he went abroad for a concert tour, which turned into a long exile. He traveled through Siberia to Japan, performing in Tokyo and Yokohama, then went on to San Francisco and, in September 1918, to New York, where he was based for two years. His explosive pianism attracted attention (he was dubbed “the Cossack Chopin”), but reactions were mixed and he was generally unhappy in the US. He did, however, meet a young Spanish singer called Lina Llubera, who was to become his wife in 1923. In 1920, Prokofiev visited Paris and for the next two years divided his time between Europe and the US. Two other Russian émigrés, the conductor Sergei Koussevitzky and the ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev, helped to promote his career in Paris where, in 1921, he scored two major successes: with the Scythian Suite (conducted by Koussevitzky) and the music for the ballet The Buffoon (sometimes known as Chout). These helped make him one of the best-known composers of the day, and in 1922 he moved permanently to Europe (although he continued to visit the US). At first he lived at Ettal in southern Germany, where he spent much of his time preparing his works for publication, giving him a respite from his grueling schedule of touring. Then, in October 1923, he settled in Paris.

LENIN ADDRESSES THE WORKERS
Although sympathetic to the Revolution of 1917, Prokofiev became frustrated by the ensuing turmoil and traveled to the US, where he was based for years. This painting of the revolutionary leader Lenin at the Putilov factory is by Isaak Brodsky.

Recognition and acclaim

In 1927, Prokofiev made a two-month concert tour of the Soviet Union and was given VIP treatment. He also toured widely in Europe and visited the US in 1925, 1930, and 1933, the increasing lyricism of his work appealing to a wider audience than his earlier aggressiveness. Indeed, his reputation in the US was so high that he received prestigious commissions, including one from the Library of Congress for his first string quartet, premiered in 1931. As well as performing in the concert hall, Prokofiev occasionally made recordings, most notably one of his Third Piano Concerto (the most popular of the five he wrote) at London’s Abbey Road Studios in 1932.

ALEXANDER NEVSKY, 2006
The New York Philharmonic (bottom) gives a live performance of Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky, conducted by Xian Zhang, to accompany a screening of Sergei Eisenstein’s 1938 film of the same name (top) at Avery Fisher Hall, New York, in October 2006.

A final return

Prokofiev visited the Soviet Union again in 1928 and 1932, before moving there permanently with his wife and two children in 1936. It was a risky decision: as a world-famous artist he could expect a privileged lifestyle, but no one was entirely safe under Stalin’s tyranny. Initially, he was allowed to keep his passport and he made visits to Europe and even another tour of the US in 1938. However, he was then asked to hand in the passport, ostensibly for routine administrative purposes, and it was never returned, meaning that he was trapped in his homeland.

Prokofiev continued to produce major works, including the music for Sergei Eisenstein’s celebrated film Alexander Nevsky (1938), but he was also obliged to create hollow pieces extolling the Soviet regime—for example, a cantata celebrating Stalin’s 60th birthday (1939). During World War II he was evacuated from Moscow to keep him out of danger and was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the Soviet Union. However, in 1948, along with other composers, he was accused of showing decadent Western influence in his music and had to sign a public apology to “Dear Comrade Stalin.” Soon afterward his wife Lina (whom he had abandoned for a younger woman) was arrested for alleged espionage and spent eight years in Siberian labor camps.

Several of Prokofiev’s works were officially blacklisted, but he was soon rehabilitated, and in 1951 he won the last of his six Stalin Prizes. However, by this time—following a bad fall and a stroke—the composer was seriously ill.

Prokofiev died in Moscow on March 5, 1953—the same day as Stalin. Because of this coincidence, his death passed almost unremarked. It is said that every florist in Moscow was ordered to use their entire stock for Stalin’s funeral, Prokofiev’s mourners consequently had to make do with paper flowers.

IN CONTEXT

Socialist Realism

The term Socialist Realism is used to describe the officially sanctioned theory and practice of art in the Soviet Union under Stalin’s rule (1924–1953). All artists, including painters, writers, and composers, were expected to glorify the state rather than to express their own ideas and personalities. This was supposed to educate and inspire the common people through instilling the principles of Communism, but typically it resulted in stereotyped and often bombastic works.

“STALIN IS OUR BANNER!,” SOVIET AGITPROP POSTER, 1948