Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev
6 min read
Russian, then Soviet, composer, pianist and conductor, one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century. His work, marked by a biting lyricism and great rhythmic inventiveness, spans symphonies, operas, ballets and film scores.
Frequently asked questions
Key Facts
- Born in 1891 in Sontsovka (Russian Empire), died in 1953 in Moscow on the same day as Stalin
- Composed Peter and the Wolf in 1936, a musical tale for orchestra meant to introduce children to the instruments
- Created the ballet Romeo and Juliet (1935-1938), whose 'Dance of the Knights' is famous worldwide
- Composed the score for Sergei Eisenstein's film Alexander Nevsky (1938)
- Left Russia after the 1917 revolution, then returned for good to the USSR in 1936
Works & Achievements
A musical tale for children in which each character is represented by an instrument; one of the most performed educational works in the world.
A ballet after Shakespeare, whose “Dance of the Knights” has become universally famous.
A symphony written in the manner of Haydn but with a modern touch; a triumph of elegance and musical wit.
A whimsical, satirical opera premiered in Chicago, whose famous March has remained popular.
Music for Eisenstein's film, later a cantata, celebrating Russian resistance; a high point of film music.
A vast symphony composed during the war, seen as a hymn to the greatness of the human spirit.
A monumental opera after Tolstoy's novel, the fruit of more than ten years of work.
Anecdotes
A child prodigy, Prokofiev composed his first little opera, *The Giant*, at the age of 9, and had it performed by his family. At 13, he was already enrolled at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, where his teachers found him insolent but incredibly gifted.
For his musical tale *Peter and the Wolf* (1936), Prokofiev had the brilliant idea of assigning an instrument to each character: the flute for the bird, the oboe for the duck, the French horn for the wolf. The work thus teaches children to recognize the timbres of the orchestra, and remains one of the most performed classical pieces in the world.
Prokofiev died on March 5, 1953, exactly the same day as Stalin. With the whole country's attention turned toward the dictator's death, the passing of the great composer went almost unnoticed, and it was very difficult to find flowers for his funeral, as they had all been requisitioned for Stalin.
A great chess enthusiast, Prokofiev once faced world champion José Raúl Capablanca in a simultaneous exhibition and managed to beat him. He used to say that chess was for him a “music of thought.”
In 1948, the Soviet regime accused Prokofiev of “formalism,” an artistic crime invented by those in power. Several of his works were banned, and the composer, ill and impoverished, had to write letters of self-criticism in order to survive.
Primary Sources
My mother played the piano, and it was while listening to her that the desire to compose was born in me. I was five and a half years old when I wrote my first piece.
The chief failing is to seek originality at any cost. On the contrary, one must say what one has to say, simply and clearly.
The composers Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Khachaturian... represent the formalist tendency, alien to the Soviet people.
Key Places
Village in the Russian Empire, in present-day Ukraine, where Prokofiev was born and spent his childhood on the agricultural estate managed by his father.
Prestigious Russian music school where Prokofiev studied composition, piano and conducting from the age of 13.
Capital where Prokofiev settled in the 1920s, collaborating with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes at the heart of European artistic life.
Country where Prokofiev took refuge after the 1917 revolution; the Chicago Opera premiered his opera “The Love for Three Oranges” in 1921.
Soviet capital where Prokofiev returned to live permanently in 1936, knew glory and then the disgrace of 1948, and where he died in 1953.