The People's Artist: Prokofiev's Soviet Years

Synopsis

Sergey Prokofiev was one of the twentieth century's greatest composers--and one of its greatest mysteries. In 1918, he escaped a Russia engulfed in revolution, eventually settling in Paris. Then, in 1936, he surprisingly returned to the increasingly brutal Soviet Union. There he seemed to disappear, the details of his life and work filtered by a security apparatus that kept Prokofiev--and his legacy--under careful guard. Until now. In The People's Artist, Simon Morrison draws on groundbreaking research to illuminate the life of this major composer, offering profound new insight into the master's work. Morrison was the first scholar to gain access to the composer's sealed files in the Russian State Archives, where he uncovered a wealth of previously unknown scores, unexpurgated speeches and writings, correspondence, and unopened journals and diaries. The story he found in these hoarded documents is one of lofty hopes and disillusionment, of personal and creative upheavals. Prokofiev seemed to thrive on uncertainty during his Paris years, stashing scores in suitcases and drafting librettos and scenarios on hotel letterhead. He stunned his fellow émigrés by returning at a time when the All-Union Committee on Arts Affairs took command of all musical activities. At first, Stalin's regime treated him as a celebrity, but Morrison details how the bureaucratic machine ground him down with corrections and censorship (forcing rewrites of such major works as Romeo and Juliet and War and Peace), until it finally censured him in 1948, ending his career and breaking his health. Along the way, the author deftly analyzes Prokofiev's music in light of these archival discoveries. Morrison combines truly groundbreaking research with astute musical analysis to create a stark new image of a great composer. Additionally, Morrison discusses in detail Prokofiev's Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh symphonies, the Ninth piano sonata, the cello sonata, the Violin sonata in d minor and his last complete work, the Sinfonia Concertante. Simon Morrison is Professor of Music at Princeton University. He is the author of Russian Opera and the Symbolist Movement and the editor of Prokofiev and His World. He restored the original, uncensored version of Romeo and Juliet for the Mark Morris Dance Group, which premiered the work in July 2008.

Copyright:

2009

Book Details

Book Quality:

Excellent

Book Size:

507 Pages

ISBN-13:

9780195181678

Publisher:

Oxford University Press

Date of Addition:

01/07/21

Copyrighted By:

Oxford University Press, Inc.

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

History, Nonfiction, Biographies and Memoirs, Music

Submitted By:

Terry Gorman

Proofread By:

Terry Gorman

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.