Sergei Prokofiev is an outstanding Russian composer and a person of unique destiny. A man who has amazing abilities and entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory when he was only 13. A man who went abroad after the revolution, but returned to the USSR - with honor and without the stigma of a “defector”. A man of unshakable determination who is not broken life difficulties. He was treated kindly by the authorities, had the highest state awards, and then, during his lifetime, he was consigned to oblivion and disgrace. The man who is called the "sole genius" of the twentieth century and whose amazing works delight listeners around the world.

Brief biography of Sergei Prokofiev and many interesting facts Read about the composer on our page.

Brief biography of Prokofiev

Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev comes from the Ukrainian village of Sontsovka. Exist different versions the date of his birth, but it is advisable to indicate the one that he himself indicated in his “Autobiography” - April 11 (23), 1891. It seems that he was already born a composer, because thanks to his mother, Maria Grigorievna, who played the piano excellently, the Prokofievs’ house was full of music. Interest in the instrument prompted little Seryozha to start learning to play. Since 1902, Sergei Prokofiev began teaching music R.M. Gliere.

Prokofiev became a student at the Moscow Conservatory in 1904. Five years later he graduated from the composition department, and after another five from the piano department, becoming the best graduate. He began giving concerts in 1908. The debut was extremely favorably assessed by critics, and both his performing talent and composer's originality were noted. Since 1911, sheet music of his works has been published. The turning point in the fate of young Prokofiev was his acquaintance with S.P. Diaghilev in 1914. Thanks to the union of the entrepreneur and the composer, four ballets were born. In 1915, Diaghilev organized Prokofiev's first foreign performance with a program consisting of his compositions.

Prokofiev perceived the revolution as destruction, “massacre and game.” Therefore, the next year I went to Tokyo, and from there to New York. He for a long time lived in France, touring the old and new worlds as a pianist. In 1923, he married the Spanish singer Lina Codina, and they had two sons. Coming to performances in Soviet Union, Prokofiev sees an exceptionally cordial, even luxurious, reception from the authorities, a grandiose success with the public that he had never seen abroad, and also receives an offer to return and the promise of the status of “first composer.” And in 1936, Prokofiev moved to Moscow with his family and property. The authorities did not deceive him - a luxurious apartment, well-trained servants, orders pouring in as if from a cornucopia. In 1941, Prokofiev left his family for Mira Mendelsohn.

The year 1948 began with unexpected dramatic events. Prokofiev’s name was mentioned in the party resolution “On the opera “The Great Friendship” by V. Muradeli.” The composer was classified as a “formalist”. As a result, some of his works, in particular the Sixth Symphony, were banned, while others were almost never performed. However, already in 1949 these restrictions were lifted by Stalin’s personal order. It turned out that even the “first composer” of the country does not belong to the untouchable caste. Less than ten days after the publication of the devastating decree, the composer’s first wife, Lina Ivanovna, was arrested. She was sentenced to 20 years in the camps for espionage and treason; she would be released only in 1956. Prokofiev’s health noticeably deteriorated, doctors advised him to hardly work. Nevertheless, in 1952, he personally attended the first performance of his Seventh Symphony, and wrote music even on the last day of his life. On the evening of March 5, 1953, Sergei Prokofiev's heart stopped...

Prokofiev - composer

From Prokofiev's biography we know that at the age of five Seryozha came up with and played his first piece on the piano (the notes were recorded by Maria Grigorievna). Having visited Moscow productions in 1900 " Faust" And " Sleeping beauty“, the child was so inspired by what he heard that just six months later his first opera, “The Giant,” was born. By the time I entered the conservatory, I had accumulated several folders of essays.

The idea of ​​his first grand opera based on the plot of the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky " Player", which in his youth Prokofiev decided to transfer to opera stage, was discussed by the composer primarily with S. Diaghilev. Who, however, was not interested in the idea. Unlike the chief conductor Mariinsky Theater A. Coates, who supported her. The opera was completed in 1916, the roles were assigned, rehearsals began, but due to an unfortunate series of obstacles, the premiere never took place. After a while, Prokofiev made a second edition of the opera, but it Grand Theatre installed only in 1974. During the composer's lifetime, only the second edition was staged by the Brussels La Monnaie Theater in 1929, where the opera was performed in French. The last work written and performed in pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg was the First Symphony. During the period of living abroad the following were created: operas " Love for Three Oranges" And " Fire Angel", three symphonies, many sonatas and plays, music for the film "Lieutenant Kizhe", concerts for cellos, piano, violins with an orchestra.

The return to the USSR is the time of Prokofiev’s rapid creative rise, when the works that became his “ business card» even for those who are little familiar with classical music - ballet "Romeo and Juliet" and the symphonic fairy tale “Peter and the Wolf”. In 1940 Opera theatre them. K.S. Stanislavsky gives the premiere of Semyon Kotko. At the same time, work on the opera “Betrothal in a Monastery” was completed, where M. Mendelssohn co-authored the libretto.

In 1938, S. Eisenstein’s film “Alexander Nevsky” was released, which a few years later was destined to become a symbol of the fight against German fascist invaders. The music of this film, like the director’s second monumental film “Ivan the Terrible,” was written by Sergei Prokofiev. The war years were marked by evacuation to the Caucasus, as well as work on three major works: the Fifth Symphony, ballet "Cinderella", opera " War and Peace" The author of the libretto for this opera and subsequent works by the composer was his second wife. The post-war period is notable primarily for two symphonies - the Sixth, which is considered a kind of requiem for the victims of the war, and the Seventh, dedicated to youth and hopes.

Interesting Facts:

• The version of the opera The Gambler, written for the Mariinsky Theater in 1916, was never staged on its stage. The premiere of the second edition took place only in 1991.
• During Prokofiev's lifetime, only 4 of his operas were staged in the USSR. At the same time, not a single one at the Bolshoi Theater.
• Sergei Prokofiev left two legal widows. A month before the arrest of L. Prokofieva, who did not give him a divorce either for reasons of her own safety, or because she sincerely did not want to let her loved one go, the composer remarried. He was advised to take advantage of the legal provisions of the decree prohibiting marriages with foreigners, which recognized the church marriage with Lina Ivanovna, concluded in Germany, as invalid. Prokofiev hastened to legitimize relations with M. Mendelssohn, thereby exposing ex-wife under the blow of the Soviet repressive machine. After all, with the stroke of a pen and against her will, she turned from Prokofiev’s wife into a lonely foreigner maintaining relationships with other foreigners in Moscow. Upon returning from the camp, the composer's first wife restored all her marital rights through the courts, including a significant part of the inheritance.
• The composer was a brilliant chess player . “Chess is the music of thought” is one of his most famous aphorisms. Once he even managed to win a game against the world chess champion H.-R. Capablanca.

• From 1916 to 1921, Prokofiev collected an album of autographs from his friends who answered the question: “What do you think about the sun?” Among those who responded were K. Petrov-Vodkin, A. Dostoevskaya, F. Chaliapin, A. Rubinstein, V. Burliuk, V. Mayakovsky, K. Balmont. Prokofiev's work is often called sunny, optimistic, and cheerful. Even the place of his birth in some sources is called Solntsevka.
• Prokofiev’s biography notes that in the first years of the composer’s performances in the United States, he was called a “musical Bolshevik” there. The American public turned out to be too conservative to understand his music. In addition, she already had her own Russian idol - Sergei Rachmaninov.
• Upon his return to the USSR, Prokofiev was given a spacious apartment in a house on Zemlyanoy Val, 14, where, in particular, lived: pilot V. Chkalov, poet S. Marshak, actor B. Chirkov, artist K. Yuon. They also allowed us to bring with us a blue Ford purchased abroad, and even get a personal driver.
• Contemporaries noted Sergei Sergeevich’s ability to dress with taste. He was not embarrassed by either bright colors or bold combinations of clothes. He loved French perfumes and expensive accessories such as ties, good wines and gourmet dishes.
• Sergei Prokofiev kept a detailed personal diary for 26 years. But after moving to the Soviet Union, I decided that it would be wiser not to do this anymore.

• After the war, Prokofiev mainly lived in a dacha in the village of Nikolina Gora near Moscow, which he bought with money from the fifth Stalin Prize. In Moscow, his home was three rooms in a communal apartment, where, in addition to the composer and his wife, Mira Abramovna’s stepfather also lived.
• The composer often included fragments and melodies of earlier works in his works. Examples include:
  - the music of the ballet “Ala and Lolliy”, which S. Diaghilev refused to stage, was reworked by Prokofiev into the Scythian Suite;
  - the music of the Third Symphony is taken from the opera “The Fiery Angel”;
  - The Fourth Symphony was born from the music of the ballet “The Prodigal Son”;
  - the theme “Tatar Steppe” from the film “Ivan the Terrible” formed the basis of Kutuzov’s aria in the opera “War and Peace”.
• “Steel Leap” first saw the Russian stage only in 2015, 90 years after its creation.
• The composer finished work on the duet of Katerina and Danila from the ballet “The Tale of the Stone Flower” a few hours before his death.
• Life of S.S. Prokofiev and I.V. Stalin's death ended on the same day, which is why the composer's death was announced on the radio with a delay, and the organization of the funeral was significantly complicated.

Sergei Prokofiev and cinema

The creation of music for films by a composer of this level has no precedent in art. In 1930–40, Sergei Prokofiev wrote music for eight films. One of them, “The Queen of Spades” (1936), was never released due to the fire at Mosfilm, which destroyed the films. Prokofiev's music for his first film, Lieutenant Kizhe, became incredibly popular. Based on it, the composer created a symphonic suite, which was performed by orchestras around the world. Two ballets were subsequently created to this music. However, Prokofiev did not immediately accept the proposal of the filmmakers - his first reaction was refusal. But after reading the script and a detailed discussion of the director’s idea, he became interested in the idea and, as he noted in his Autobiography, he worked quickly and with pleasure on the music for “Lieutenant Kizha.” The creation of the suite required more time, re-orchestration and even reworking of some themes.

Unlike “Lieutenant Kizhe”, the proposal to write music for the film “ Alexander Nevskiy“Prokofiev accepted without hesitation. They had known Sergei Eisenstein for a long time; Prokofiev even considered himself a fan of the director. The work on the film became a triumph of true co-creation: sometimes the composer wrote a musical text, and the director based it on the shooting and editing of the episode, sometimes Prokofiev watched ready material, tapping rhythms on wood with his fingers and bringing back the finished score after a while. The music of “Alexander Nevsky” embodied all the main features of Prokofiev’s talent and deservedly entered the golden fund of world culture. During the war, Prokofiev created music for three patriotic films: “Partisans in the steppes of Ukraine”, “Kotovsky”, “Tonya” (from the film collection “Our Girls”), as well as for the biographical film “Lermontov” (together with V. Pushkov).

Last in time, but not least in importance, was Prokofiev’s work on S. Eisenstein’s film “Ivan the Terrible,” which began in Alma-Ata. The music of “Ivan the Terrible” continues the themes of “Alexander Nevsky” with its folk-epic power. But the second joint film of the two geniuses consists not only of heroic scenes, but also tells the story of a boyar conspiracy and diplomatic intrigue, which required a more diverse musical canvas. This work of the composer was awarded the Stalin Prize. After Prokofiev’s death, the music of “Ivan the Terrible” served as the basis for the creation of an oratorio and ballet.

Despite the fact that the amazing fate of Sergei Prokofiev could form the basis most interesting scenario There are still no films or feature films about the composer’s life. For various anniversaries - from the day of birth or death - only television films and programs were created. Perhaps this is due to the fact that no one undertakes to interpret unambiguously controversial actions Sergei Sergeevich. For what reasons did he return to the USSR? Was the Soviet period of his work conformism or innovation? Why did his first marriage break up? Why did he allow Lina Ivanovna to rashly refuse to evacuate from wartime Moscow and not at least take the children out? And did he even care about anything other than his own vanity and creative fulfillment - the fate of his arrested first wife and his own sons, for example? For these and many others thorny issues no answers. There are opinions and speculations that may be unfair to the great composer.

Poet and researcher Igor Vishnevetsky wrote a biography of Sergei Prokofiev. Individual chapters published on the Internet caused widespread resonance and close attention - Vishnevetsky’s work is enormous and fundamental. The head of the culture department of “Private Correspondent” Dmitry Bavilsky asks the researcher about the great composers of the 20th century. The author talks about his book, the place of music in the twentieth century, about Stravinsky and Shostakovich.

- Igor, who do you consider the greatest composer of the 20th century? Why?

Stravinsky combined the Dionysian and Apollonian principles, Prokofiev - will and optimism, and Shostakovich was the personification of everything that is suffering...

This is a tricky question. Many would agree that the greatest is probably Igor Stravinsky (he himself heard this more than once during his lifetime and never refuted it). Stravinsky combined in his music everything that was possible to combine in his time: from church genres to impressionism, from Russian ritual song to jazz, from philistine romance of the 19th century to dodecaphony, he was both a Russian “barbarian” and a “cultured” Western European , and an American preaching “aesthetic radicalism,” he surprised everyone, influenced everyone, and changed his musical physiognomy several times beyond recognition.

But for me, the wording “the greatest” straightens things out. Stravinsky is not Mozart, he wrote without sparkling ease, and did not possess a significant melodic gift.

Back in the 1920s in Western Europe voices began to be heard that if anyone writes like a modern Mozart, with classical clarity, it is Prokofiev. He himself liked to repeat: “I just classical composer who will be understood in 50 years.”

- How would you distribute the roles in the triumvirate Stravinsky - Prokofiev - Shostakovich?

Stravinsky is an intelligent master who knew what he was doing and almost always achieved success. But this is on the surface. In the Apollonian intellectual as the world remembered him last decades life, there was a Dionysian gut, manifested in many early works, and in actions, and in everyday behavior - throughout his life.

Composer Vladimir Martynov told me that his father, who at one time held the post of secretary of the Union of Composers, met with Stravinsky abroad, I think in Yugoslavia, in the 1960s, and the eighty-year-old composer drank a bottle of vodka without much difficulty during the conversation.

This is generally a detail that is repeated in stories about the greats - just remember the story of the bottle of wine that the elderly but vigorous Goethe drained in front of the amazed visitors to his Weimar home every morning.

“What is this,” those present said to Martynov Sr. regarding Stravinsky’s table behavior, “but before he also danced on the table.”

It is very, very difficult to imagine Prokofiev and Shostakovich “dancing on the table” after a bottle of vodka.

Prokofiev is passionate, strong-willed in music, the embodiment of sobriety and clarity in life behavior.

He refused, as we know, from excessive smoking and drinking alcohol, and belonged to the “Christian Science” church, which rationally interprets the Holy Scriptures. But faith in the triumph of the rational over the chaotic failed him more than once: the flow of life is unreasonable by nature.

Stravinsky and Prokofiev constantly looked back at each other. The first is out of fear that his younger compatriot will supplant and surpass him in fame and glory; Prokofiev, knowing that he could learn a lot from his senior colleague.

Shostakovich looked at both with admiration, but if Prokofiev understood the scale of Shostakovich’s talent, then Stravinsky pretended that such a composer as Shostakovich did not exist.

Of all three, Shostakovich is the most immersed in the heroic and insignificant world of the human, and that is why his fear of death is so obvious.

Neither Stravinsky, an Orthodox believer, nor Prokofiev, convinced in accordance with Christian Science of the illusory nature of the material world and the suffering and death associated with it, has any trace of such fear.

To summarize, we can say that Stravinsky combined the Dionysian and Apollonian principles, Prokofiev embodied will and optimism, and Shostakovich was the personification of everything that is suffering and at the same time a protest against the suffering position in which a person of the 20th century was often placed.

- How do you feel about the statement that in the twentieth century symphonic music replaced philosophy in Russia?

I accept it. Not only symphonic music, but music in general, including opera and chamber music, popular and applied music, as well as reflections on this music against the backdrop of tectonic shifts in society.

It is clear that Russia followed Germany here. The sonata form of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven with its collision and synthesis of opposites is a phenomenon of the same type as Hegel’s ternary dialectic (thesis - antithesis - synthesis).

In Russia, philosophy in the former academic sense has lost touch with real processes, Andrei Bely felt this long before the musicians, ridiculing the “advanced” professorial thinking in the collective character Zadopyatov.

By the way, Bely considered himself a philosopher of practical reason (this is how he defined poets) and began with imitations of music in proso-poetic “symphonies.”

- Why did you choose Prokofiev for the biography?

In my opinion, Prokofiev is the most vital of all Russian composers of the 20th century. His best works leave a feeling of almost physical happiness. It is a great pleasure to write about such an artist.

I also think I understand why Prokofiev left Russia in 1918 and why he returned in 1936. I also left Russia for a long time in the early 1990s.

Revolutionary times, which delight us with the speed of change, are not conducive to serious creativity. More precisely, it gives him a powerful impulse, but you need to keep your distance so as not to burn you out. Prokofiev returned to the USSR when, as he put it, the “Soviet revolution” ended and Stalin’s Thermidor began.

I thought about Prokofiev for many years. I recently found a student’s work from 1977 about “Romeo and Juliet”, where, by the way, I refer to an article by the Soviet musicologist Ivan Martynov, whose story about Stravinsky I just quoted.

Prokofiev's life is divided into two parts - before and after his return to the USSR. Which of these periods seems more interesting and fruitful to you?

The most interesting period seems to me to be from about 1917 to about 1945: from the beginning of the revolution and the Civil War (in which Prokofiev sympathized with the whites) until the end of the Second World War, to which - namely the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - Prokofiev responded, without any sympathy, with a sarcastic inverted monostich: “There’s uranium there! the shelves are in reserve and the bug is out! mat!"

This period includes both the years abroad and the time after returning to the USSR. This is the time of true self-discovery, of the best Prokofiev operas - the improvisational “Love for Three Oranges”, the demonological “Fire Angel”, the second edition of “The Player” with a strong Eurasian overtones (in the 1920s the composer actively communicated with the leaders of the Eurasians), the heroic-revolutionary “Semyon Kotko”, striking in its lyrical purity “Betrothal in a Monastery”, the super-opera “War and Peace” that exceeds itself, created as a projection onto the present day of the events of the Patriotic War of 1812, brilliant, cosmically incantatory cantatas - “The Seven of Them”, “Cantatas for The 20th Anniversary of October", "Zdravitsa", the Third Piano Concerto, ballets in which one is better than the other and the most famous of them is "Romeo and Juliet", cyclopean in power symphonic music from the Second Symphony to “Ode to the End of the War,” music for Sergei Eisenstein’s films, which formed the basis for the principle of “vertical editing” they developed together, chamber music that combined iron will and piercing lyricism... This is almost all of Prokofiev as the listener loves him .

A sharp stylistic transition from pre-Soviet to Soviet period Prokofiev did not. In his life, Prokofiev also strove to maintain integrity and continuity - he did not interrupt either pre-revolutionary or foreign contacts.

Then it started cold war, and free communication across borders became absolutely impossible.

- What would you answer to those who consider Prokofiev’s music difficult?

Any real art is not easy, it requires interested participation. In this case - listening. After all, music, as we have already recognized, turned out to be something like a replacement for practical philosophy for Russians in the 20th century.

The reward for the listener who has made the effort will be the discovery of unexpected meanings, which, perhaps, will change our ideas about the universe, about the place and possibilities of man in history. Art should amaze and shock, and Prokofiev's music is capable of this.

It is impossible to enter into dialogue with something that is easily and immediately understandable. When meanings lie on the surface, there is no desire to dig deeper beneath them.

- What is the reason for the abundance of books and publications about Prokofiev and his circle recently?

In Russian culture, it is time to reassess the heritage of the 20th century, and that is why the golden age of the biographical genre. Finally!

Prokofiev has long been declared a classic, but knowledge about him was incomplete. There is still no adequate collection of his works - musical and literary. The colossal volume of correspondence has not been properly published.

The huge archive of Prokofiev, distributed between the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art and the State central museum musical culture named after Glinka.

The materials, or rather copies of various materials, collected in the Sergei Prokofiev archive at Goldsmiths College, University of London, are also extremely interesting.

Almost anyone who turns to archival materials is doomed to discover something unexpected and new.

When I, for example, started reading everything that was stored in RGALI, it was a discovery for me that a significant part of the papers were in English. Although Prokofiev did not live in the USA and three years(1918-1921) and spent most of the foreign period in France, English became his second language of communication after Russian.

Among domestic publications, I would like to note a series of Prokofiev collections published under the editorship of the scientific secretary of the Glinka Museum, Marina Rakhmanova.

Work to popularize the legacy of Prokofiev and his creative circle is carried out by the Prokofiev Museum, headed by Galina Sakharova, on Kamergersky Lane (a branch of the State Central Museum of Art and Culture), located in the house where Prokofiev lived in the last period of his life. The museum regularly hosts concerts and meetings with those who remember Prokofiev.

- What was the relationship between Shostakovich and Prokofiev?

Shostakovich admired Prokofiev, Prokofiev was very interested and kept his distance. He was a little irritated by Shostakovich's popularity among the so-called Soviet intelligentsia.

Thinking Soviet man remained alien to Prokofiev - he finally returned to the country in the summer of 1936, when he managed to buy an apartment in Moscow, and did not agree with everything that was happening around him.

He was even less inclined to the passive, passeistic perception of his surroundings, so characteristic of Shostakovich. From about 1942, after the phenomenal success of Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony (“Leningrad”), Prokofiev began to gradually move into second place in the minds of Soviet listeners. This couldn't help but bother him.

- Do you find Prokofiev a “pleasant” person? Could you make friends with him?

Judging by what we know, Prokofiev was an open and honest person, responsible for his words and actions, incapable of empty compliments, sarcastic at times, always ready to help with deeds, devoid of respect for titles and official merits. Such a person cannot be called pleasant in the secular sense, but his devotion to friends and relatives, the ability to forgive when necessary are undoubted. To make friends with such a person is a great success.

- Are the allegations that Prokofiev was arrogant true?

If the listed qualities create the image of an arrogant person, then probably, but I don’t see arrogance in Prokofiev. IN Soviet years Out of caution, he had to hide his natural, almost childish straightforwardness behind external non-contact and businesslike dryness.

Could he be frank with those who envied him and in 1948 rejoiced at the “anti-formalist” persecution? The sharply negative speeches of those who had previously glorified him after an open audition at the end of 1948 of “The Tale of a Real Man” - now, as we know thanks to Gergiev’s performances, a wonderful opera - testified to the hypocritical environment in which Prokofiev had to exist.

- How would Prokofiev’s life have turned out if he had not returned to the USSR?

I think that it would have proceeded immeasurably more normally. He certainly would not have experienced those ups and those tragic moments, that glory and that blasphemy that befell him in the 30s and 40s... Perhaps leaving the family would not have happened, in which the tragic tension of the late 30s also played a role. X.

As a pianist, and as a concert pianist, Prokofiev was magnificent; he was inferior abroad in fame to Rachmaninov, as a composer - to Stravinsky.

The role of the famous, but always on the sidelines, foreign Russian would have been destined for him for the rest of his life. And this would have weighed heavily on the competitive Prokofiev.

Prokofiev certainly would not have written the magnificent film music that he created for Eisenstein: but in 1938, after returning to the USSR, he was called to write for Hollywood. He would not have created either “Romeo and Juliet”, or the apocalyptic “Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of October”, or the encyclopedic “War and Peace”.

Parisian music criticism wrote in the early 30s that Prokofiev was “practically a citizen” in the French capital. The word “practically” is important here; formal recognition of Prokofiev finally his with all the ensuing consequences, it still didn’t happen.

I think that in such an atmosphere a creative decline would have awaited him.

- How much did criticism of the CPSU Central Committee influence Prokofiev’s music?

The 1948 decree on “formalism” in music and the subsequent arrest of his first wife Lina Prokofieva, with whom the composer broke up back in 1941, leaving for Mira Mendelssohn, broke Prokofiev.

Eventually the composer returned to the USSR goodwill, in bad times for the country, and to earn the label of an anti-national and unpatriotic composer, to realize that you are personally responsible for the imprisonment of the mother of your own children, for Prokofiev, who trusted in everything home country, became an unbearable blow. Life and creativity lost their meaning.

But Prokofiev was a direct and sincere man and at first took this criticism as it was.

In fact, much less talented colleagues simply settled scores with him, as well as with Shostakovich, Khachaturian, Myaskovsky and many others.

The music that Prokofiev began to write after 1948 was reminiscent of his early writings. This was Prokofiev almost half a century ago, a completely different composer. From time to time something unprecedentedly tragic appeared. But Prokofiev, as we know him before 1948 and who caused a flurry of “anti-formalist” fire, was little there.

He was unable to recover from the blow.

Is it true that Prokofiev used a “double code” when he wrote “orthodox” Soviet works (such as the opera “The Tale of a Real Man”), putting into them completely non-Soviet content?

Prokofiev always emphasized that he writes high-quality music, that is, not one-dimensional. And where there is depth, there is the possibility of free interpretations, uncontrolled meanings, space for myth.

“The Tale of a Real Man,” deliberately written on an extremely non-operatic text, selected from a story by Boris Polevoy, tells not just about a Soviet hero pilot who learned to fly without both feet, but about a person overcoming severe injuries caused by the war, about the ability even in such able to crush the power of space and time - after all, flying through the air borders on magic, about the birth of a “real person”, full of superhuman strength.

It was about the illusory nature of space and time, illness and suffering that Prokofiev taught Christian Science. The magical side of the musical narrative is emphasized by constant - metaphorical - references to purely pagan images of formation and growth: the music of the choir of partisans who found Alexei in the forest “A young oak tree grew up in a grove” from the first act of the opera is repeated in the scene where Alexey in the hospital promises to fly again and become "a real person." That is, it is at this moment that masculine strength returns to him (the phallic nature of the images of a young oak tree, growth, and upward movement is beyond doubt).

Prokofiev himself was not a Soviet person by his mentality - neither before nor after 1948. The “double code” simply comes from the fact that for Prokofiev there always lay some archetypal content beneath the surface.

When, starting in 1948, they began to demand from him precisely the deterioration and flattening of his own music, he sincerely did not understand how this could be demanded. “After all, I write high-quality music,” he repeated to numerous acquaintances.

This was the root of the “problem”. Quality art is difficult. It cannot be manipulated for extraneous purposes.

- What should an ideal (or close to it) biography be like?

Prokofiev's life and his music flowed in amazing unity. It’s impossible to even imagine any split or breakdown here.

Close to ideal will be the biography that presents Prokofiev’s work in unity with his emotional, religious, political searches, with attempts to create a domestic analogue of Wagner’s “complete work of art”; that biography, finally, that will show how closely the musical and literary creativity.

Prokofiev was not a pure composer.

You are better known as a poet. How did your poetic work help you in writing the biography of Prokofiev?

I wrote a prosaic text. But in prose, the breathing, even the construction of the phrase, is different. Prose is for those who are capable of long breaths. My research prose (so-called articles) helped me much more in developing such breathing than poetry.

But knowledge of the internal impulses of creativity kept me from excessive theorizing and grounded my ideas about how this or that musical image, motive, plot arose in Prokofiev’s mind. Laws different types creativity are similar.

My early music lessons helped me much more. Once upon a time, about thirty years ago, I dreamed of becoming a composer, I seriously studied the history and theory of music. For a long time I had dreams in which I saw music in color and in the form of scores, which, composing itself, literally haunted me. These dreams stopped as soon as I started writing about music.

It seems to me that in literature I was able to express myself better.

Dmitry Bavilsky spoke with Igor Vishnevetsky

2016 is an anniversary year for the great composer Sergei Prokofiev and the great writer Mikhail Bulgakov. They were born in 1891, in the spring: the composer - in April, the writer - in May. Both are from Ukraine. Bulgakov was eager to leave the country, where it was cramped and stuffy for him, but they didn’t let him in: a lot has been written about this. Prokofiev, encouraged by Lunacharsky, happily left post-revolutionary Russia in 1918. But he returned. There is not a single article, not a single book devoted to the life of Prokofiev, in which the question would not be posed:

"Why?" Why did he return from Europe to an unfree country during its darkest years?

Was Fate more favorable to him?

I am categorically against everyday curiosity about biography outstanding person. But each of the greats has life moments that are important for those who truly care about them to know about. The reasons for Prokofiev’s return to the USSR are as significant for understanding his work as, for example, the reasons for the duel between Pushkin and Dantes to penetrate the depths latest works poet.

The date of the composer’s final arrival in the USSR is most often given as 1936.

A characteristic detail: he decides to stay in his country on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the death of Pushkin.

There is a certain duality in such a coincidence. On the one hand, this is a bright moment: the return to the homeland was illuminated by the name of the great poet. On the other hand, it was as if a shadow flashed from the painful last days life of Pushkin.

1936 became the most Pushkin-like year in the composer’s work: he began working on music for the dramatic performances “Eugene Onegin”, “Boris Godunov”, for the film “The Queen of Spades”, and on romances based on the poet’s poems. After such a bright, climactic page, further in the life of Sergei Prokofiev, Pushkin’s notes sounded implicitly. But an opera about Pushkin based on Bulgakov’s play “The Last Days” could have been born. Her plan was discussed by Prokofiev and Bulgakov...

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Sergei Prokofiev came to Soviet Russia with concerts, came to see the Moscow and Leningrad productions of the opera “The Love for Three Oranges”. I even received a Soviet passport. Of course, these were official visits, short holiday visits. Prokofiev could not notice anything that should have alerted him. Almost nothing. Tiny “almost” still flicker in his diary entries. To notice, to understand, it took time even for those who lived here. In his work, Prokofiev demonstrated brilliant forms of rational-analytical work with musical material, but he was not inclined to analyze practical life situations, especially to the forecast of their development.

The composer saw that the musical life in his homeland was in full swing, people were interested in his music, and it was heard.

For him, not just the opportunity for creative self-expression was very important, but also public interest, namely: the performance of works, full houses at concerts, performances, press attention - in a word, demand, recognition.

It is worth clarifying: the composer did not at all strive for such manifestations of success that would indicate artistic narcissism. Much has already been said about the dominance of extroverted qualities in Prokofiev’s personality. This is true. But there is one more detail: probably, until his last days, the musician retained some childishness in his relations with outside world. Moments of praise and encouragement were dear to him - and this, I insist, is a child’s need, and not “adult” vanity. No matter how in his youth he flaunted his “indifference” to the public’s reaction, he could not do without dialogue with the listener, without a live response.

In Europe, it was not so easy for Prokofiev to achieve generous praise: Igor Stravinsky, the “young French,” was nearby. Interest in the composer as a “musical curiosity” from the Land of the Soviets gradually faded away. He felt it and strived for a different situation. Perhaps this desire played an important role in the decision to return.

And as for the atmosphere that developed in the USSR... Mikhail Romm, with whom Prokofiev worked on “The Queen of Spades,” wrote: “Every day we learned something terrible and surprising. So, in the end, we began to doubt what kind of world we were living in.” In the memoirs of Ilya Ehrenburg dating back to 1937, there is the following moment: “Once upon a time in a club<писателей >I met S.S. Prokofiev - he performed his own pieces on the piano. He was sad, even stern, and told me: “Now we need to work. Just work. This is salvation...”

One can think about what kind of music Prokofiev would have written if he had remained abroad. Someone will say: there would be no what is often called simplification, self-denial. It seems to me that the works created by Prokofiev back in the 1920s - such as the opera “The Fiery Angel”, the Second Symphony - contain such a high concentration of stylistic and linguistic complexity, such a powerful advance of their time, that even today, in 2016, we are not quite ready to perceive them in a comprehensive, holistic way. Figuratively speaking, Prokofiev even then saw the twentieth century in perspective, foresaw Schnittke, Tishchenko, Shchedrin.

This probably sounds somewhat cynical, but without those tragic trials that Sergei Prokofiev had to overcome, his brilliant Seventh Symphony would not have been born.

For all its transparency, it conceals such a depth of understanding of life that is available only to masters in their last word. It contains light, shadow, abyss, and a clear horizon line. Prokofiev had to go through his own path in order to find a simple, laconic form for the immeasurable content. And there is certainly no compromise in this.

Was the Master right in returning to his homeland?.. I would venture to guess: in the Seventh Symphony, the last, farewell, he is wise and bright - like in no other composition.

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Academic music of the 20th century in faces

Sergei Prokofiev could have become not only a recognized composer, but also a writer. Despite difficult circumstances, both his character and his work remained optimistic. Without a doubt, his works are an important element of academic music of the 20th century. Concepture continues to highlight the most prominent composers of this period.

Perhaps you didn't know:

Child of the Sun From 1916 to 1921, Prokofiev collected an album of autographs from his friends who answered the question: “What do you think about the sun?” Later it will be called “Wooden Book”. Among those who responded were K. Petrov-Vodkin, A. Dostoevskaya, F. Chaliapin, A. Rubinstein, V. Burliuk, V. Mayakovsky, K. Balmont. Prokofiev's work is often called sunny, optimistic, and cheerful. He even called his place of birth (the village of Sontsovka) in the Little Russian manner - So(l)tsevka.

The favorite of the authorities In the 30s, the USSR authorities called him home and promised him the status of “first composer”, Better conditions, despite the fact that in general repatriates are treated rather poorly (calling them “defectors”). He was given a huge apartment in a house on Zemlyanoy Val, 14, where the pilot V. Chkalov, the poet S. Marshak and others lived. He was allowed to bring a blue Ford and get a personal driver. After the war, Prokofiev mainly lived at his dacha in the village of Nikolina Gora near Moscow (bought with the Stalin Prize).

Musical prodigy Love of music little Sergei it was instilled in him by his mother Maria Grigorievna, who was a good pianist. At the age of five he composed his first work - the play “Indian Gallop”. By the age of ten, he would have already written the opera “The Giant” and the first act of the second opera “On the Deserted Islands.”

The cardinal advantage (or, if you like, disadvantage) of my life has always been the search for the 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), Lyadova (composition), Esipova (piano). At the 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 in his programs and own works, which caused 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 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 serious illness, Prokofiev creates many significant works: the Sixth (1947) and Seventh (1952) symphonies, the 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 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 of 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 new music of our century together 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); 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 specific musical characters. This line of creativity especially deepened in the 40s due to the difficult trials that befell the Soviet people during the war. 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. He must chant human life and lead a person 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 his spiritual generosity and kindness, in his commitment to high humanistic ideas, in wealth artistic expression his works.

In 1945, in England, Prokofiev was awarded the “Royal Gold Medal” from the English government. However, during the ceremony an incident occurred: after saying a long welcome speech, English ambassador I suddenly discovered that the medal itself was missing! There was a pause, Prokofiev stood in complete confusion, he was about to leave, when the ambassador finally came to his senses and... solemnly placed his gold watch in the composer’s hand. Most of the journalists and guests did not understand what happened, which is why Sergei Sergeevich looks so confused. The ambassador whispered to the laureate that the medal would arrive any minute. Meanwhile, a concert of the composer's works began. After him, the ambassador quietly handed Prokofiev a box with a medal.
“And please return the watch,” the ambassador asked, smiling, “it is dear to me, like a memory.”
“Forgive me, my gold watch is also dear to me,” the composer answered quite seriously.
Now the ambassador was confused:
- But-oh... we didn’t agree like that...
“You gave them to me, in front of everyone,” Prokofiev was indignant, hiding a smile. - Now ask for it back! This is just robbery in broad daylight!...
- Yes... you're right, but...
“Well, since you liked my watch so much, I can give it to you,” Prokofiev finally laughed and returned it. happy ambassador his watch.