Brief biography of Prokofiev, composer's work
The biography of Prokofiev, the great Russian and Soviet composer, is so large and versatile that it is sometimes hard to imagine how it all fit in one person? A pianist, music writer, film composer, conductor - in addition, Sergei Sergeevich created his own unique composing style, was fond of chess and Christian Science. From this article you can find out a brief biography of Prokofiev, as well as the main periods of his creative life.
Childhood and youth
The biography of Sergey Sergeevich Prokofiev begins in the village of Sontsovka, located in the Yekaterinoslav province (modern Donetsk region of Ukraine), on April 15 (27), 1891, in a merchant family. Sergei's mother, Maria Grigorievna, mastered the piano while studying at the gymnasium and often performed works by Beethoven and Chopin at home. Little Seryozha often sat down at the keys next to his mother, memorizing her playing visually and by ear. From the age of five, Prokofiev Seryozha began his musical biography, composing at such a young age his first piece - "Indian Gallop". Maria Grigorievna taught her son how to notate works, and all subsequent small rondos and waltzes of his own composition were recorded by the child prodigy Prokofiev on his own.
At the age of nine, Prokofiev wrote his first opera called The Giant, and at 11 he played it to the famous composer and teacher Sergei Taneyev. Taneyev was impressed by the boy's talent and agreed with his friend, also a famous composer Reinhold Gliere, to train Serezha Prokofiev.
Study and the beginning of creativity
The entire early biography of Sergei Prokofiev is compiled from his personal diaries, which he kept in detail and accurately throughout his life. Already in 1909, at the age of 18, Sergei graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory as a conductor, and five years later, also as a pianist. His teachers were such great musicians as Rimsky-Korsakov, Lyadov and Cherepnin. Also during his studies, he met other future great composers - Sergei Rachmaninov and Igor Stravinsky. In the photo below, Prokofiev while studying at the conservatory.
After his debut performance with his own works on the piano, Prokofiev's work was called bold and original, with "unbridled play of fantasy and extravagance of style." The status of an "extreme modernist" was assigned to the novice composer.
In 1913, after Prokofiev's performance with the Second Piano Concerto, the audience was clearly divided into those who admired the composer and those who criticized him, calling the work "scandalous and futuristic".
The best works and world recognition
From 1918 to 1936, the biography of the composer Prokofiev tells about his American period of life. Sergei Sergeevich took the October Revolution calmly, since he never belonged to either the white or the red movement. He emigrated in search of new inspiration.
Having achieved recognition on the other side of the ocean, the composer returns to his homeland. During the Great Patriotic War, he did not stop working, his best works at that moment were the ballet Cinderella, the opera War and Peace and the Fifth Symphony. The Fifth, along with Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony, are considered the most important works created during the Patriotic War. An excerpt from Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony performed by a symphony orchestra can be seen below.
In 1948, Sergei Prokofiev, along with other avant-garde composers such as Shostakovich and Khachaturian, was criticized for "formalism and futurism" by the Committee for Arts, after which many of Sergei Sergeyevich's works were banned. But fortunately, Joseph Stalin was very interested in the work and biography of Prokofiev, and therefore in 1949, on the personal order of the leader, the ban was lifted, and the actions of the Committee were severely condemned.
Composer's unique style
In world history, the biography of Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev is distinguished, first of all, by the creation of a unique musical language. The techniques that distinguish the composer's works consisted in the use of a special form of the dominant (later it was called the Prokofiev dominant), linear and dissonant chords, as well as chromatic clusters that combine pitches when performing "intrusive" musical phrases. The compositional, anti-romantic rhythmics, which give many of Prokofiev's works an expressive fragmentation, are also peculiar.
Film works
Throughout his life, the composer wrote music for eight Soviet films. The most famous film works in the biography of Prokofiev are compositions written for the films of the famous director Sergei Eisenstein: "Alexander Nevsky" (1938) and "Ivan the Terrible" (1945). Eisenstein was delighted to work with the great composer, as the director and musician had a similar, avant-garde approach to creativity. Subsequently, Prokofiev finalized the music composed for these films into the form of independent works. An excerpt from the film "Ivan the Terrible" with Prokofiev's composition can be seen below.
Artwork for children
In Prokofiev's creative biography, many works have been written for children, for example, the ballets "Cinderella" and "The Tale of the Stone Flower", compositions for the choir "The Ballad of the Boy Remaining Unknown", "Winter Campfire", "Guarding the World".
But the most famous children's work of Prokofiev, without a doubt, is the symphonic fairy tale "Peter and the Wolf". Sergei Sergeevich composed this work and put it on his own text in 1936, for staging in a children's theater. "Peter and the Wolf" was the composer's first work after returning to his homeland.
In addition to performances, there are several animated versions of this fairy tale: the first was created in 1946 at the Walt Disney Studios. Then two Soviet puppet cartoons were released (in 1958 and 1976), as well as a Polish-British, also a puppet cartoon, awarded the Oscar in 2006.
other hobbies
Being a very versatile person, Sergei Prokofiev was engaged not only in music - his second passion was literature. Everything that came out of his pen was marked by the extraordinary writing abilities: this is a huge "Autobiography", covering the composer's life from birth to 1909, and his diaries, and all the librettos and stories he composed, filled with optimism and a wonderful sense of humor.
In addition to music and literature, Sergei Sergeevich was seriously fond of chess and called it "the music of thought." From 1914 to 1937, Prokofiev managed to play games with such famous chess players as Capablanca, Lasker and Tartakower.
Personal life
In 1923, Prokofiev married the Catalan chamber singer Lina Codina, who bore him two sons, Svyatoslav and Oleg. In the photo below, the composer with his wife and sons.
Despite mutual understanding with his wife and eighteen years of marriage, in 1941 Prokofiev left the family and began to live with a student of the Faculty of Philology, Mira Mendelson. In 1948, Sergei Prokofiev married Mira without divorcing his first wife. In subsequent legal proceedings, both marriages were declared valid. In this regard, the term "Prokofiev's case" was introduced by Soviet lawyers, referring to such incidents. A photo of Prokofiev and his second wife is presented below.
Sergei Sergeevich lived with Mira Mendelson-Prokofieva until the end of his days. The great composer Prokofiev died on March 5, 1953 - on the same day Joseph Stalin died, and therefore the death of the composer went unnoticed for a long time.