Sergei Prokofiev for the anniversary of the composer
Sergei Prokofiev(April 23, 1891 - March 5, 1953) is considered one of the largest, most influential and most performed composers of the 20th century. He was also a pianist and conductor. Disputes often broke out around the work of this composer, since originality and originality always cause a contradictory reaction. However, not only fans, but also those who did not immediately understand Prokofiev's music, felt the powerful strength and brightness of his talent.
The childhood of Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev was born on April 23, 1891 in the Sontsovka estate (now the village of Krasnoye, Donetsk region), where his father, an agronomist, served as the manager of a landowner's estate.
The parents invested all their love and hopes in their son. The boy's musical talent manifested itself very early, and under the guidance of his mother, Maria Grigorievna, Seryozha began music lessons.
At the age of five, he had already composed his first work. Still not knowing the notes, according to rumor, the boy tried to play something of his own on the piano, then learned the notes in order to record this “own”.
First opera - Giant
At the age of nine, under the impression of the opera Faust by C. Gounod, Seryozha decided to compose his own opera, on his own plot. It was an opera Giant in three acts with adventures, fights and more.
The boy's parents were educated people and taught him all the school subjects themselves, but, of course, they could not teach the rules of composing music. Therefore, taking her son on one of her trips to Moscow, Maria Grigoryevna brought him to the famous composer and teacher Sergei Ivanovich Taneev, who recommended that for classes with Serezha, a young composer who had just graduated from the conservatory with a gold medal be invited to Sontsovka for the summer Reinhold Moritsevich Gliere.
Youth Prokofiev
Gliere spent two summers in a row in Sontsovka, studying with Seryozha, and in the fall of 1904, thirteen-year-old Sergei Prokofiev came to St. Petersburg to take an exam at the conservatory, taking with him a solid baggage of compositions. The thick folder contained two operas, a sonata, a symphony and many small piano pieces. song written under the direction of Gliere. Some of the Songs sounded so original and sharp that one of Serezha's friends advised calling them not Songs, but Dogs, because they "bite".
Years of study at the conservatory
Serezha was the youngest student at the conservatory. And, of course, it was difficult for him to make friends with classmates, especially since he sometimes, out of mischief, counted the number of mistakes in the musical tasks of each of the students. But here in the conservatory there always appeared a very restrained, strict, smart Nikolai Yakovlevich Myaskovsky, in the future a famous composer. Despite a ten-year age difference, they formed a lifelong friendship. They showed each other their compositions, discussed them - personally and in letters.
In the classes of composition theory and free composition, Prokofiev's peculiar talent, in general, fell out of favor. Prokofiev did not even dare to show the most daring compositions to teachers, knowing that this would cause bewilderment or irritation. The attitude of the teachers was expressed in very average grades in Prokofiev's composing diploma. But with a degree in piano, he successfully graduated from the conservatory in the spring of 1914.
“If I was indifferent to the poor quality of the composer’s diploma,” Prokofiev later recalled, “this time I was seized by ambition, and I decided to finish the piano first.”
Prokofiev took a risk: instead of the classical piano concerto, he decided to play his own First Concerto, just published, handing over the notes to the examiners in advance. The jubilant music of the concert, full of young enthusiasm, captivated the audience, Prokofiev's performance was a triumph, and he received a diploma with honors and the Anton Rubinstein Prize - a beautiful German piano.
Early work of S. Prokofiev
The creative energy of the young composer Prokofiev was truly volcanic. He worked quickly, boldly, tirelessly, covering a variety of genres and forms. The first piano concerto was followed by the second, followed by the first violin concerto, opera, ballet, romances, Scythian suite with its stunningly bright orchestral colors, spontaneous dynamics and energetic rhythms.
Sergei Prokofiev quickly entered the first row of composers known not only at home but also abroad, although his music has always caused controversy, and some works, especially stage ones, have been waiting for years to be performed. But it was the scene, with its ability to create living human characters, that especially attracted the composer.
In the meantime, he did it in chamber music, for example, in a vocal fairy tale ugly duck(according to Andersen). Each of the inhabitants of the poultry yard is endowed with its own unique character: a sedate mother duck, little enthusiastic ducklings and the main character himself, unfortunate and despised by everyone before turning into a beautiful swan. Hearing this tale by Prokofiev, A.M. Gorky exclaimed: “But he wrote it about himself, about himself!”
In 1918, it was first performed Classical symphony- an elegant composition sparkling with fun and subtle humor, a true classic of the music of the Soviet period. In the composer's work, the symphony began a bright and clear line, which is drawn right up to his later works - the ballet Cinderella, Seventh Symphony.
Life abroad
In the spring of 1918, having received a foreign passport, he left for America. A long stay abroad (until 1933) did not mean a complete separation from the homeland.
Three concert trips to the Soviet Union were an occasion to communicate with old friends and new audiences. In 1926, an opera was staged in Leningrad Love for three oranges, conceived at home, but written abroad. A year before, Prokofiev commissioned S. Diaghilev wrote a ballet steel lope- a number of paintings from the life of the young Soviet republic (it is familiar to listeners in the form of a symphonic suite).
Homecoming
In 1933, Prokofiev finally returned to his homeland. The years following his return proved to be very productive. Works are created one after another, and each of them marks a new, high stage in a particular genre.
Opera Semyon Kotko, ballet , film score Alexander Nevskiy, on the basis of which the composer created the oratorio - all this was included in the golden fund of the music of the Soviet period.
Works of the mature period
The irrepressible boiling of creative thought is replaced by wise poise, interest in the incredible, fabulous, legendary is replaced by interest in real human destinies ( Semyon Kotko- an opera about a young soldier), to the heroic past of his native country ( Alexander Nevskiy, opera), to the eternal theme of love and death ().
At the same time, the humor characteristic of Prokofiev did not disappear. In a fairy tale (for a reader and a symphony orchestra), addressed to the youngest listeners, each character is characterized by some kind of instrument. It turned out to be a kind of guide to the orchestra and at the same time cheerful, funny music.
The pinnacle of Prokofiev's work is his opera. The plot of the great work of L. Tolstoy, recreating the heroic pages of Russian history, was perceived during the years of the Patriotic War (it was then that the opera was created) unusually acute and modern.
This work combined the best, most typical features of his work. Here Prokofiev is both a master of a characteristic intonational portrait, and a muralist who freely composes mass folk scenes, and, finally, a lyricist who created an unusually poetic and feminine image of Natasha.
Creativity Prokofiev had a significant impact on the musical art of the twentieth century. His works are constantly performed by outstanding pianists, violinists, symphony orchestras in all countries of the world. Ballets and Cinderella with success go on many stages of Russia and other countries.
Creative heritage of Prokofiev includes over 130 opuses, including 8 operas, 7 ballets, 7 cantatas, 7 symphonies and a number of other symphonic works (suites, overtures, etc.), 8 concertos, 14 sonatas, chamber ensembles, marches for a brass band, piano pieces, romances, songs, choirs, theater and film music.
Prepared by: Venskaya I.S.