Prokofiev
Prokofiev
Prokofiev
Sergey Prokofiev
Country Russia
Birth Apr 23, 1891 in Sontsovka, Russia
Death Mar 5, 1953 in Moscow, Russia
Period Modern
Composition All Works (175)
Types Keyboard Music (47)
Orchestral Music (40)
Chamber Music (15)
Vocal Music (13)
Choral Music (13)
Concerto (10)
Opera (8)
Symphony (8)
Film Music (7)
Ballet Music (7)
Band Music (3)
In breathing new life into the symphony, sonata, and concerto, Sergey
Prokofiev (1891 - 1953) emerged as one of the truly original musical
voices of the twentieth century. Bridging the worlds of pre-Revolutionary
Russia and the Stalinist Soviet Union, Prokofiev
enjoyed a successful worldwide career as com-
poser and pianist. As in the case of most other
Soviet-era composers, his creative life and his
music came to suffer under the duress of offi-
cial Party strictures. Still, despite the detriment-
al personal and professional effects of such
outside influences, Prokofiev continued until
the end of his career to produce music marked
by a singular skill, inventiveness, and élan.
Prokofiev's earliest renown came as a result of
both his formidable pianistic technique and the
works he wrote to exploit it. After producing a
prodigious quantity of juvenilia, Prokofiev
sprang onto the Russian musical scene with
works like the Toccata, Op. 12 (1912) and Sar-
casms, Op. 17 (1912 - 14). While Prokofiev con-
tinued to produce character pieces like Visions fugitives, Op. 22 (1915 -
17) and Music for Children, Op. 65 (1935), it is his piano sonatas that con-
stitute his most important contribution to the solo piano repertoire. The
ten sonatas (some of which remain incomplete, some of which were ex-
tensively reworked into alternate versions) remain a virtual catalogue of
the composer's development through the course of six decades. As im-
portant as the sonatas are Prokofiev's five piano concerti, of which the Pi-
ano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26 (1917 - 21) has remained the most
consistent concert staple. Though the Piano Concerto No. 4 in B flat, Op.
53 is something of an unfamiliar oddity to most audiences -- it was written
for one-handed pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who disliked its modernistic
tendencies and never played it -- it deserves to take a place alongside
Maurice Ravel's Concerto for the Left Hand (1929 - 31) as one of the most
important examples of its kind. Prokofiev's concerti for other instruments
- -especially the Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63 (1935) - -are like-
wise recognized as masterpieces of their respective genres. Prokofiev's
orchestral catalogue is distinguished by a wide variety of works, from the
tremendously popular suites adapted from his operas, ballets, and film
scores -- of which The Love for Three Oranges (1919), Lieutentant Kijé
(1934), and Cinderella (1946) are the most beloved -- to the composer's
seven mature symphonies, which collectively form one of the pillars of the
twentieth-century symphonic repertoire. The orchestra-accompanied nar-
ration Peter and the Wolf (1936), undoubtedly the most widely known of
the composer's works, is a seminal entry in the limited repertoire of con-
cert music "for children." The composer's last creative efforts were direc-
ted largely toward the production of "patriotic" and "national" works, typi-
fied by the cantata Flourish, Mighty Homeland (1947), and yet Prokofiev
also continued to produce worthy if lesser-known works like the under-
rated ballet The Stone Flower (1943). In a rather bitter coincidence,
Prokofiev died on March 5, 1953, the same day as Joseph Stalin. -- Mi-
chael Rodman
Concerto (10)
1933
Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 58 Cello Concerto
-1938
1917
Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26 Piano Concerto
-1921
1911
Piano Concerto No. 1 in D flat major, Op. 10 Piano Concerto
-1912
1931 Piano Concerto No. 5 in G major, Op. 55 Piano Concerto
-1932
1916
Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 19 Violin Concerto
-1917
1912 -
Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16 Piano Concerto
13/23
Piano Concerto No. 4 in B flat major (for the Concerto for Piano
1931
left hand), Op. 53 One Hand
1935 Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63 Violin Concerto
Concertino for cello & orchestra in G minor,
1952 Cello Concerto
Op. 132
Sinfonia Concertante for cello & orchestra in E
1952 Cello Concerto
minor, Op. 125
Symphony (8)
1916 Symphony No. 1 in D major ("Classical"), Op. 20th/21st Century
-1917 25 Symphony
1924 20th/21st Century
Symphony No. 2 in D minor, Op. 40
-1925 Symphony
20th/21st Century
1928 Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 44
Symphony
1929 Symphony No. 4 in C major, Op. 47 (first ver- 20th/21st Century
-1930 sion) Symphony
20th/21st Century
1944 Symphony No. 5 in B flat major, Op. 100
Symphony
1944 20th/21st Century
Symphony No. 6 in E flat minor, Op. 111
-1947 Symphony
Symphony No. 4 in C major, Op. 112 (second 20th/21st Century
1947
version) Symphony
1951 20th/21st Century
Symphony No. 7 in C sharp minor, Op. 131
-1952 Symphony