The People's Artist: Prokofiev's Soviet YearsSergey Prokofiev was one of the twentieth century's greatest composers--and one of its greatest mysteries. Until now. In The People's Artist, Simon Morrison draws on groundbreaking research to illuminate the life of this major composer, deftly analyzing Prokofiev's music in light of new archival discoveries. Indeed, 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, writings, correspondence, and unopened journals and diaries. The story he found in these documents is one of lofty hopes and disillusionment, of personal and creative upheavals. Morrison shows that Prokofiev seemed to thrive on uncertainty during his Paris years, stashing scores in suitcases, and ultimately stunning his fellow emigrés by returning to Stalin's Russia. 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), until it finally censured him in 1948, ending his career and breaking his health. |
Contents
1 | |
1 PLANS GONE AWRY 19351938 | 29 |
2 SEEKING THE FORMULA 19381939 | 79 |
3 THE PUSHKIN CENTENNIAL | 119 |
4 WAR AND EVACUATION 19401943 | 157 |
5 THE EISENTIEN FILMS | 217 |
6 THE FOREFRONT OF SOCIET MUSIC 19441947 | 247 |
71948 | 295 |
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The People's Artist: Prokofiev's Soviet Years Simon Morrison,Simon Alexander Morrison Limited preview - 2009 |
Common terms and phrases
Aleksandr Alexander Nevsky artistic Arts Affairs Atovmyan ballet Bolshoy Theater Boris Godunov Cantata Cello Chaikovsky’s chorus Cinderella commission Committee on Arts composer’s concert creative cultural dance director Dokumentï drama Eisenstein episode Eugene Onegin February film godï Ibid included interv’yu Ivan the Terrible July June Khrapchenko Khrennikov Lamm Lavrovsky Lenin Leningrad letter libretto Lina March melody Mendel’son-Prokof’yeva Meyerhold Mira Mira’s Moscow Moscow Conservatory movement Myaskovsky Nikolay November October official opera orchestral Paris Peace People’s performance piano score Pis’ma political Pravda premiere Prokof’yev Prokof’yev o Prokof’yeve Prokofiev Pushkin Radlov rehearsal RGALI f Romeo and Juliet Romm Rostropovich rubles Russian S. S. Prokof’yev Samosud scenario scene Semyon Kotko Sergei Prokofiev Sergey Sergeye Prokof’yeve Seryozha Shostakovich Socialist Realism Sonata song Sovetskaya muzïka Sovetskoye iskusstvo Soviet Composers Soviet music Soviet Union stage Stalin Prize Stat’i Symphony Tatyana’s theme tion Tonya Union of Soviet Vospominaniya o Sergeye waltz writing