Sergei Prokofiev Biography Quotes 1 Report mistakes

Early life and training
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was born on April 23, 1891 (Old Style April 11) in Sontsovka in the Russian Empire, today in Ukraine. His father was an agronomist, and his mother, Maria, a devoted amateur pianist who introduced him to the instrument and to opera at an early age. A prodigy who began composing in childhood, he wrote small piano pieces and even early operas before his teens. In 1902 and 1903 the young composer received crucial guidance from the composer Reinhold Gliere, who spent summers at the family estate coaching him in harmony, form, and orchestration.

In 1904 Prokofiev entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where his circle and teachers shaped his path. He studied piano with Anna Yesipova, composition with Anatoly Lyadov, and conducting with Nikolai Tcherepnin; he also attended lectures by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The Conservatory director Alexander Glazunov admired his technique but was wary of his iconoclastic streak. Among his closest contemporaries was Nikolai Myaskovsky, who became a lifelong friend and confidant. Already fearless as a pianist, Prokofiev cultivated a spiky, motoric style that set him apart. In 1914 he won the Anton Rubinstein Prize, performing his own Piano Concerto No. 1, and quickly gained a reputation as a brilliant, audacious performer-composer.

Emergence in Russia
During the 1910s Prokofiev explored ballet, symphonic, and operatic forms with striking originality. He first met Serge Diaghilev, impresario of the Ballets Russes, in 1914; their early project Ala and Lolli was rejected, but its music reemerged as the vivid Scythian Suite. He composed the opera The Gambler, the Violin Concerto No. 1, and the Classical Symphony (Symphony No. 1), the last a witty reimagining of Haydn-era clarity through a modern lens. The upheavals of 1917 disrupted performances, and in 1918, with permission from the new authorities, he left Russia by way of the Far East en route to the United States.

America and Western Europe
In the United States from 1918, Prokofiev appeared as a pianist and completed the opera The Love for Three Oranges, premiered in Chicago in 1921. Though reception was mixed, its sardonic humor and rhythmic snap became emblematic of one facet of his style. Moving to Paris soon after, he joined a circle that included Diaghilev and conductor Serge Koussevitzky, who championed his works. For Diaghilev he produced ballets such as Chout (The Buffoon), Le pas dacier, and The Prodigal Son. In this cosmopolitan environment he encountered Igor Stravinsky; their relationship combined mutual regard with artistic rivalry. Prokofiev toured widely as a pianist, premiering his own concertos and suites and refining a public persona equal parts virtuoso and modernist.

In 1923 he married the Spanish-born soprano Carolina Codina, known professionally as Lina Llubera. They had two sons, Sviatoslav and Oleg. Lina promoted his music abroad and sustained his social connections in Paris and beyond, while Prokofiev pursued a steady stream of commissions and performances across Europe.

Gradual return to the Soviet Union
Beginning in the early 1930s Prokofiev renewed ties with Soviet musical life, touring as a pianist and accepting commissions. He eventually resettled permanently in 1936. The decision brought him new theatrical opportunities and access to large ensembles, as well as growing entanglement with cultural policy. He composed Peter and the Wolf in 1936 for the Moscow theater led by Natalya Sats, creating an enduring introduction to orchestral instruments for children. He developed fruitful collaborations with director Sergei Eisenstein, notably on the film Alexander Nevsky, later refashioned as a powerful cantata, and subsequently for Ivan the Terrible.

The ballet Romeo and Juliet (1935-36) faced early production obstacles but yielded orchestral suites that quickly won audiences. Its first complete stage performance occurred in Brno in 1938; a celebrated Leningrad staging followed, with dancer Galina Ulanova becoming closely identified with Juliet. By the late 1930s Prokofiev balanced public-facing projects with more inward expressive works, including the Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1 and the series of wartime piano sonatas.

War years and artistic peak
With the German invasion in 1941, Prokofiev joined evacuations to the east along with many Soviet artists. He began the vast opera War and Peace during this period, working closely with his partner and librettist Mira Mendelssohn. The score evolved across the decade as political expectations shifted. He also wrote the Piano Sonatas Nos. 6, 7, and 8, works that distilled his harmonic bite and lyrical melancholy. Pianist Sviatoslav Richter, an important ally, premiered the Seventh Sonata in Moscow in 1943 and became one of Prokofievs definitive interpreters.

Prokofievs Symphony No. 5, premiered in 1945 with the composer conducting, was immediately hailed as a masterpiece. Violinist David Oistrakh championed his music, inspiring the violin version of the Flute Sonata (Violin Sonata No. 2) and giving profound readings of the darker Violin Sonata No. 1. In 1945 Prokofiev suffered a serious concussion after a fall, and chronic ill health shadowed his remaining years.

Censure, hardship, and late works
Postwar cultural policy hardened. In 1948 the Zhdanov Decree condemned many leading composers, including Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich, Aram Khachaturian, and Myaskovsky, for alleged formalism. Performances were curtailed, income fell, and revisions were demanded. Personal strain intensified: Prokofievs relationship with Lina deteriorated after the move back to the Soviet Union, and she was arrested in 1948 on political charges and imprisoned for years. At the same time, he formalized his partnership with Mira Mendelssohn, who continued to assist with texts and practical matters.

Despite frailty and censorship, Prokofiev produced notable late music. Cellist Mstislav Rostropovich emerged as a vital collaborator, inspiring the Cello Sonata in C major and urging the rethinking of the earlier Cello Concerto into the expansive Symphony-Concerto. Prokofiev also returned to the symphonic genre in a gentler vein with Symphony No. 7, reflecting a pared, luminous simplicity.

Death and legacy
Prokofiev died in Moscow on March 5, 1953, the same day as Joseph Stalin. Public mourning for the dictator overshadowed his passing, and only later did his funeral and burial at Novodevichy Cemetery receive broader acknowledgment. In the decades since, his standing has only grown. His catalog spans operas such as The Love for Three Oranges, The Fiery Angel, and the epic War and Peace; ballets including Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella; five piano concertos, two violin concertos, seven symphonies, chamber music, and an influential body of piano works. His style, at once acidic and songful, combines rhythmic drive, vivid color, and a gift for memorable melody. The advocacy of artists around him Serge Diaghilev, Serge Koussevitzky, Igor Stravinsky as foil and peer, Sviatoslav Richter, David Oistrakh, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Sergei Eisenstein helped shape both his opportunities and his reception. Today Prokofiev is recognized as one of the central voices of 20th-century music, a composer whose art bridged pre-revolutionary modernism and the cultural demands of the Soviet era with originality, resilience, and unmistakable character.

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