Posts in Prokofiev

Prokofiev was born in 1891 in Sontsovka a remote rural estate in the Bakhmutsky Uyezd of the Yekaterinoslav Governorate of the Russian Empire. His father, Sergei Alexeyevich Prokofiev, was an agronomist. Prokofiev's mother, Maria (née Zhitkova), came from a family of former serfs who had been owned by the Sheremetev family, under whose patronage serf-children were taught theatre and arts from an early age. She was described by Reinhold Glière, Prokofiev's first composition teacher, as "a tall woman with beautiful, clever eyes … who knew how to create an atmosphere of warmth and simplicity about her." After their wedding in the summer of 1877, the Prokofievs moved to a small estate in the Smolensk governorate. Eventually, Sergei Alexeyevich found employment as a soil engineer, employed by one of his former fellow-students, Dmitri Sontsov, to whose estate in the Ukrainian steppes the Prokofievs moved. By the time of Prokofiev's birth, Maria—having previously lost two daughters—had devoted her life to music; during her son's early childhood, she spent two months a year in Moscow or St Petersburg taking piano lessons. Sergei Prokofiev was inspired by hearing his mother practising the piano in the evenings, mostly works by Chopin and Beethoven, and wrote his first piano composition at the age of five, an "Indian Gallop", which was written down by his mother: it was in the F Lydian mode (a major scale with a raised 4th scale degree), as the young Prokofiev felt "reluctance to tackle the black notes". By seven, he had also learned to play chess. Chess remained a passion of his, and he became acquainted with world chess champions José Raúl Capablanca, whom he beat in a simultaneous exhibition match in 1914, and Mikhail Botvinnik, with whom he played several matches in the 1930s. At age nine, he was composing his first opera, The Giant, as well as an overture and various other pieces. In 1902, Prokofiev's mother met Sergei Taneyev, director of the Moscow Conservatory, who initially suggested that Prokofiev should start lessons in piano and composition with Alexander Goldenweiser. Unable to arrange that, Taneyev instead arranged for composer and pianist Reinhold Glière to spend the summer of 1902 in Sontsovka teaching Prokofiev. The first series of lessons culminated, at the 11-year-old Prokofiev's insistence, with the budding composer making his first attempt to write a symphony. The following summer, Glière revisited Sontsovka to give further tuition. When, decades later, Prokofiev wrote about his lessons with Glière, he gave due credit to his teacher's sympathetic method but complained that Glière had introduced him to "square" phrase structure and conventional modulations, which he subsequently had to unlearn. Nonetheless, equipped with the necessary theoretical tools, Prokofiev started experimenting with dissonant harmonies and unusual time signatures in a series of short piano pieces he called "ditties" (after the so-called "song form", more accurately ternary form, on which they were based), laying the basis for his own musical style. In 1914, Prokofiev finished his career at the Conservatory by entering the 'battle of the pianos', a competition open to the five best piano students for which the prize was a Schroeder grand piano; Prokofiev won by performing his own Piano Concerto No. 1. In the summer of that year, Prokofiev composed his first symphony, the Classical. The name was Prokofiev's own; the music is in a style that, according to Prokofiev, Joseph Haydn would have used if he were alive at the time. The music is more or less Classical in style but incorporates more modern musical elements (see Neoclassicism). Prokofiev died at the age of 61 on 5 March 1953, the same day as Joseph Stalin. He had lived near Red Square, and for three days the throngs gathered to mourn Stalin, making it impossible to hold Prokofiev's funeral service at the headquarters of the Soviet Composers' Union. Because the hearse was not allowed near Prokofiev's house, his coffin had to be moved by hand through back streets in the opposite direction of the masses of people going to visit Stalin's body. The leading Soviet musical periodical reported Prokofiev's death as a brief item on page 116. (The first 115 pages were devoted to the death of Stalin.) Prokofiev's death is usually attributed to cerebral hemorrhage. He had been chronically ill for the prior eight years. Prokofiev Biography #MusicHistory #Biography #Prokofiev We are a educational channel specializing in history of classical music. Our goal is to spread classical music to the greatest number of people. Explore our channel and listen to more works by Mozart, Chopin, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Bach, Haydn, Schumann, Schubert, Vivaldi, Dvorak, Debussy and more! I hope you enjoy it and don't forget to Subscribe. 🎧 🔴 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TopClassicalMusic 🔴 WebSite: https://www.melhoresmusicasclassicas.com

Serguei Prokofiev - Symphony No. 1 (Classical) Sergei Prokofiev began work on his Symphony No. 1 in D major (Op. 25) in 1916, but wrote most of it in 1917, finishing work on September 10. It is written in loose imitation of the style of Haydn (and to a lesser extent, Mozart), and is widely known as the Classical Symphony, a name given to it by the composer. It premiered on April 21, 1918 in Petrograd, conducted by Prokofiev himself,[1] and has become one of his most popular works. The symphony is composed in a style based on that of Joseph Haydn, but does not follow Haydn strictly (for example, its use of modulation is much freer), and it does not contain any quotations from Haydn. Thus it can be considered to be one of the first neoclassical compositions. The work was partly inspired by his conducting studies at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, where the instructor, Nikolai Tcherepnin, taught his students about conducting Haydn, among other composers. Prokofiev wrote the symphony on holiday in the country, using it as an exercise in composing away from the piano. 1. Allegro 4:24 2. Larghetto 4:24 3. Gavotta - Non Troppo - Allegro 1:50 4. Finale - Molto Vivace 4:12 For more: http://www.melhoresmusicasclassicas.blogspot.com #MusicHistory #ClassicalMusic #Prokofiev

Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (27 April [O.S. 15 April] 1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian Soviet composer, pianist and conductor. As the creator of acknowledged masterpieces across numerous music genres, he is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century. His works include such widely heard pieces as the March from The Love for Three Oranges, the suite Lieutenant Kijé, the ballet Romeo and Juliet—from which "Dance of the Knights" is taken—and Peter and the Wolf. Of the established forms and genres in which he worked, he created – excluding juvenilia – seven completed operas, seven symphonies, eight ballets, five piano concertos, two violin concertos, a cello concerto, a symphony-concerto for cello and orchestra, and nine completed piano sonatas. A graduate of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, Prokofiev initially made his name as an iconoclastic composer-pianist, achieving notoriety with a series of ferociously dissonant and virtuosic works for his instrument, including his first two piano concertos. In 1915, Prokofiev made a decisive break from the standard composer-pianist category with his orchestral Scythian Suite, compiled from music originally composed for a ballet commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev of the Ballets Russes. Diaghilev commissioned three further ballets from Prokofiev—Chout, Le pas d'acier and The Prodigal Son—which at the time of their original production all caused a sensation among both critics and colleagues. Prokofiev's greatest interest, however, was opera, and he composed several works in that genre, including The Gambler and The Fiery Angel. Prokofiev's one operatic success during his lifetime was The Love for Three Oranges, composed for the Chicago Opera and subsequently performed over the following decade in Europe and Russia. After the Revolution of 1917, Prokofiev left Russia with the official blessing of the Soviet minister Anatoly Lunacharsky, and resided in the United States, then Germany, then Paris, making his living as a composer, pianist and conductor. During that time, he married a Spanish singer, Carolina (Lina) Codina, with whom he had two sons. In the early 1930s, the Great Depression diminished opportunities for Prokofiev's ballets and operas to be staged in America and western Europe. Prokofiev, who regarded himself as composer foremost, resented the time taken by touring as a pianist, and increasingly turned to the Soviet Union for commissions of new music; in 1936, he finally returned to his homeland with his family. He enjoyed some success there – notably with Lieutenant Kijé, Peter and the Wolf, Romeo and Juliet, and perhaps above all with Alexander Nevsky. The Nazi invasion of the USSR spurred him to compose his most ambitious work, an operatic version of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. In 1948, Prokofiev was attacked for producing "anti-democratic formalism." Nevertheless, he enjoyed personal and artistic support from a new generation of Russian performers, notably Sviatoslav Richter and Mstislav Rostropovich: he wrote his ninth piano sonata for the former and his Symphony-Concerto for the latter. Serguei Prokofiev Tracklist: Romeu e Julieta (Trechos das Suítes Nº 1 e 2) 1. Montecchios e Capulettos 2. A Jovem Julieta 3. Frei Lorenzo 4. Dança do Amanhecer 5. Minueto 6. Máscaras 7. Morte de Tibaldo 8. Dança 9. Romeu Diante do Cadáver de Julieta Sinfonia Nº 1, OP. 25, "Clássica" 10. Allegro 11. Larghetto 12. Gavotta. Non Troppo. Allegro 13. Finale. Molto Vivace Suíte Sinfônica , OP. 60, "O Tenente Kijé" 14. O Nascimento de Kijé 15. O Romance de Kijé 16. O Casamento de Kijé 17. A Tróica 18. O Enterro de Kijé Royal Philharmonic Orchestra For more: http://www.melhoresmusicasclassicas.blogspot.com #MusicHistory #ClassicalMusic #Prokofiev