Bachtrack top ten: Sergei Prokofiev

“My chief virtue (or if you like, defect) has been a tireless lifelong search for an original, individual musical idiom. I detest imitation, I detest hackneyed devices.” From an early age, Sergei Prokofiev was an innovator, happy to challenge convention, and was one of the leading Russian composers of the 20th century.

Born in 1891 to a mercantile family in a rural estate in what is now Ukraine, he was encouraged by Alexander Glazunov to apply to the St Petersburg Conservatory aged only 13. Much younger than the other students, Prokofiev was regarded as arrogant and cerebral, earning a reputation as an enfant terrible. He made early use of dissonance in his Op.2 Etudes and polytonality in his Op.17 Sarcasms, causing one audience member to declare, “To hell with this futuristic music! The cats on the roof make better music!” He was a skilled chess player, even beating the world champion José Raúl Capablanca in an exhibition match in 1914.  

Like many Russian composers, Prokofiev left the country in the wake of the 1917 Revolution, but was homesick and one of the few to return (in 1936) and resume his career in the Soviet Union, flourishing creatively despite the oppressive regime. “I care nothing for politics – I’m a composer first and last. Any government that lets me write my music in peace, publishes everything I composed before the ink is dry, and performs every note that comes from my pen is all right with me.”

It wasn’t always plain sailing. Despite their status as pre-eminent Soviet musicians, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Khatchaturian were among six composers denounced by the Zhdanov Decree in 1948, for the crime of musical “formalism” – described as a “renunciation of the basic principles of classical music” in favour of “muddled, nerve-racking” sounds that “turned music into cacophony.” Eight of Prokofiev’s works were banned, including the Sixth and Eighth Piano Sonatas. He had the misfortune to die on the same day as Joseph Stalin.

Prokofiev wrote for a variety of forms and in a variety of styles, from uncompromising dissonance to lush melodies to acerbic modernism, but his sardonic wit is a musical fingerprint detectable in much of his writing.

1Romeo and Juliet

One of the most popular ballets in the repertory, Romeo and Juliet was Prokofiev’s route back into the Soviet Union. Invited by the director of the Kirov (Mariinsky) Theatre to write a ballet based on Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers, Prokofiev accepted. A scenario was drawn up that adhered to government-imposed precepts of the drambalet, which focused on dramatic narrative rather than the virtuosic displays of classical ballet. The premiere took place outside the Soviet Union, in Brno, but a revised version was performed at the Kirov in 1940, establishing itself as an instant classic. 

2Symphony no. 5 in B flat major

“I regard the Fifth Symphony as the culmination of a long period in my creative life,” wrote Prokofiev after its 1944 premiere. “I conceived of it as glorifying the grandeur of the human spirit... praising the free and happy man – his strength, his generosity, and the purity of his soul.” It marked a return to symphonic writing after a long break of 16 years and combines uplifting spirit with wartime patriotism. In 1945, when it had its US premiere, Prokofiev featured on the cover of Time magazine, which quoted conductor Serge Koussevitzky’s assessment that the symphony was “the greatest since Brahms and Tchaikovsky! It is magnificent! It is yesterday, it is today, it is tomorrow.”

3Piano Concerto no. 3 in C major

One of the greatest piano concertos of the 20th century, Prokofiev’s Third was composed in France in 1921, drawing on sketches dating back to 1911. It requires dexterity, but isn’t the virtuosic showcase that characterised his earlier concertos and contains crisp solo writing and wit. The neoclassical central movement contains a slinky theme and five variations. Prokofiev described the finale as an “argument” between soloist and orchestra, ending in a thrilling race to the finishing line.

4Violin Concerto no. 2 in G minor

The Second Violin Concerto was composed just before Prokofiev returned to Russia, his last Western commission, from the French violinist Robert Soëtens, who premiered it in December 1935. It’s a serious, sombre work, cloaked in dark lyricism, but sunlight creeps into the Andante assai middle movement, the violin soaring radiantly. Prokofiev was composing Romeo and Juliet at the same time, and this music is imbued with romantic feeling. The finale is bright and dance-like, featuring castanets, a nod perhaps to the premiere being in Madrid.

5Cinderella

Another ballet and, for connoisseurs, Prokofiev’s greatest dance score, Cinderella has entranced audiences since its 1945 premiere. After criticism that Romeo and Juliet was considered “undanceable”, Prokofiev made Cinderella “as danceable as possible”, packing his score with waltzes, a gavotte and pas de deux as the fairy tale swirls along. The music is at its most dramatic as the clock strikes midnight as Cinderella is dancing at the ball.

6Symphony no. 1 in D major, “Classical”

“It seemed to me that if Haydn had lived into this era, he would have kept his own style while absorbing things from what was new in music. That’s the kind of symphony I wanted to write: a symphony in the Classical style.” Prokofiev’s First Symphony, composed in 1916-17, and premiered in Petrograd (St Petersburg) in April 1918, just before the composer left for the West. It is light and beautifully crafted, crisp and witty, and a firm favourite with audiences, especially its helter-skelter finale.

7The Fiery Angel

Prokofiev’s early opera is a tale of black magic, sexual obsession and an epic struggle between good and evil. Since childhood, Renata has been obsessed with an angel, Madiel, whom she believes has taken human form but abandoned her. Eventually she ends up joining a convent, where she is accused of demonic possession. All hell breaks loose – literally – and she is condemned by the Inquisitor to be burned at the stake. The opera languished unperformed for years, but Prokofiev was so fond of the score that he incorporated large sections of it into his Third Symphony.

8Piano Concerto no. 1 in D flat major

Prokofiev left the St Petersburg Conservatory in 1914 by entering a “battle of the pianos” competition, which he won by performing his own First Piano Concerto – a glittering confection that dazzles throughout its brief 15-minute span. The critic of the Moscow Voice found nothing good to write about the work: “This energetically rhythmic concerto, coarse and crude, primitive and cacophonic, scarcely merits its honourable title.” Here is the youthful Prokofiev at his most precocious.

9Alexander Nevsky 

As well as composing for the stage and the concert hall, Prokofiev also wrote for the cinema. His most famous score is that for Sergei Eisenstein’s 1938 film Alexander Nevsky, about the 13th-century Teutonic invasion of Pskov, Prince Alexander’s defence and his subsequent victory over the crusaders. Recognising its potential, Prokofiev turned the score into a cantata. One of the most famous sections is The Battle on the Ice.

10Peter and the Wolf

Many children first learn about the different instruments in the orchestra via the musical illustrations in Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. Different characters are represented by different instruments: the cat by the clarinet, the bird by the flute, the duck by the oboe, the wolf by the horns etc. Peter himself is represented by the strings and his gruff grandfather by the bassoon.