A short note about the writer Prokofiev. Prokofiev Sergey Sergeevich - short biography

The great Russian composer who wrote his first opera at the age of 9. Master large forms, who managed to translate into the language of music both the Shakespearean passions of Romeo and Juliet, and the meeting of the pioneer Petya with the Wolf.

The famous composer was born in the Yekaterinoslav province in the family of an agronomist. The boy from childhood showed musical ability, his first teacher was his mother - a good pianist. In 1902-1903, Prokofiev took private lessons from the composer Reinhold Gliere. In 1904 he entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory. In 1909, Prokofiev graduated from it as a composer, five years later - as a pianist, continuing to study in it until 1917 in the organ class.

Prokofiev began to perform as a soloist and perform his own works from 1908. A student of Rimsky-Korsakov, Prokofiev the composer began with piano pieces and sonatas, but the Chicago premiere brought him fame - the most cheerful opera in the world, The Love for Three Oranges. Without the music of Prokofiev today it is impossible to imagine acknowledged masterpiece pre-war cinema - the film "Alexander Nevsky". A musical accompaniment"Ivan the Terrible" by Sergei Eisenstein own life as a separate work.

In 1918 he left Soviet state and through Tokyo reached the United States. In the following decades, Prokofiev lived and toured in America and Europe, and also performed several times in the USSR. He returned to his homeland in 1936 with his Spanish wife Lina Codina and sons. It was after the return that the famous fairy tale "Peter and the Wolf", as well as the opera "War and Peace" were created. Above epic work Prokofiev worked for 12 years.

In 1948, Lina Kodina, who by that time was his ex-wife, was arrested and exiled (released in 1956, she later left the USSR). In the same year, Prokofiev began to be smashed for formalism, his works were sharply criticized as inappropriate to socialist realism.

Prokofiev died of a hypertensive crisis at the age of 61.

Fragments from the autobiography of S.S. Prokofiev.

<...>Mother loved music, father respected music. Probably, he also loved her, but in philosophical terms, as a manifestation of culture, as a flight of the human spirit. Once, when I was sitting at the piano as a boy, my father stopped, listened and said:
- Noble sounds.
This is the key to his attitude towards music.
<...>Mother's attitude to music was more practical. She played the piano not badly, and her rural leisure allowed her to devote as much time to this matter as she liked. She hardly had musical talents; the technique was difficult, and the fingers were deprived of pads in front of the nails. She was afraid to play in front of people. But she had three virtues: perseverance, love and taste. Mother made it possible best performance learned things, treated her work lovingly and was exclusively interested in serious music. The latter played a huge role in cultivating my musical taste: from birth I heard Beethoven and Chopin, and at the age of twelve I remember myself consciously despising light music. When my mother was waiting for my birth, she played up to six hours a day: the future little man was formed to the music.

<...>Musical inclinations began to appear early, probably at the age of four. I have heard music in the house since I was born. When they put me to bed in the evening, but I didn’t feel like sleeping, I lay and listened to how Beethoven’s sonata sounded somewhere in the distance, several rooms away. Mother played the sonatas from the first volume most of all; then Chopin's preludes, mazurkas and waltzes. Sometimes something from Liszt, which is not so difficult. From Russian authors - Tchaikovsky and Rubinstein. Anton Rubinstein was at the height of his fame, and his mother was sure that he was a bigger phenomenon than Tchaikovsky. Rubinstein's portrait hung over the piano.

<...>The mother began her lessons on the piano with exercises by Ganon and etudes by Czerny. This is where I tried to nestle on the keyboard. Mother, busy with exercises in the middle register, sometimes set aside for my use the two upper octaves, on which I tapped out my childhood experiments. A rather barbaric ensemble at first glance, but the mother's calculation turned out to be correct, and soon the child began to sit down at the piano on her own, trying to pick up something. Mother had a pedagogical streak. Imperceptibly she tried to guide me and explain how to use the instrument. The fact that she played, I was curious and critical, sometimes stating:
- I like this song (I said "I like it"). Let her be mine.
There were also disputes with my grandmother: what kind of play was the mother playing. I was usually right.
Listening to music and improvising at the keyboard led me to pick up independent pieces.

<...>During the spring and summer of 1897 I recorded three pieces: Waltz, March and Rondo. There was no musical paper in the house; the clerk Vanka lined it for me. All three pieces were in C major<...>The fourth one turned out to be a little more difficult - a march in B minor. Then Ekaterina Ippokratovna arrived in Sontsovka, the wife of that Lyashchenko, to whom I did not give a damn about his baldness. She played the piano well and even studied a little with her mother. Together they played four hands, which I really liked: they play different things, but together it comes out pretty good!
- Mom, I will write a four-hand march.
- It's difficult, Sergushechka. You cannot choose music for one person and another.
Nevertheless, I sat down to pick up, and the march went out. It was nice to play it in four hands and hear how it sounds together picked up separately. After all, it was the first score!

<...>To my musical development mother treated with great attention and caution. The main thing is to keep the child interested in music and, God forbid, not push him away with boring cramming. Hence: as little time as possible for exercises and as much as possible for acquaintance with literature. The point of view is wonderful, which mothers should remember.

S.S. Prokofiev. Autobiography. M., "Soviet composer", 1973.

Biography of Prokofiev - the great Russian and Soviet composer- so big and versatile that sometimes it's hard to imagine how it all fit...

By Masterweb

The biography of Prokofiev, the great Russian and Soviet composer, is so large and versatile that it is sometimes hard to imagine how it all fit in one person? Pianist, music writer, film composer, conductor - in addition, Sergei Sergeevich created his own unique composing style, was fond of chess and Christian Science. From this article you can find out a brief biography of Prokofiev, as well as the main periods of his creative life.

Childhood and youth

The biography of Sergey Sergeevich Prokofiev begins in the village of Sontsovka, located in the Yekaterinoslav province (modern Donetsk region of Ukraine), on April 15 (27), 1891, in merchant family. Sergei's mother, Maria Grigorievna, mastered the piano while studying at the gymnasium and often performed works by Beethoven and Chopin at home. Little Seryozha often sat down at the keys next to his mother, memorizing her playing visually and by ear. At the age of five he began his musical biography Prokofiev Seryozha, having composed at such a young age his first piece - "Indian gallop". Maria Grigoryevna taught her son to notate works, and all subsequent small rondos and waltzes own composition the child prodigy Prokofiev recorded on his own.

At the age of nine, Prokofiev wrote his first opera called The Giant, and at 11 he played it. famous composer and teacher Sergei Taneev. Taneyev was impressed by the boy's talent and agreed with his friend, too famous composer Reingold Gliere, about the training of Serezha Prokofiev.

Study and the beginning of creativity

All early biography Sergei Prokofiev is compiled according to his personal diaries which he kept in detail and accurately throughout his life. Already in 1909, at the age of 18, Sergei graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory as a conductor, and five years later, also as a pianist. His teachers were such great musicians as Rimsky-Korsakov, Lyadov and Cherepnin. Also during his studies, he met other future great composers - Sergei Rachmaninov and Igor Stravinsky. In the photo below, Prokofiev while studying at the conservatory.

After his debut performance with his own works on the piano, Prokofiev's work was called bold and original, with "unbridled play of fantasy and extravagance of style." The status of an "extreme modernist" was assigned to the novice composer.

In 1913, after Prokofiev's performance of the Second Piano Concerto, the audience was clearly divided into those who admired the composer and those who criticized him, calling the work "scandalous and futuristic".

The best works and world recognition

From 1918 to 1936, the biography of the composer Prokofiev tells about his American period of life. Sergey Sergeevich accepted October revolution calmly, since he never belonged to either the white or the red movement. He emigrated in search of new inspiration.

Having achieved recognition on the other side of the ocean, the composer returns to his homeland. During the Great Patriotic War, he did not stop working, his the best works at this point it becomes the ballet "Cinderella", the opera "War and Peace" and the "Fifth Symphony". "Fifth", along with the "Seventh Symphony" by Shostakovich, are considered the most important works created during World War II. An excerpt from Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony performed by symphony orchestra can be seen below.

In 1948, Sergei Prokofiev, along with other avant-garde composers such as Shostakovich and Khachaturian, was criticized for "formalism and futurism" by the Committee for Arts, after which many of Sergei Sergeyevich's works were banned. But fortunately, Joseph Stalin was very interested in the work and biography of Prokofiev, and therefore in 1949, on the personal order of the leader, the ban was lifted, and the actions of the Committee were severely condemned.

Composer's unique style

In world history, the biography of Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev is distinguished, first of all, by the creation of a unique musical language. The techniques that distinguish the composer's works consisted in the use of a special form of the dominant (later it was called the Prokofiev dominant), linear and dissonant chords, as well as chromatic clusters that combine pitches when performing "intrusive" musical phrases. The compositional, anti-romantic rhythmics, which give many of Prokofiev's works an expressive fragmentation, are also peculiar.

Film works

Throughout his life, the composer wrote music for eight Soviet films. The most famous film works in the biography of Prokofiev are compositions written for the films of the famous director Sergei Eisenstein: "Alexander Nevsky" (1938) and "Ivan the Terrible" (1945). Eisenstein was delighted to work with the great composer, as the director and musician had a similar, avant-garde approach to creativity. Subsequently, Prokofiev finalized the music composed for these films into the form of independent works. An excerpt from the film "Ivan the Terrible" with Prokofiev's composition can be seen below.

Artwork for children

IN creative biography Prokofiev and many works have been written for children, for example, the ballets Cinderella and The Tale of stone flower", compositions for the choir "The Ballad of the Boy Remaining Unknown", "Winter Fire", "On Guard of the World".

But Prokofiev's most famous children's work is without a doubt symphonic tale"Peter and the wolf". Sergei Sergeevich composed this work and put it on his own text in 1936, for staging in children's theater. "Peter and the Wolf" was the composer's first work after returning to his homeland.

In addition to performances, there are several animated versions of this fairy tale: the first was created in 1946 at the Walt Disney Studios. Then two Soviet puppet cartoons were released (in 1958 and 1976), as well as a Polish-British one, also puppet cartoon won an Oscar in 2006.

other hobbies

Being a very versatile person, Sergei Prokofiev was engaged not only in music - his second passion was literature. Everything that came out of his pen was marked by the uncommonness of his writing abilities: this is the huge "Autobiography", covering the composer's life from birth to 1909, and his diaries, and all the librettos and stories he composed, filled with optimism and wonderful feeling humor.

In addition to music and literature, Sergei Sergeevich was seriously fond of chess and called it "the music of thought." From 1914 to 1937, Prokofiev managed to play games with such famous chess players as Capablanca, Lasker and Tartakower.

The composer was also an adherent of Christian Science, the methods of which allowed him to overcome the excitement before performances. Prokofiev liked to read the book "Science and Health" by Mary Baker Eddy, in his diaries he mentioned it more than once, saying that this book helped shape his personal attitude to good, evil, God and man.

Personal life

In 1923, Prokofiev married the Catalan chamber singer Lina Codina, who bore him two sons, Svyatoslav and Oleg. In the photo below, the composer with his wife and sons.

Despite mutual understanding with his wife and eighteen years life together, in 1941 Prokofiev left the family and began to live with a student of the Faculty of Philology Mira Mendelson. In 1948, Sergei Prokofiev married Mira without divorcing his first wife. In subsequent legal proceedings, both marriages were declared valid. In this regard, the term "Prokofiev's case" was introduced by Soviet lawyers, referring to such incidents. A photo of Prokofiev and his second wife is presented below.

Sergei Sergeevich lived with Mira Mendelson-Prokofieva until the end of his days. Great composer Prokofiev died on March 5, 1953 - on the same day Joseph Stalin died, and therefore the death of the composer for a long time remained unnoticed.

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Prokofiev Sergei Sergeevich - (1891-1953), Russian composer, pianist and conductor. Born on April 11 (23), 1891 in Sontsovka, Yekaterinoslav province. At the age of six he composed cycles of small piano pieces, at nine he became the author of a children's opera.

After completing a preparatory course with R.M. Glier, Prokofiev entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory at the age of 13 (he graduated in composition in 1909, in piano in 1914). His teachers were A.K. Lyadov, N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, N.N. Cherepnin, A.N. Esipova and others. Graduating from the conservatory in piano, he played his First Piano Concerto with the orchestra and received the honorary A.G. Rubinstein Prize.

Prokofiev's music became the subject of fierce controversy in musical circles. His early writings are characterized by grotesque, satirical motifs; this music is fundamentally anti-romantic, often harsh-sounding, riddled with dissonances, very energetic in terms of rhythm.

The most notable in this period are the ballet Jester (The Tale of the Jester Who Changed the Jester's Seven Jesters, 1915), the opera The Gambler based on novel of the same name Dostoevsky (1915-1916), several instrumental concerts and sonatas, the Scythian Suite (1915) and the cantata Seven of Them (1917). One of Prokofiev's early masterpieces is his Classical Symphony (1917), an example of "new simplicity": with it, the composer seemed to demonstrate to critics his brilliant mastery of the neoclassical style.

In 1918 he went on tour to the United States, where in 1919 he completed comic opera The Love for Three Oranges (staged 1921 by the Chicago opera house). The magnificent Third Piano Concerto also belongs to this time. In 1922, Prokofiev moved to Germany, and in 1923 he moved to Paris, where he spent the next decade, going on long concert tours in Europe and America (he performed as a pianist and as a conductor).

In Paris, Sergei Diaghilev's entreprise "Russian Ballet", which as early as 1921 showed Prokofiev's Jester, staged his following ballets - Steel Lope (1927) and Prodigal son(1928). In 1925-1931, the Second, Third and Fourth Symphonies and the Fourth and Fifth Piano Concertos appeared, in which Prokofiev's style reached the peak of tension and sharpness.

In 1933 Prokofiev returned to Russia. In the following years he worked extensively in different genres; among the works of this period are the ballets Romeo and Juliet (1935) and Cinderella (1944); children's fairy tale for reader and orchestra Petya and the wolf (1936); music for the films Lieutenant Kizhe (1934), Alexander Nevsky (1938) and Ivan the Terrible (1945). During the Great patriotic war and after it he created a number of patriotic works, as well as the opera Betrothal in a Monastery based on Sheridan's comedy (1940-1941) and War and Peace based on Tolstoy's novel (1941-1942), several chamber-instrumental ensembles, many piano music different genres. After the war, the premieres of the Fifth (1945), Sixth (1947) and Seventh (1952) symphonies took place.

In 1948, Prokofiev was attacked for his "formalist" style of music and sympathy for the "degenerate" art of the West (which did not prevent him from receiving the Stalin Prize in 1951, the sixth in a row).

April 23 marks the 120th anniversary of the birth outstanding composer, pianist and conductor Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev.

Russian composer, pianist and conductor, People's Artist of the RSFSR Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev was born on April 23 (April 11 according to the old style), 1891, in the Sontsovka estate in the Yekaterinoslav province (now the village of Krasnoye, Donetsk region of Ukraine).

His father was an agronomist managing the estate, his mother took care of the house and the upbringing of her son. She was a good pianist and, under her guidance, music lessons began when the boy was not yet five years old. It was then that he made his first attempts at composing music.

The range of the composer's interests was wide - painting, literature, philosophy, cinema, chess. Sergei Prokofiev was a very talented chess player, he invented a new chess system in which square boards were replaced by hexagonal ones. As a result of the experiments, the so-called "Prokofiev's nine-chess chess" appeared.

Possessing an innate literary and poetic talent, Prokofiev wrote almost the entire libretto for his operas; wrote stories that were published in 2003. In the same year, a presentation of the complete edition of Sergei Prokofiev's Diaries took place in Moscow, which were published in Paris in 2002 by the composer's heirs. The publication consists of three volumes, bringing together the composer's notes from 1907 to 1933. Prokofiev's Autobiography, written by him after his final return to his homeland, was repeatedly republished in the USSR and Russia; V last time it was reissued in 2007.

The "Diaries" of Sergei Prokofiev formed the basis of the documentary film "Prokofiev: An Unfinished Diary", filmed by Canadian director Iosif Feiginberg.

Museum. Glinka released three Prokofiev collections (2004, 2006, 2007).

November 2009 State Museum A.S. Pushkin in Moscow, a presentation of a unique artifact created by Sergei Prokofiev in the period from 1916 to 1921 took place. - "Wooden book by Sergei Prokofiev - a symphony of kindred spirits." This is a collection of sayings prominent people. Deciding to make an original book of autographs, Prokofiev asked his respondents the same question: "What do you think about the sun?". In a small album bound from two wooden boards with a metal clasp and a leather spine, 48 people left their autographs: famous artists, musicians, writers, close friends and just acquaintances of Sergei Prokofiev.

In 1947 Prokofiev was awarded the title People's Artist RSFSR; was a laureate State Prizes USSR (1943, 1946 - three times, 1947, 1951), laureate of the Lenin Prize (1957, posthumously).

According to the composer's will, in the year of the centenary of his death, that is, in 2053, the last archives of Sergei Prokofiev will be opened.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources