Sergei Prokofiev (jan 1, 1891 – jan 1, 1953)

Description:

a Russian Soviet composer, pianist and conductor.

Back in the USSR: Prokofiev
1. Prokofiev left the Soviet Union and traveled in the United States and Europe.
2. He returned to the USSR in 1936, the same year Shostakovich had been denounced in Pravda and Stalin’s purges grew more obvious.
3. Once he returned, he turned to ballet and opera, exploiting his gift for melody.
4. Alexander Nevsky, a film score (1938), won him acclaim on several levels.
5. Prokofiev carefully laid out the character of various components of the plot.
6. His last major triumph was his Fifth Symphony, premiering just before the victory over the Germans in 1945.