Kevin Sutton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Ron Chaplin wrote:
>
>>Question: Was Prokofiev considered a Soviet composer? What I mean by
>>"Soviet composer" is someone who composed music that was acceptable to the
>>leadership.  ...
>
>In many ways he was a "Soviet" composer. But I cannot recall ever reading
>anything to the effect that he suffered in the same ways as Shostakovich did
>under the Soviets.

In fact, Prokofijev had to stand many insults from the regime after he
returned to Soviet.  One might wonder why Prokofijev now did return.  Jos
Janssen suggests that Prokofijev was naive, what to great part is true, at
least he did many naive things in his life.  But Prokofijev was a gambler;
he thought that his music should get more popular in the west if he
composed it in Russia, as Russian music, in the wake of Sjostakovitj, was
popular at that time in the west, meanwhile he has a "western" element in
his music, with these jazzy rythms stuff and other things, which he thought
should be more popular in the Soviet if he "stood on its ground", composing
western-eastern music for the Soviets.  So; he was a gambler, in his life
as in this arguing, and he thought to win along the whole line with moving
back to Soviet.

Jos Janssen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>How pleased Prokofiev would have been if the operas "War and Peace" and
>"the Fiery Angel" would have had the success they deserve.  But alas, it's
>just "Peter and the Wolf".......

Than imagine "Peter and the Wolf" being played in the former
Soviet....nonono...

>But like Shostakovitch who kept a sort of secret diary in some of his
>chamber music, for those who have ears, there are likewise instances in
>Prokofiev's works.

Prokofijev wrote a diary, a litterate one, I am not talking music here.
Was this one ever published?

Mats Norrman
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