Serguéi Prokófiev

Sergei Prokofiev and the avant-garde

During a competition in 1916, Sergei Prokofiev created a scandal with his Scythian Suite causing Glazunov to leave the jury. Naturally wild, the composer fled Russia and lived in the United States from 1918 to 1923 where he had the first production of The Love for Three Oranges performed in Chicago. In 1923, between his numerous journeys, he settled in Paris where musical activity was intense. Although he was admired by the musical milieu, Prokofiev took little interest in French music. He only seemed to find favour with Maurice Ravel.

Honoured or disgraced, Sergei Prokofiev’s music is one of the most singular of his era. Using rhythms, popular melodies and harmonic harshness, the composer can switch from methodical violence to classical elegance. A virtuoso and a versatile man, Prokofiev left behind dynamic music, which always sidesteps vulgarity or conventionalism. Rabatet rightly noted that the composer offered, “An exciting countenance of a wild youth who, totally unrefined, had escaped from his steppes and ferociously eclipsed his compatriot and elder, Igor Stravinsky”.