Prokofiev, A Biography: From Russia to the West 1891-1935 [Hardcover]

This book, the first in-depth biography of Prokofiev since 1987 and the most detailed yet written, is based on fresh discoveries and new archival material.

‘This is an enormously detailed study, rich with cross-references and assessments’.

An assessment of the life and work of renowned composer, Sergey Prokofiev, in which David Nice draws on a range of sources. The text follows Prokofiev's personal and musical progression from his childhood on a Ukrainian country estate to the years he spent travelling in America and Europe as an acclaimed interpreter of his own works. Nice sheds light on Prokofiev's early years at the St Petersburg Conservatoire, his departure from Russia in 1918 for what he thought would be a short tour of America, and his marriage and family relationships. He considers the music of Prokofiev's years in the West (long dismissed by Soviet musicologists as decadent work weakened by the composer's absence from the motherland), moving from the lyricism of his St Petersburg years to the fresh simplicity of his early Soviet scores. Nice also examines the complex reasons which led Prokofiev to move his family to the Soviet Union in 1936. A second volume will cover Prokofiev's life from this period to his death in 1953.

David Nice is a writer, broadcaster, and lecturer on music, and author of books on Elgar, Tchaikovsky and Richard Strauss.