Sergey Prokofiev was one of the twentieth century's greatest composers--and one of its greatest mysteries. Until now. In
The People's Artist,
Simon Morrison draws on groundbreaking research to illuminate the life
of this major composer, deftly analyzing Prokofiev's music in light of
new archival discoveries. Indeed, Morrison was the first scholar to gain
access to the composer's sealed files in the Russian State Archives,
where he uncovered a wealth of previously unknown scores, writings,
correspondence, and unopened journals and diaries. The story he found in
these documents is one of lofty hopes and disillusionment, of personal
and creative upheavals. Morrison shows that Prokofiev seemed to thrive
on uncertainty during his Paris years, stashing scores in suitcases, and
ultimately stunning his fellow emigrés by returning to Stalin's Russia.
At first, Stalin's regime treated him as a celebrity, but Morrison
details how the bureaucratic machine ground him down with corrections
and censorship (forcing rewrites of such major works as
Romeo and Juliet), until it finally censured him in 1948, ending his career and breaking his health.
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