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Diaries 1907–1914: Prodigious Youth
Sergey Prokofiev, a compulsive diarist and gifted and idiosyncratic writer, possessed an incorrigibly sardonic curiosity about individuals and events. When he left Russia after the 1917 Revolution, his diaries were recovered from the family flat in Petrograd and later hidden at considerable personal risk by the composer Nikolai Myaskovsky. Prokofiev himself smuggled them out of the country after his first return to the Soviet Union in 1927. The later diaries, written in the West, were brought back by legal decree after the composer's death in 1953, to be kept in an inaccessible section of the Soviet State Archive. Eventually Prokofiev's son Sviatoslav was allowed to transcribe the voluminous contents. When he and his son Sergei eventually emigrated to Paris, they undertook the gigantic task of reproducing the partially encoded manuscript in an intelligible form. Diaries, 1907-1914, the first of three volumes that extend to 1933, covers Prokofiev's years at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire. Simultaneously attached to and exasperated by the tradition exemplified by composers such as Rimsky-Korsakov, Glazunov, and Tcherepnin, the brash young genius relishes the power of his talent to irritate, challenge, and finally overcome the establishment. In candid and lively prose, he records the all-too-normal preoccupations of a young man making his way in the brilliant social and artistic circles of the prewar Russian capital. Virtually every artist and musician of note appears in these pages, in penetrating and not always flattering vignettes. Prokofiev's main subject, however, is music, its creation and its performance. He reveals his own developing aesthetic principles through his assessments of the works of others, even as he composes such early masterpieces as the First and Second Piano Concertos, The Ugly Duckling, the First Violin Concerto, and the Classical Symphony. An inexhaustibly rich portrait of a vibrant artistic culture on the edge of war and revolution, Prokofiev's Diaries are both a dramatic illumination of a great composer's creativity and an indispensable contribution to our understanding of musical modernism. They constitute an essential and entertaining reference for all lovers of Prokofiev's music.
- GenresMusic
835 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 2006
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104 people want to read
About the author
Sergei Prokofiev
568 books16 followersSergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (27 April [O.S. 15 April] 1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor who later worked in the Soviet Union.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 8, 2022
As someone who didn't know his music at all, I found this fantastic on several levels:
1. At the most basic level (biographical), it traces the evolution of a teenager into a young adult as a person (his daily life and the life of the Conservatory, his interests in girls, his evolving personality chess): the boy who will become the man we know.
2. At the purely historical level: what was it like for someone like him then and there? St Petersburg in the years leading to 1917: what a historical period! The anecdotes about daily life, people, customs, the coming of the war, the pre-revolutionary coup of 1905...it's in there (in its own way!)
3. At the historical/sociological level: true, Prokofiev came from a well-to-do family (although not a very rich one), and knew a number of upper-class people, but mostly his was a middle class with a past richer than its present. How that society functioned (habits, relations, language), how people interacted, the sociological structures: all this is fascinating (see for example when the international chess tournament is taking place, and the range of people following it together).
4. At the psychological level: we see a gifted young musician filled with certainties and doubts, with very definite judgements on music and musicians and yet still finding his feet; we see a teenager with adult thoughts, and a teenager with teenage thoughts (the War, the girls). Forget about him being who he is: follow the development of a psychology over years!
5. At the musical level: beyond his judgements of - and thoughts about - different musicians, composers and styles (extremely interesting in themselves), there are his thoughts and remarks on his own process of composition and playing the piano; how he (tried to) devise a way to memorise long pieces of music; how he hears, and wants to hear; how orchestras worked and rehearsed; how conducting is learned and done...and so much more.
6. At the historical musical level: from having portraits of very famous musicians (Glazunov, Rimsky-Korsakov) to evocations of musical evenings with obviously talented yet forgotten ones. Those portraits will multiply in volumes 2 and 3, of course.
6. At the autobiographical level: any lover of memoirs and diaries knows that feeling of absorbtion derived from following the development of a personality, with all its white lies and foibles and idiotic judgements, interspersed with insights, discoveries, moments of understanding etc. We all know, too, how impermanent things are ('Everything is transitory') over time, while they seem so permanent at the time. What is firmly decided on the Monday is forgotten by the Tuesday. What is sworn on Tuesday is broken on Wednesday. As Prokofiev wrote at length, very well and reflectively, following this interweaving of really fascinating. When he decides to learn Spanish on his own, and gives himself list of words and grammatical points to learn everyday, and when he comments on his progress, the reader thinks Prokofiev is applying his muscial training (hours of playing each day) to language learning - only to realise that Spanish learning never gets mentioned again in the months (and years) to come...
7. At the purely literary level: Prokofiev did indeed write a lot, but he did so with great care (and throughout the 3 volumes, he tells us about reading his own diaries years later), attention to details, but also with sincerity and self-evaluation. His style (in an English translation) reads very, very well indeed, and there is a strong continuity in the narrative which makes it really compelling - like reading a rich, totally engrossing novel.
8. (that's different, but deserves a mention): at the editorial level. Great work there, painstaking research on all and everything mentioned in the diaries, linguistic explanations, biographical notes, judicious, abundant and illuminating footnotes throughout (and unless you're a specialist of Russian music, or Russia, those notes really are useful!). Anthony Phillips is the editor, and he did a fantastic job (needless to say, I don't know him...).
So, what more can I say? Well, a lot more actually, but: remember these are diaries written by a teenager/young man, not an autobiography. The Prokofiev you have in mind may be the older man, the respected, celebrated, rotund composer, the man going back to Russia under Stalin and all that. This is not who wrote this first volume. Remember also that he never thought those diaries would be read, so there are things he'll not explain because, well, do you explain how you buy bread, make your bed or go to school?
Honestly? Fantastic diaries.
1. At the most basic level (biographical), it traces the evolution of a teenager into a young adult as a person (his daily life and the life of the Conservatory, his interests in girls, his evolving personality chess): the boy who will become the man we know.
2. At the purely historical level: what was it like for someone like him then and there? St Petersburg in the years leading to 1917: what a historical period! The anecdotes about daily life, people, customs, the coming of the war, the pre-revolutionary coup of 1905...it's in there (in its own way!)
3. At the historical/sociological level: true, Prokofiev came from a well-to-do family (although not a very rich one), and knew a number of upper-class people, but mostly his was a middle class with a past richer than its present. How that society functioned (habits, relations, language), how people interacted, the sociological structures: all this is fascinating (see for example when the international chess tournament is taking place, and the range of people following it together).
4. At the psychological level: we see a gifted young musician filled with certainties and doubts, with very definite judgements on music and musicians and yet still finding his feet; we see a teenager with adult thoughts, and a teenager with teenage thoughts (the War, the girls). Forget about him being who he is: follow the development of a psychology over years!
5. At the musical level: beyond his judgements of - and thoughts about - different musicians, composers and styles (extremely interesting in themselves), there are his thoughts and remarks on his own process of composition and playing the piano; how he (tried to) devise a way to memorise long pieces of music; how he hears, and wants to hear; how orchestras worked and rehearsed; how conducting is learned and done...and so much more.
6. At the historical musical level: from having portraits of very famous musicians (Glazunov, Rimsky-Korsakov) to evocations of musical evenings with obviously talented yet forgotten ones. Those portraits will multiply in volumes 2 and 3, of course.
6. At the autobiographical level: any lover of memoirs and diaries knows that feeling of absorbtion derived from following the development of a personality, with all its white lies and foibles and idiotic judgements, interspersed with insights, discoveries, moments of understanding etc. We all know, too, how impermanent things are ('Everything is transitory') over time, while they seem so permanent at the time. What is firmly decided on the Monday is forgotten by the Tuesday. What is sworn on Tuesday is broken on Wednesday. As Prokofiev wrote at length, very well and reflectively, following this interweaving of really fascinating. When he decides to learn Spanish on his own, and gives himself list of words and grammatical points to learn everyday, and when he comments on his progress, the reader thinks Prokofiev is applying his muscial training (hours of playing each day) to language learning - only to realise that Spanish learning never gets mentioned again in the months (and years) to come...
7. At the purely literary level: Prokofiev did indeed write a lot, but he did so with great care (and throughout the 3 volumes, he tells us about reading his own diaries years later), attention to details, but also with sincerity and self-evaluation. His style (in an English translation) reads very, very well indeed, and there is a strong continuity in the narrative which makes it really compelling - like reading a rich, totally engrossing novel.
8. (that's different, but deserves a mention): at the editorial level. Great work there, painstaking research on all and everything mentioned in the diaries, linguistic explanations, biographical notes, judicious, abundant and illuminating footnotes throughout (and unless you're a specialist of Russian music, or Russia, those notes really are useful!). Anthony Phillips is the editor, and he did a fantastic job (needless to say, I don't know him...).
So, what more can I say? Well, a lot more actually, but: remember these are diaries written by a teenager/young man, not an autobiography. The Prokofiev you have in mind may be the older man, the respected, celebrated, rotund composer, the man going back to Russia under Stalin and all that. This is not who wrote this first volume. Remember also that he never thought those diaries would be read, so there are things he'll not explain because, well, do you explain how you buy bread, make your bed or go to school?
Honestly? Fantastic diaries.
Read
September 11, 2025This book was disappointing because the composer is not nearly as interesting as one might think after hearing his music. His own writings prove he is more a product of his wealthy upbringing and less a product of self-expression.
He was brought up going to a music conservatory and his parents were land owners in Russia at the turn of the 19th to 20th century. He was insolated in classical music training because his parents could afford it, meanwhile the workers on the land they managed started burning it up in revolt.
Prokofiev's classical composition process has much less to do with wisdom or emotional depth and more to do with mathematical experimentation of sound in order to further his career by doing something "new". It is ironic how his egotistical and heartless experiments with sound can stir my own emotions.
He was brought up going to a music conservatory and his parents were land owners in Russia at the turn of the 19th to 20th century. He was insolated in classical music training because his parents could afford it, meanwhile the workers on the land they managed started burning it up in revolt.
Prokofiev's classical composition process has much less to do with wisdom or emotional depth and more to do with mathematical experimentation of sound in order to further his career by doing something "new". It is ironic how his egotistical and heartless experiments with sound can stir my own emotions.
August 5, 2014
A rather subjective insight on one of the most innovative composer. Most classical pianists like myself would be super curious about the composer's personality and beginnings as a student at the moscow conservatory of music. If you do not like the composer's art, i doubt that you would appreciate this book. Some might say that the genius of prokofiev had little to do with this particular book(the 1st of the 3) but i beg to differ. Though he had a very smooth sailing journey as a piano student and a composer, he had strong intellect and a strong desire to produce high quality music compositions. Yes i believe that wealth played a part of his success, but success nonetheless...
Being a Prokofiev fangurl, having played and studied his sonatas and piano concertos, a true gem in my opinion.
Being a Prokofiev fangurl, having played and studied his sonatas and piano concertos, a true gem in my opinion.
December 9, 2008
A very descriptive, if sometimes overly verbose, text. Gives a vivid depiction of Prokofiev's life, as well as his surroundings and the people with whom he interacted.
Read
May 5, 2023The one of the best
January 19, 2013
Overstuffed; the clue to his genius lies elsewhere.
October 19, 2017
See my review here:
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2017...
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2017...
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews