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Following his graduation from the Conservatory, Prokofiev took little note
of the momentous changes afoot in his native Russia. World War I had just
broken out and Russia had launched a daring (but ultimately disastrous)
invasion into East Prussia. A Russian invasion of the European musical
world had also begun. Fellow countryman and composer Igor Stravinsky had
caused something of a furor with the premiere of his ballets The Firebird
and Petrouchka. Sergei Diaghilev, the famous Russian ballet impresario and
Stravinsky's partner, had also launched his Ballet Russes in Paris in 1909
to enormous success. Prokofiev was eager to be in the thick of it.
Thus he set off for the West in June 1914 to learn more about the successes of the Ballet Russes, Stravinsky, and others, and to make a name for himself. He met Diaghilev in London in 1914 and played his Second Piano Concerto for him. Diaghilev was so impressed, he toyed with the notion of staging a performance to the Concerto. Although he finally rejected the idea, he did ask Prokofiev to write a ballet based on Russian themes. Diaghilev had a close relationship to Stravinsky, of which Prokofiev came to be envious. At the time, Stravinsky was at the forefront of the contemporary music movement and Prokofiev desperately wanted to share the spotlight. The tremors caused by The Firebird and Petrouchka were minor compared to the tumultuous premiere of The Rite of Spring in 1913. At the premiere in Paris a riot broke out in the theater and spilled onto the streets. Prokofiev felt the temblor. He hoped to cause an even bigger stir with the premiere of his Diaghilev-commissioned ballet Ala and Lolli. In his memoirs, Prokofiev acknowledged "it is quite possible that I was now searching for the same images in my own way." In 1914-15 Sergei concentrated his composing efforts on the score. Although he performed several times as a pianist and composed the character piece 'The Ugly Duckling' for voice and piano, he focused most of his energy on the ballet. Unfortunately, when Prokofiev showed Diaghilev the unfinished score, Diaghilev rejected it. Some debate has continued as to just why Diaghilev turned it down -- musically Ala and Lolli was not as dissonant as The Rite of Spring. It seems likely that Diaghilev did not want a repeat of The Rite of Spring debacle and simply lost his nerve. It is certain that he had at least some confidence in Prokofiev's composing ability because as fast as he rejected Ala and Lolli, he commissioned Prokofiev to write another ballet. Rattled but not defeated, Prokofiev began composing his second ballet, "Chout" (also known as "The Tale of the Buffoon"). However, he thought Ala and Lolli "was well worth saving", so he reworked the ballet score into an orchestral suite in four movements, which he renamed "The Scythian Suite." To simply throw away two years of effort was unacceptable. He premiered the work on 29-January-1916 in St. Petersburg. He was hoping to eclipse Stravinsky's riotous Rite of Spring premiere: The concert is going to take place. Do you know that the price of rotten eggs and apples has gone up in St. Petersburg? That's what they'll throw at me!Although a riot did not occur, the premiere of The Scythian Suite was a spectacular disaster. Even the progressive Russian music critics panned it. The French and American press were still less kind. A reviewer in "Musical America" wrote: Crashing Siberias, volcano hell, Krakatoa, sea-bottom crawlers. Incomprehensible? So is Prokofiev. A splendid tribute was paid to his Scythian Suite in Petrograd by Glazunov. The poor tortured classicist walked out of the hall during the performance of the work. No one walked out of Aeolian Hall, but several respectable pianists ran out.Glazunov had indeed stamped out during the performance. But Prokofiev was nonplussed. As much as the critics and classicists hated it, most of the public loved it. He had developed a fervent following among avant garde listeners ever since the days of his piano performances at the 'Evenings of Contemporary Music', and they cheered wildly for their hometown hero at the conclusion of Scythian Suite's premiere. The spectacle now over, Prokofiev had to deal with the aftermath. "Chout" was put on the back burner by Diaghilev. Brushed aside by Diaghilev a second time, Prokofiev turned instead to an opera he had been commissioned to write in 1915 by the Maryinsky Theater. "The Gambler," based on the story by Dostoevsky, consumed most of Prokofiev's composing energies in 1916 and 1917. Along the way, he also composed the brilliant Visions Fugitives for piano, while managing to alienate Rachmaninov and Medtner. It was vintage Prokofiev -- his burning drive to surpass his peers inevitably got the better of him in public. A similar petty incident would complicate his friendship with Stravinsky in 1933. 1917 was a momentous year in Russia, as it was in Prokofiev's life. Czar Nicholas II was overthrown in March 1917 ending Imperial Russian rule forever. The Provisional Government didn't last long. Prokofiev's home town of St. Petersburg was renamed Petrograd and became the hotbed of a brewing Bolshevik revolution. The Great October Revolution later that year saw the overthrow of the interim government and the triumph of Marxist Leninism. Russia became the leading state in the new Soviet Union and thereafter followed five years of civil war. Petrograd was a battleground for most of 1917 -- hardly the place for a composer looking for a quiet place to write. As a result, Prokofiev spent nine months of 1917 living in the Caucasus. Despite being isolated from Petrograd, 1917 proved enormously productive for Prokofiev. The staging of "The Gambler" had been interrupted by war, but during the year he completed revisions of the Third and Fourth Piano Sonatas, he completed the Violin Concerto No. 1 and the Classical Symphony (No. 1), and he began writing the choral work "Seven, They are Seven" and the Piano Concerto No. 3. This is an especially impressive streak given he didn't have his piano with him during much of the time. He returned to Petrograd in the Spring of 1918, where he premiered the 'Classical Symphony.' Unlike recent premieres, the work was warmly accepted, even by the new Soviets who had seized all vestiges of power, cultural and social as well as economic and political.
The Bolshevik takeover in 1917 was a watershed event for most artists
in the former Russia. While on the one hand most artists, musicians
and composers became part of the privileged class in Soviet society,
they lost all artistic freedom. Music could be neither published nor
performed without official authorization. Given many of the composers
and musicians had allied themselves with the Whites during the
Revolution, it is understandable that many fled the country. Foremost
among the early emigres was Stravinsky, who left Russia for the West in 1914. Prokofiev, on the other hand,
was less ideologically opposed to the Bolsheviks and preferred to walk
a fine line between staying in good graces with them,
and continuing his musical development in the West. Weighing more
heavily in his decision to leave were the deteriorating living
conditions in the Soviet Union. World War I was still raging, a new
Civil War between Reds and Whites had erupted, old enemies seized
upon the opportunity to settle old scores (e.g. Poland invaded the Ukraine)
and drastic new Communist economic policies plunged the country into
famine. These were tough times for a young composer coming into his
own. Prokofiev knew his prospects were much brighter in Western
Europe. Blocked from heading west by war, Prokofiev headed east
instead, toward the Pacific port of Vladivostock. It was May 1918
and the beginning of long travels abroad.
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