New Prokofieff biography by David Nice(March 2003) The first volume of David Nice's major new Prokofieff biography has just been published by Yale University Press, one of the most significant events of the 50th anniversary year of the composer's death. It is the first in-depth biography of Prokofieff since 1987 and the most detailed yet written, based on fresh discoveries and new archival material.
To purchase this book from Amazon, click here Since 1991 – the year that marked both the fall of the Soviet Union and the centenary of Sergey Prokofieff’s birth – a new assessment of the renowned composer’s life and work has become both possible and necessary. In this engrossing book, David Nice draws on a remarkable range of previously unexamined sources to present that reassessment. The book follows Prokofieff’s personal and musical progression from his childhood on a Ukrainian country estate to the years he spent traveling in America and Europe as an acclaimed interpreter of his own works. Nice sheds new light on Prokofieff’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 Prokofieff’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 Prokofieff to move his family to the Soviet Union in 1936. A second volume will cover Prokofieff’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. > News Search |
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