DEATH OF SERGE PROKOFIEV

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26985, 10 March 1953, Page 9

DEATH OF SERGE PROKOFIEV

FAMOUS COMPOSER MOSCOW, March 9. Serge Prokofiev, famous as a composer, pianist and conductor, has died of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 62. Born in Sontsovka. in Southern Russia, Prokofiev first learned music from his mother, an excellent pianist, who taught him to understand Beethoven and other composers. At the age of five, he produced his first piano composition, and in the next year composed a march, a waltz, and a rondo. He continued his musical education at Gliere and the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he remained for" 10 years and graduated in “914. As a student, he composed his Symphony in E minor, two operas, six sonatas, and about 200 piano pieces. About this time, also, he wrote, his First Piano Concerto, featuring the simultaneous use of two different tonalities. Through all its various stages, Prokofiev’s music was characterised by firm structural qualities, well-marked rhythms, and systematic use of polytonality. Prokofiev was exempted from military service in the First World War. During this period, he composed the "Scythian Suite,” a number of ballets, and an opera. In 1918, Prokofiev went to the United States, where his “Classical Symphony” had its American debut at Carnegie Hall. His opera, “The Love of Three Oranges,” was first produced at the .Chicago Opera House. Opinions of his works ranged from warm approbation to the severest criticism. Prokofiev toured the world several times as a concert pianist. His ballet, “The Age of Steel,” produced in Paris in 1927, was based on the growing vigour of Soviet industry. His Fourth Symphony was composed for the fiftieth anniversary of ‘the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1930. “Peter and the Wolf,” perhaps the most popular of his works, was written for a children’s concert in Moscow in. 1936. Critics" noted a change in his style of composition after Prokofiev returned to live permanently in Russia. A. A. Fraser commented that his style became much less fantastic and more intense. Prokofiev wrote a cantata for the twentieth anniversary of the October Revolution, and much other music based on the Soviet concept of nationhood. He also composed the incidental music for a number of films.