the question was weird. it was something like 'After Prokofiev's Symphony no. 1 was performed, he left Russia. Give an account of his travel, why did he leave Russia, what he did that influenced his style of music before he returned to Russia in 1934.' [12]


Life abroad

Arriving in San Francisco he was immediately compared to other famous Russian exiles (such as Sergei Rachmaninoff), and he started out successfully with a solo concert in New York, leading to several further engagements. He also received a contract for the production of his new opera The Love for Three Oranges but, due to illness and the death of the conductor, the premiere was cancelled. This was another example of Prokofiev's bad luck in operatic matters. The failure also cost him his American solo career, since the opera took too much time and effort. He soon found himself in financial difficulties, and in April 1920 he left for Paris, not wanting to return to Russia as a failure.

Paris was better prepared for Prokofiev's musical style. He reaffirmed his contacts with the Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and with Stravinsky, and returned to some of his older unfinished works such as the Third Piano Concerto. Later, in 1921, The Love for Three Oranges finally premiered in Chicago, but the reception was cold, forcing Prokofiev to leave America again without triumph.

Now Prokofiev moved with his mother to the Bavarian Alps for over a year, so as to concentrate fully on his composing. Mostly he spent time on an old opera project, The Fiery Angel. By this time his later music had started sifting back into Russia and he received invitations to return there, but he felt that his new European career was more important. In 1923 he married the Spanish singer Lina Llubera, before moving back to Paris.

There a number of his works (for example the Second Symphony) were performed, but critical reception was lukewarm, perhaps because he could no longer really lay claim to being a "novelty". He did not particularly like Stravinsky's later works and even though he was quite friendly with members of "Les Six", musically he had very little in common with them.

Around 1927 things started looking up; he had some exciting commissions from Diaghilev and made a number of concert tours in Russia; in addition he enjoyed a very successful staging of The Love for Three Oranges in Leningrad (as Petrograd was now known). Two older operas (one of them The Gambler) were also played in Europe and in 1928 he produced the Third Symphony which was broadly based on his unperformed opera The Fiery Angel. The years 1931 and 1932 saw the completion of his fourth and fifth piano concertos.

In 1929 he had a car accident in which his hands were slightly injured, preventing him from touring in Moscow, but permitting him to enjoy some of the contemporary Russian music instead. After his hands healed he made a new attempt at touring in the USA, and this time he was received very warmly, propped up by his recent success in Europe. This in turn propelled him to do a large tour through Europe.

In the early 1930s Prokofiev was starting to long for Russia again, moving more and more of his premieres and commissions to his home country instead of Paris. An example of the later is Lieutenant Kije, which was commissioned as the score to a Russian film. Another commission, from the Kirov Theatre in Leningrad, was the ballet Romeo and Juliet, today one of Prokofiev's best known works. However, there were numerous choreographic problems, postponing the premiere for several years.

omg man. -.- i had only mentioned his second and third symphony, and they were more aggressive compared to his classical symphony because of the war and strikes. he went to USA and stayed there for 17 years. and i can't remember what i wrote.

today's paper was quite screwed. it wasn't as bad as prelims tho. chemistry was bad. after practicals i had forgotten everything about analysis. and it came out.

music paper was so boring that i wrote a letter the the person sitting in front of me. which happened to be winnie. jameson was late as usual. no surprises.