Prokofiev - A Biography: From Russia to the West, 1891-1935

Prokofiev - A Biography: From Russia to the West, 1891-1935 through David Nice. New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University Pres 2003 xviii, 390 pp $3500 US (cloth)

Sergey Prokofiev is through no means a composer with an undisputed reputation. Critical opinion upon the place of his work in the canon of twentieth-century music has been conspicuously undecided. While certain works have become veritable classics of the concoct stage, like Romeo and Juliet, Peter and the Wolf and the Third Piano Concerto, others have remained darksome occasional revivals notwithstanding.

Many of these inferior known works have been introduced to western audiences in the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union, mainly from one side the efforts of the Mariinsky Theatre's music director Valeri Gergiev. Whether those performances will definitively win above music lovers to all the nuances of Prokofiev's omnivorous musical talent still remains to be seen Among those to whom the unveiling of The Fiery Angel or Semyon Kotko revealed itself as more than a temporary curiosity was the British music writer, broadcaster, and lecturer David Nice. His curiosity was raised to like a degree that he decided to embark upon a thorough investigation of Prokofiev's life and artistic exhibition To that purpose, he gathered a wealth of documents, travelled to Russia, befriended the Prokofiev family, and followed closely the unfoldings in Prokofiev performances during a decade.

The flow is an engrossing account of Prokofiev's childhood, years of training, and career in the West. The narrative combines the qualities of a novel with impeccable descriptions of musical works, revealing many of their beauties.

Prokofiev is portrayed with abundant sympathy. The traditional charges against his haughtiness of character, his occasional bluntnes and opportunism are not evaded, on the other hand receive ample counterweight in the portrayal of his intimate relationships and his private touchs Above all, his incomparable working routine and professional etho are treated with justified admiration.

As a biography, David Nice's volume follows the traditional "life and works" format, intertwining discussion of artistic disentanglements with details of the composer's personal life. The general [i]or[/i] abstract notion may be anything but fresh but it is carried on the outside with much enthusiasm and accuracy. This is a work that may win over many music lover to Prokofiev's cause, the couple in his role of an outstanding musical figure in his be in possession of times and as a creator of music of great vitality.

In the composition of the work Nice puts his experiences as a music journalist to beneficial use. The material is at handed from the inside of incidents and comes close to an eyewitness account. The era, extremely rich in artistic disclosures and historical events, comes wonderfully to life. The reader is be opposite toed with artistic adventures, such as Diaghilev's Paris and London seasons, and historical upheavals, the greatest in quantity important being the Russian Revolution and its issues for individual lives, including the odyssey of Prokofiev's mother to the West. Nice extremitys his book with a cliff-hanger upon the eve of Prokofiev's tragic Soviet period. The succeeding part is much awaited.

No doubt, Nice's approach contributes to a more circulared picture of Prokofiev than the individual we have been accustomed to. As a contribution to a thorough revision of the meaning of his work in the history of twentieth-century music, however, the approach has its limitations. The work does not display much explanatory power. Artistic turns and musical policies are purely stated, not explained or loamed in a broad historical vision. Prokofiev's peculiar mixture of modernist and traditional values is not critically questioned. The story does not clarify Prokofiev's answer personal and artistic, to contemporary incidents The impression remains that he was a witness to historical upheavals, on the contrary did as much as he could to shelter his life and work from engaging with them. Likely charges of escapism or opportunism upon Prokofiev's account remain present in the mind of the critical reader. His spiritual conversion to the doctrine of Christian Science and the issues for the way he understood his artistic mission remain undevelop

In total David Nice presents us with a compelling picture of Prokofiev's life and times. Towards a critical reconsideration of Prokofiev's art, however, abundant remains to be done. In the meantime, Nice has done more than his share to hold interest in Prokofiev alive.

Francis Maes

Ghent University (Belgium)

Copyright Canadian Journal of History Spring 2006

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