Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (; ; 23 April 1891 – 5 March 1953 ) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century.

Prokofiev's first major success breaking out of the composer-pianist mould was with his purely orchestral Scythian Suite, compiled from music originally composed for a ballet commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev of the Ballets Russes ; Diaghilev commissioned three further ballets from Prokofiev – Chout, Le pas d ' acier and The Prodigal Son – which at the time of their original production were all highly successful.

In 1948 Prokofiev was criticized for " anti-democratic formalism ", and with his income severely curtailed was forced to compose Stalinist works such as On Guard for Peace.

Prokofiev was born in 1891 in Sontsovka ( now Krasne in the Donetsk Oblast province of eastern Ukraine, an isolated rural estate in the Yekaterinoslav Governorate ) of the Russian Empire.

He was inspired by hearing his mother practising the piano in the evenings – mostly works by Chopin and Beethoven – and composed his first piano composition at the age of five, an ' Indian Gallop ', which was written down by his mother: this was in the Lydian mode ( a major scale with a raised 4th scale degree ) as the young Prokofiev felt ' reluctance to tackle the black notes '.

When Taneyev was unable to arrange this, he instead arranged for composer and pianist Reinhold Glière to spend the summer of 1902 in Sontsovka teaching Prokofiev.

They were introduced to composer Alexander Glazunov, a professor at the Conservatory, who asked to see Prokofiev and his music ; Glazunov was so impressed that he urged Prokofiev's mother that her son apply to the Saint Petersburg Conservatory.

By this point Prokofiev had composed two more operas, Desert Islands and The Feast during the Plague, and was working on his fourth, Undine.

During this period he studied under, among others, Alexander Winkler, Anatoly Lyadov, Nikolai Tcherepnin and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov ( though when Rimsky-Korsakov died in 1908, Prokofiev noted that he had only studied orchestration with him ' after a fashion ' – that is, he was just one of many students in a heavily attended class — and regretted that he otherwise ' never had the opportunity to study with him ').

In 1914, Prokofiev finished his career at the Conservatory by entering the so-called ' battle of the pianos ', a competition open to the five best piano students for which the prize was a Schreder grand piano: Prokofiev won by performing his own Piano Concerto No. 1.

Diaghilev then commissioned Prokofiev to compose the ballet Chout ( The Fool, the original Russian-language full title was Сказка про шута, семерых шутов перешутившего ( Skazka pro shuta, semerykh shutov pereshutivshavo ), meaning " The Tale of the Buffoon who Outwits Seven Other Buffoons ").

This was his own name for the symphony, which was written in the style that, according to Prokofiev, Joseph Haydn would have used if he had been alive at the time.

Arriving in San Francisco after having been released from questioning by immigration officials on Angel Island on 11 August 1918, Prokofiev was soon 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.

Prokofiev and Stravinsky restored their friendship, though Prokofiev did not particularly like Stravinsky's later works ; it has been suggested that his use of text from Stravinsky's A Symphony of Psalms to characterise the invading Teutonic knights in the film score for Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky ( 1938 ) was intended as an attack on Stravinsky's musical idiom.

Two older operas ( one of them The Gambler ) played in Europe and in 1928 Prokofiev produced his Third Symphony, which was broadly based on his unperformed opera The Fiery Angel.

During 1928 – 29 Prokofiev composed what was to be the last ballet for Diaghilev, The Prodigal Son, which was staged on 21 May 1929 in Paris with Serge Lifar in the title role.

Prokofiev wrote in his autobiography that he could never understand why the Sinfonietta was so rarely performed, whereas the " Classical " Symphony was played everywhere.

In the Romantic era and the 20th century, composers such as Wagner, Mahler, Beethoven, Busoni, and Prokofiev also requested notes below the low E. There are two common methods for making these notes available to the player.

Besides many other works, Prokofiev also composed five piano concertos, nine completed piano sonatas and seven symphonies.

At the same time Prokofiev also composed music for children ( Three Songs for Children and Peter and the Wolf, among others ) as well as the gigantic Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution, which was banned from performance and had to wait until May 1966 for a partial premiere.

This was also used as the soundtrack to the television special Peter and the Wolf: A Prokofiev Fantasy.

Prokofiev ( also spelled Prokofeev and Prokof ' ev ) is a Russian ( Проко ́ фьев ) and Ukrainian ( Прокоф ' єв ) surname.

Koussevitzky also commissioned many new pieces from prominent composers, including the Symphony No. 4 of Sergei Prokofiev and the Symphony of Psalms by Igor Stravinsky.

The Orchestra has also had many distinguished guest conductors, including Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Edward Elgar, Morton Gould, Walter Hendl, Erich Kunzel, Erich Leinsdorf, Charles Munch, Eugene Ormandy, André Previn, Sergei Prokofiev, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Maurice Ravel, Arnold Schoenberg, Leonard Slatkin, Leopold Stokowski, Richard Strauss, George Szell, Michael Tilson Thomas, Bruno Walter, and John Williams.

The soundtrack for the film was written by Sergei Prokofiev, who also reworked the score into a concert cantata.

The MSO won Grammy awards in 1996 for their recording of Hector Berlioz ' Les Troyens and in 2000 for Sergei Prokofiev and Béla Bartók piano concerti with Martha Argerich on EMI, and additionally it has also won a number of Juno Awards and Felix Awards.

She also performed the major standard flute repertoire of the 20th century, including sonatas by Hindemith, Prokofiev and Poulenc, and the flute concerti by Ibert and Nielsen.

Younger composers such as Prokofiev and Shostakovich eventually considered his music old-fashioned while also admitting he remained a composer with an imposing reputation and a stabilizing influence in a time of transition and turmoil.

From the early 20th century Prokofiev and Aram Khachaturian each wrote a toccata for solo piano, as did Maurice Ravel as part of Le Tombeau de Couperin, Claude Debussy in his ' Suite: Pour le Piano ' and also " Jardins sous la pluie " ( which is a toccata but not in name ), and York Bowen's Toccata Op.

The game was developed by Russian-speaking programmer Sergey Prokofiev ( Russian: Сергей Прокофьев ), also creator of Heroes of Malgrimia series, and therefore all the text in the game is in Russian, and the messages often feature Russia-specific folklore.

In the 1990s Plummer and Lankester also collaborated on and performed similarly staged concert versions of A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare ( with music by Mendelssohn ) and Ivan the Terrible ( an arrangement of a Prokofiev film score with script for narrator ).

The music remains a witty, biting satire — gay, raucous while also nervous, its energies playfully discharged in an episode of comic relief with its roots in Prokofiev and especially Mahler.

Throughout this time as a touring virtuoso, Prokofiev also continued to compose.

In addition to Prokofiev, other reputable composers such as Stravinsky, Hindemith, and Honegger were also commissioned to write music for Boston in the 1930-1931 season.

Prokofiev also utilizes more transitional material before introducing and underscoring the new subjects.

33, also known by its French language title L ' amour des trois oranges (, Lyubov ' k tryom apel ' sinam ), is a satirical opera by Sergei Prokofiev.

Prokofiev also quotes the march in act 2 of his ballet Cinderella ( Op.

It was also shown in Leeds Film Festival in November 2008, as part of Back to the Electric Palace, with live music by Gabriel Prokofiev, performed in partnership with Opera North.

Prokofiev also used the cornet, viola d ' amore and mandolins in the ballet, adding an Italianate flavor to the music.

Nevertheless, Prokofiev continued his habit of incorporating previously composed sections in the violin concerto ( something he would also do in the Third Piano Concerto ).

In addition to the bel canto roles for which she is best known, Gencer's repertory also included works by such composers as Prokofiev, Mozart, and Puccini.