Introduction
Chapter 1: 1935-1938
Chapter 2: 1938-1939
Chapter 3: The Pushkin Centennial Scores
Chapter 4: 1940-43
Chapter 5: The Eisenstein Films and Tonya
Chapter 6: 1944-47
Chapter 7: 1948
Chapter 8: 1949-53
Simon Morrison is Professor of Music at Princeton University. He restored the original, uncensored version of Romeo and Juliet for the Mark Morris Dance Group, who performed its world premier in 2008.
"Provides a much enlarged picture of [Prokofiev's] later life and
work...Professor Morrison has adopted a calm and measured approach,
with fluently descriptive and comprehensive accounts of his varied
output...Much new cultural and ideological context is lucidly
provided." --The Musical Times
"In his new book Morrison greatly illuminates episodes, hitherto
barely known, in the life of the composer after his return to the
USSR. The small facts and biographical details in the 400 pages are
arranged, as if by themselves, into a picture of the tragedy of
Prokofiev as a person and an artist."--Gazeta "Kul'tura"
(Moscow)
"A phenomenal study."--El Pais
"Morrison reveals new and captivating information about a period of
Prokofiev's life that has been little known. Enthusiastically
recommended for public and academic libraries."--Library
Journal
"Morrison has filled so many gaps that The People's Artist is a
book all Prokofiev's admirers will need. He gives us a wholly
convincing picture of the elusive mix of aesthetic bureaucracy and
terror that informed Soviet music life. As is should be, the tale
is also an affecting one."--Gramophone
"Morrison's long-awaited book fills a gaping hole in the literature
on Russian music. It significantly increases understanding of
Prokofiev's decision to return to Soviet Russia, gives a detailed
and thoroughly convincing picture of what his life there was like,
and sheds welcome light on his creative output from those years,
and on the esthetics and achievement of Soviet music generally.
Tragedy is indeed its genre: Prokofiev's life, and the lives of his
wife
and children, were wrecked in consequence of his character flaws,
and this message comes through with heartrending force. This is one
of the most affecting books of its kind."--Richard Taruskin,
author
of The Oxford History of Western Music
"Morrison's book explores the most mis-understood and often
mis-reported period of my grandfather's life--his return to Russia.
It is very carefully researched, academically sound and objective
in its approach; yet very readable, clear and concise. The People's
Artist reveals many details of his life that were previously
unclear, and the extent of the censorship and difficulties he faced
as a Soviet composer."--Gabriel Prokofiev
"[A] groundbreaking study do[es] much to aid our understanding of
the composer and his return to the Soviet Union."--Bookforum
"Overdue homage to a composer of whom British critic Robert Layton
rightly said, "He never lost his power to fascinate.""--The
American Conservative
"Morrison has done a tremendous amount of work in the various
Prokofiev archives and is able to give a detailed account of the
process whereby each individual work was commissioned, composed,
accepted for production or performance, orchestrated, revised
(often many times) and reworked in response to criticism or the
requirements of directors."--The London Review of Books
"[An] excellent book."--The New York Review of Books
"Morrison has also made thorough use of the very substantial body
of archival materials concerning the Soviet administration of the
arts that Russian scholars began publishing in the 1990s."--Times
Literary Supplement
"Simon Morrison has now produced the most definitive study of
Prokofiev the Soviet composer in any language, drawing on a wealth
of archival material hitherto unavailable...Indispensable to anyone
even casually interested in this field."--Music and Letters
"Unequivocally is and will remain the definitive study of
Prokofiev's alter years. It leaves the reader with an enhanced
respect for Prokofiev as a brillant composer as well as a man who
continued to persevere artistically despite inhuman pressures. It
brillantly recalls the horrors of Staliism withour devolving into
an ideological screed. Music scholars and lay people alike will
enjoy and benifit from reading it." --Opera News
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