[97.2] PROKOFIEV AFTER 50

Composer Sergei Prokofiev died exactly fifty years ago on Wednesday, sadly on the same day as his nemesis, Stalin. Full details of the celebrations are on the Prokofiev Society index page. A gala concert is being organised on 5 March at St John's, Smith Square, in London. Prokofiev is the composer of the week on BBC Radio 3. There you can hear 'Romeo and Juliet' (Act 1, Scene 2) with Previn/LSO and 'Love For Three Oranges' (Act 3, Scene 3) with Gergiev/Kirov Opera on RealAudio.

Out of interest, there are various other 2003 musical anniversaries catalogued with links at Classical Composers.

Music ... has definitely reached and passed the greatest degree of discord and complexity that can be attained in practice. I want nothing better, more flexible or more complete than the sonata form, which contains everything necessary for my structural purposes. (Prokofiev in the New York Times, 1930)

This was well before Birtwistle and Ferneyhough, of course!