Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)

Cinderella: Selection from Ballet

Unlike many other Russian artists, including composers Rachmaninov and Stravinsky, Prokofiev had official permission from the authorities to leave Russia when he departed in 1918 to find considerable success in the United States. The Stalin regime, always acutely aware of the political power of the arts and its significance to a country’s cultural identity, were desperate to secure the return of Russia’s leading artistic émigrés and saw Prokofiev as one of their best prospects. Consequently, he was courted by the administration for a number of years with the promise of many lucrative commissions, freedom to travel and a comfortable state-sponsored lifestyle.

DURATION 29 minutes

Year Of Composition 1946

THE WORLD IN 1946...

The first meeting of the United Nations is held in London.

Project Diana bounces radar waves off the Moon, measuring the exact distance between Earth and the Moon, and proves that communication is possible between Earth and outer space, effectively beginning the Space Age.

Prokofiev was under no illusions about the totalitarian regime; his cousin had recently been imprisoned for political dissidence, but he decided to return in 1936, just months before the government’s first official denunciation of music that displeased the regime. Although at first Prokofiev received the commissions he was promised, in a sign of things to come, many were not performed, deemed unsuitable for the Soviet people by the authorities. Within a few years, Prokofiev had been forbidden from travelling abroad and had witnessed friends disappearing; his family was now trapped in the Soviet Union and months later World War 2 would break out. His previous ballet Romeo and Juliet, although enduringly popular, had originally been rejected as ‘undanceable’ by the Bolshoi Theatre. It is within this climate that he began the composition of Cinderella in 1941, declaring danceability his primary concern, and correspondingly filling the score with traditional dance forms including grand waltzes and a pas de deux.

The selections from the ballet performed tonight demonstrate the scope and magic of Prokofiev’s original score. Emotive sobbing violin melodies depict Cinderella’s suffering, jaunty and piercing wind and brass scoring brings the evil stepsisters to life, and the celeste and flutes conjure the magic of the prince’s first sight of Cinderella.

After a testing time with the authorities, the ballet premiered to great success in November 1945, in the aftermath of World War 2, sweeping its audiences away with its fantastical and magical score after the alltoo-real horrors of war.

By Jack Johnson (© NYOS, 2022)

Further Listening

Prokofiev – Scythian Suite

Music from Prokofiev’s (abandoned) first ballet, the composer writing for huge orchestral forces in a more challenging, avant-garde musical language than much of his later output.

Tchaikovsky – The Sleeping Beauty

Another spellbinding fairy tale spectacle

Béla Bartók (1881-1945)