Originally from the St. Petersburg Conservatory

Main Article Content

Nataliya P.  Savkina

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to introduce into scientific and public use several unknown Sergei Prokofiev’s letters from the archive, stored at Columbia University in New York. The plots of the article are united by the most important motives in Prokofievʼs life: Petersburg, the Conservatory. In the mirror of Prokofievʼs letters, various plots are connected with the city of his youth very indirectly, but for the participants of the correspondence, the city was both a place of action, recollection and a place of power.
The scientific novelty of the article is determined by previously unknown information that relates to S. Prokofiev himself and some of his addressees; by semantic accents that emphasize some personality traits. Creative factors appear in an unusual light.


Documentary sources testify to the circumstances of staging the author’s version of “Boris Godunov” at the former Mariinsky Theatre. The article concerns some of Asafiev’s wide range of interests, his plans to write a book about Prokofiev. The famous dramatic story that happened with G. Popov’s first symphony is presented in a special perspective: Prokofiev himself expresses his attitude to the symphony in his letter-review. There is as well the composer’s message to the old Conservatory Professor of Piano A. Winkler. One of the letters was addressed to Alexander Kreisler, who was Prokofievʼs groupmate in class on Conducting under N.N. Cherepnin at the Conservatory.


Keywords: S.S. Prokofiev, A. Winkler, G. Popov, B.V. Asafiev, V.M. Belyaev, A. Kreisler, letters.

Article Details

How to Cite
Savkina Н. П. (2022). Originally from the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Music Scholarship / Problemy Muzykal’noj Nauki, 46(1), 7–17. Retrieved from https://musicscholar.ru/index.php/PMN/article/view/1332
Section
To S. Prokofiev Anniversary
Author Biography

Nataliya P.  Savkina, P.I. Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory

Nataliya P. Savkina, PhD (Arts), Associate Professor at the History of Russian Music Department