Sergey Prokofiev (20th-Century Composers)

Rating:
Summary: an accurate and essential biography
Review: This is an accurate,clear and very well documented Biography
that is worth for everyone who is interested in the composer and accessible to the uninitiated.
The requirement for brevity compelled the author to
fly rather fast over Prokofiev childood. The best and most amazing source for this period is the composer own autobiography
Prokofiev by Prokofiev now unavailable. I suggest to read both if you can find Prokofiev own autobiography used or in a public library.
The early years are very essential and enlightening even if not from a strict musicologist point of view.
The photos in this book are very beautiful and well coupled with the text. In some cases they speak alone.For example the very expressing '46 photo with other soviet composers included Shostakovich is worth the price of the book for an almost fanatic Prokofiev(&Shostakovich) lover.
Personally I would have prefered a less fastened and concise
overlook. Such a life deserves a narration that leaves you breathless. This is not achieved by Jaffé biography.
He gives well structured information but he doesn't pretend to offer good literature . I would have both, but maybe I ask too
much and the alternatives aren't better written,for what I know(they 're only less concise and more aproximative). Probably only the massive Dorigné Biography (available only in french) can stand up.
So I strongly suggest this book.

Rating:
Summary: best single volume on Prokofiev
Review: This is another solid entry in Phaidon's 20th Century Composers series -- heavy-stock paper and great photos (including one of his first performance of "Peter and the Wolf" for a group of children) add to Jaffe's text. Jaffe offers the best answer I've found (searching through several books) to the question of why Prokofiev returned to Russia at the height of Stalin's terror. Apparently it was a combination of homesickness, vanity, political naivete, and aesthetic theory. The Soviet regime promised Prokofiev an exceptional privileged status, which appealed to his vanity -- he was overshadowed by Stravinsky in the West, where he never felt he was properly appreciated. And the turn to "social realism," forced on Soviet artists by Stalin, coincided with Prokofiev's voluntary turn away from modernism toward simplicity, melody, and populist narratives. I enjoy both the early and late Prokofiev, but I can see the point of those who claim that his later works are more accomplished. While his music is not on the cutting edge, and thus he was never a critics' darling, Prokofiev's music is marvelous.

This is the best single book available at the moment for anyone who wants to know more about one of the greatest early 20th century composers!