Discovery
The Timeline of Sergey Prokofiev
| 1891 | Sergey Prokofiev born on April 23 (April 11, Old Style) in Sontsovka, Ukraine, third but only surviving child of Sergey Alekseyevich Prokofiev and Mariya Grigoryevna Zhitkova
Tchaikovsky conducts performance for the grand opening of The Music Hall (Carnegie Hall) in New York; Thomas Edison demonstrates and patents the Kinetoscope, an early motion picture device |
| 1896 | Begins piano lessons under tutelage of his mother; starts composing for piano soon after
Premieres of Oscar Wilde's Salome in Paris and Giacomo Puccini's La bohème in Turin |
| 1900 | Composes first opera, The Giant, after exposure to opera performances in Moscow and St. Petersburg
First public exhibition of sound films at the Paris World Fair |
| 1902 | Receives formal composition lessons from composer and pianist Reinhold Glière in Sontsovka during the summers of 1902 and 1903
Lenin completes political pamphlet What is to be Done? |
| 1904 | Begins composition studies at the St. Petersburg Conservatory
Russo-Japanese War begins |
| 1905 | Revolution temporarily suspends classes at the Conservatory
Bloody Sunday in St. Petersburg; mutiny on the battleship Potemkin |
| 1909 | Completes composition studies and begins courses in piano and conducting
Sergey Diaghilev establishes the Ballets Russes |
| 1910 | First public performance in Moscow; father dies |
| 1912 | Premiere of Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire in Berlin |
| 1913 | Stravinsky's Rite of Spring premieres in Paris |
| 1914 | Studies culminate in first prize for his piano examination, performing his First Piano Concerto; travels to London and is introduced to Diaghilev, who commissions Ala et Lolly which goes unperformed (Prokofiev uses the music in the Scythian Suite, which premieres in 1916)
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand; beginning of First World War |
| 1915 | Conceives The Gambler |
| 1916 | Meets theater director Vsevolod Meyerhold, with whom he later collaborates |
| 1917 | Composes "Classical" Symphony, First Violin Concerto, The Gambler
Russian Revolution (February: end of Tsarist autocracy; October: Bolsheviks overthrow Provisional Government); United States enters war |
| 1918 | Conducts premiere of "Classical Symphony" in Petrograd; emigrates, arriving in New York in September (spends summers in Europe)
Armistice treaty between Allies and Germany; Russian Civil War begins |
| 1919 | The Love for Three Oranges commissioned by Chicago Opera; conceives The Fiery Angel (completed in 1927)
Treaty of Versailles ends First World War |
| 1921 | The Tale of the Buffoon premieres in Paris, commissioned by Diaghilev; Third Piano Concerto and The Love for Three Oranges premiere in Chicago
Red Army invades Georgia; Hitler becomes Fuhrer of Nazi Party |
| 1922 | Returns to Europe; moves to southern Germany
Soviet Union established; Stalin appointed General Secretary of Communist Party; James Joyce's Ulysses is published in Paris |
| 1923 | Marries singer Lina Codina; moves to Paris
Stroke leaves Lenin bedridden and unable to speak |
| 1924 | Composes Second Symphony; mother dies; begins to study Christian Science
Hitler imprisoned at Landsberg; Lenin dies |
| 1927 | Begins two-month tour concert tour of Soviet Union in January; Le Pas d'acier premieres in Paris
Trotsky expelled from the Communist Party |
| 1933 | Composes film score for Lieutenant Kijé, which he reworks as a symphonic suite the following year
Hitler comes to power in Germany |
| 1934 | Meets with the theater director Sergey Radlov and others in Leningrad to discuss potential operas and ballets; they conceive the ballet Romeo and Juliet, which is commissioned for the Bolshoy |
| 1935 | Composes Romeo and Juliet |
| 1936 | Permanently relocates to Russia from France; composes Peter and the Wolf, incidental music for Eugene Onegin and Boris Godunov, and the score for a film version of The Queen of Spades
Spanish Civil War begins; Anti-Comintern Pact signed between Germany and Japan; Stalin launches widespread purges |
| 1937 | Completes the Cantata for the Twentieth Anniversary of the October Revolution; it goes unperformed
Italy joins Anti-Comintern Pact, completing the three major axis powers |
| 1938 | Final tour abroad (Prague, Paris, London, and the United States); receives offers from Paramount and Hyperion for film scores; forfeits his external passport; Romeo and Juliet premieres in Brno; composes film score for Alexander Nevsky
Orson Welles's radio broadcast of War of the Worlds |
| 1939 | Becomes involved with future second wife Mira Mendelson
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (German-Soviet treaty of non-aggression) signed; invasion of Poland precipitates beginning of the Second World War in Europe |
| 1940 | Romeo and Juliet has Soviet premiere in Leningrad; composes Betrothal in a Monastery
Trotsky assassinated by Soviet secret police |
| 1941 | Begins living with Mira; is evacuated and subsequently lives in Nalchik, Tbilisi, Alma-Ata, and Perm; begins composing War and Peace
Germany attacks the Soviet Union |
| 1942 | Collaborates with Sergey Eisenstein on Ivan the Terrible
Battle of Stalingrad |
| 1943 | Returns to Moscow from evacuation
Béla Bartók composes Concerto for Orchestra; Paul Hindemith composes Symphonic Metamorphoses |
| 1944 | Completes Fifth Symphony; Part I of Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible premieres |
| 1945 | Fifth Symphony and Cinderella premiere in Moscow; suffers a severe stroke precipitated by high blood pressure
Soviets take Berlin; Hitler dies; end of Second World War |
| 1946 | Premiere of Betrothal in a Monastery in Leningrad |
| 1947 | Completes Ninth Piano Sonata for Svyatoslav Richter; awarded the title of People's Artist of the R.S.F.S.R. (Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic) |
| 1948 | Marries Mira; Prokofiev's works largely banned from performance; writes letter of contrition admitting to artistic errors; Lina arrested and sent to labor camp; completes The Story of a Real Man; begins The Tale of the Stone Flower |
| 1949 | Performance ban lifted in a decree signed by Stalin; completes the Cello Sonata in collaboration with Mstislav Rostropovich |
| 1952 | Completes Seventh Symphony
Premiere of John Cage's 4'33" |
| 1953 | Dies on March 5 in Moscow
Death of Stalin the same evening |
—Kara Olive
© Serge Prokofiev Estate, 2002
Courtesy of the Russian State Archive of Social-Political History
Courtesy of the Russian State Archive of Social-Political History
courtesy of RGALI
courtesy of Malcolm Brown
© Serge Prokofiev Estate, 2002
