In 1916 the air was heavy with dark premonitions of hard times
lurking ahead. Like a helpless ship lost in a storm, Russia was rushing
full steam and right into revolution... The distant rumble of the forthcoming
upheavals was also finding its way into the new Russian music... On January
16th, 1916, Moscow saw the premiere of Sergei Prokofyev's Scythian Suite
orchestral pictures of pagan Russia. The Suite was much along the same
lines with Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring orchestral suite which was such
a big scandal in Paris, just like The Scythian Suite was in St.Petersburg...
Musicians started crying bloody murder already during the rehearsals
complaining that the music was "impossible to play" and that
the young composer just didn't understand the way instruments should sound...
Covering their ears with the high collars which women wore in those days,
the harp players said they simply couldn't endure the crazy sounds of Prokofyev's
music.
Undaunted by their protestations, Prokofyev diligently and patiently
continued the rehearsals saying after each one that everything was alright
and he was looking forward to an excellent premiere...
However, reality proved him all wrong ... The first night was
a pandemonium with the angry audience booing, catcalling and angrily stomping
out... Some people closed their ears, others moaned, overwhelmed by the
deafening strains of the orchestra. One of the eyewitnesses to the scandal
said he saw the Conservatory director Alexander Glazunov losing his temper
and walking out in indignation. Only a few dozen people managed to sit
it out to the end and they applauded like mad...
The Scythian Suite was born out of a ballet Prokofyev had earlier
been commissioned to write by the famous impresario and Russian Ballet
manager Sergei Dyagilev. When the work was almost done, Dyagilev changed
his mind and, hating to see his effort going down the drain, Prokofyev
made it a suite which was the biggest and finest piece of music ever written
by the 25 year-old composer...
The following day the newspapers poured abuse on the young troublemaker
who they said was only good at spoiling notational paper. The big-league
musicians were much more appreciative though:
"I just can't rave enough about what I heard," enthused
composer Nikolai Myaskovsky, "it was so powerful, at times refined
and absolutely captivating! Gorgeous!"
Music critic Boris Asafyev was equally enthralled:
"Prokofyev's music is so profoundly up-to-date, it's all
about man's desire for creativity which is something we, Russians, are
so striving for these days! Our biggest hope now is to live to see this
war finished and people living in peace again..." Just as he was writing
the Scythian Suite, Prokofyev was also working on his opera The Gambler,
based on the eponymous novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It took a lot of courage
for someone to venture and turn Dostoyevsky's psychologically charged story
into an operatic libretto. Prokofyev appeared to have both these qualities
and so he decided to do it all himself while leaving intact most parts
of Dostoyevsky's prose. "I think it's so stupid to believe that you
should only write operas to verse," he said, "in this case Dostoyevsky's
prose is a lot more impressive and convincing than any poem you can ever
find..." Choosing Dostoyevsky as the main theme of his new opera,
Prokofyev had completely forgotten about the copyright which belonged to
Dostoyevsky's family. Eager to expiate his sin, he went to see the late
writer's widow, Anna, who provided the following account of that memorable
meeting :
"Last Sunday a young composer, Sergei Prokofyev, came to
see me. He gave me an autographed copy of his opera The Gambler and asked
me to write something down into his album. When I took the pen, he warned
me the album was all about the sun and so I, too, should write something
about the sun. I obliged and wrote down: "Fyodor Dostoyevsky is the
sunshine of my life" and put my name under it.
Prokofyev was making haste to get the work finished in time for
his planned December 1916 premiere at the Mariinsky Theater but, faced
with a host of war-related problems, he kept pushing the date back over
and over again... It was only 13 years later that The Gambler, now touted
as one of the finest operas of the century, was finally released in Brussels
in 1929... The year 1916 was a real boon to Sergei Prokofyev, who had just
graduated with honors from the St.Petersburg Conservatory. Everything he
wrote was a revelation. On November 27th he was presenting to the public
his new Sarcasms piano cycle.
"This music is a concentration of the dark sides of life,
its evil and its venom" Boris Asafyev wrote. And with a good reason
too because, reflected in those tiny pieces, like in a twisted mirror,
was the insane Time itself which had sucked into its maelstrom whole nations,
countries and continents... In winter Sergei Dyagilev's Ballet Russe went
on a tour of the United States bringing along their finest productions
of the past few years. The generally glitchless tour was only soured by
American demands to delete several scenes which the local managers thought
were too frivolous. Dyagilev said a flat no and published a strongly-worded
letter in The New York Times Magazine.
What I'm going to offer the American public is not just another
fun show, but a work of art," he wrote, "and if some stupid people
think they can mess it all up, then I'm going to get back to Europe and
leave America without the Russian Ballet..."
But despite all that tough talking, Dyagilev eventually had to
back down and appease his no-nonsense hosts. The Ballet Russe was a resounding
success with capacity audiences applauding in New York, Washington, Boston
and other cities across the States...
A rave account in The Washington Times described the performances
as "a mesmerizing harmony of movement, colors, music and costumes".
Completing their first tour of the United States in spring, the Russian
Ballet company headed back to Europe, this time going to Madrid where,
enjoying the friendly hospitality of King Alfonso XIII and his court, they
spent some time basking in the warm Spanish sun... In the fall of 1916
Nadezhda Obukhova joined Moscow's venerable Bolshoi Theater. She landed
the job shortly after graduating from the Moscow Conservatory where she
studied in the class of the famous Professor Umberto Mazetti and spending
some time as a highly successful professional singer.
Nadezhda Obukhova stayed with the Bolshoi for 27 years and was
widely admired by her listeners. "Obukhova's voice is like an instrument
singing in the hands of a real virtuoso," enthused one critic, "it
is bristling with colors and shining like a diamond in the sun, so warm,
tender and sultry all at the same time..."
The famous pianist Genrikh Neuhaus once said that "he who
even once hears her voice, will never forget it..." During her lengthy
stint at the Bolshoi Theater, Nadezhda Obukhova performed leading mezzo-soprano
parts in operas by Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. Russian
music was her lifeblood and she was equally great singing old Russian love
songs. Wicket-Gate is one of the more than 300 such songs she had in her
program...
THE RUSSIAN MUSICAL HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 20TH
CENTURY is prepared for you by Olga Fyodorova.
