Prokofiev's Ballets for Diaghilev

ISBN-13: 9780754604020 / Angielski / Twarda / 2006 / 328 str.

Opis

Although Western scholars have examined the operas, symphonies and piano pieces of Prokofiev little has been written on his ballets. Stephen Press's study explores Prokofiev's work in in collaboration with Diaghilev for the Ballet Russe.

Recenzje

’... Recommended.’ Choice 'Musicologist rarely write about ballet, and not very often about Prokofiev, so Stephen Press's volume on Prokofiev's ballets for Diaghilev is doubly welcome, closing a serious gap in the study of 20th-century music and culture. Another virtue of the book is that it is the first large-scale project to incorporate material from Prokofiev's diaries, which have only recently been published, in Russian... Press's book deserves to be recommended to all who have a love for Prokofiev's music, or who are interested in Diaghilev's enterprises. The book's solid scholarship will satisfy academic readers, but the style is also welcoming to a much wider readership.' Dance Gazette 'The more absorbed in the book I became, the more fascinating it was... The author['s] meticulous research for this volume should induce the reader to consider much more closely the Prokofiev ballets that are largely forgotten and usually glossed over...' Dancing Times '... the first half of the book is full of scintillating accounts of the relationships of the artistic factions that thrived during the post-war ear in Paris... Press zeroes into the musical issues of the three ballets in the second half of his study, offering examples from the scores and comparisons to materials by other composers. The reader who has enjoyed so far his intriguing account of the collaboration will find additional anecdotal material in these pages to keep him reading.' Ballet/Dance ’The strength of his book resides in the music details: Press offers one of the most nimble discussions of Prokofiev's harmonic and rhythmic language that I have yet encountered.’ Slavic Review 'Those interested in dance history have much to learn here, as Press draws on Russian sources only recently made available, such as the composer's diary from 1907 to 1933...' Dance Now ’... the first book-length study in any language of the composer's early work in ballet. As such, the new volume is a long ov

Spis treści

Contents: Preface; Introduction; Prokofiev and Diaghilev: the collaboration; The path to success: gauging originality versus influence in Ala i Lolli and Chout; The two versions of Chout and the Suite; Topical appropriations and a 'new simplicity' in Le Pas d'acier; L'Enfant prodigue and the end of a fruitful collaboration; Select bibliography; Index.

O autorze

Stephen D. Press received a PhD in Musicology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1998. He is currently Assistant Professor of Music History at Illinois Wesleyan University.