The second volume of Sergey Prokofiev’s recently uncovered Diaries extends from 1915 to 1922 - a momentous epoch in European history, in the personal story of Prokofiev’s life, and in the development of his art. The Diaries describe in detail the genesis and, all too often, the problematical path to performance, of major works in the canon including the Third Piano Concerto, the ballet Chout and the operas The Gambler and The Love for Three Oranges. A period of sustained creative endeavour, therefore, interspersed with the life of a touring virtuoso pianist, all the more remarkable considering the life-changing experiences of living, working and travelling in war-torn and revolutionary Russia, his decision to leave Russia and embark on the precarious life of an artist in the mythic America he had long dreamed of visiting. Would it prove to be El Dorado, or an oubliette of indifference and incomprehension?
The Diaries chart the author’s swings of fortune, alternate elation and disappointment, the loneliness of the émigré, his encounters with a luminous range of personalities from the worlds of music, theatre, art and literature, his deepening search for philosophical understanding and the parallel search for true love and friendship, all cast in the burnished, idiosyncratic prose of a born master, not just of music, but of words.