Premiere: 7 June 1945 in concert at the Moscow Conservatory, conductor: Samuil Samossud; first complete performance on 8 November 1957 at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre in Moscow, conductor: Alexander Sharverdov
Duration: 5 minutes
It was a subject that seemed perfect to Sergei Prokofiev in the spring of 1941, faced with the Nazi invasion and the “Great Patriotic War”: Tolstoy’s epic novel War and Peace, which, against the backdrop of the Russo-Napoleonic Wars, tells the story of the Russian aristocratic families Rostov, Bolkonsky, and Bezukhov – amidst receptions, duels, theatre performances, and festive sleigh rides. Crafting a coherent libretto from the novel’s complex narrative was virtually impossible, so Prokofiev did not even attempt it. Instead, he devised thirteen “lyrical scenes” – the novel was, after all, well known to Russian audiences. The result was an extraordinarily elaborate and opulent work, one that would occupy the composer for more than a decade and ultimately exist in no fewer than five different versions. Regardless of which version one prefers, the outcome speaks is compelling: Prokofiev’s treatment of the personal entanglements against the backdrop of history is simply brilliant, replete with impassioned ariosi, aristocratic waltzes, sombrely dissonant battle scenes, and rousing choruses of despair and triumph. The work is introduced by a brief yet dramatic overture in which, for all its heroism, the bitter reality of war resounds between the lines.