Prokofiev

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani places Prokofiev among the Russian composers whose masterpieces became known in Paris. He regards him as the greatest Soviet musician, one of whose cantatas expresses the immensity of Russian suffering1. He returns several times to Peter and the Wolf, an example of a Russian genius that knows how to speak to childhood and is tied to the rural tradition of the folk tale2. He sees the "Classical" Symphony as a work written the way Haydn would write it today3. He also takes up Prokofiev's remark that one can still make beautiful music in C major. By contrast, he describes the Scythian Suite as aggressively dissonant and barbaric4. He situates Prokofiev through comparison: at moments one can mistake him for Ravel or Poulenc, he is close to Roussel in certain motoric aspects, but one does not mistake him for Schumann. He discusses a 1944 work in which Slavic lyricism is hampered by a metallic world, before a finale that is a cavalcade across the steppe5. Finally, he compares Prokofiev's collaboration with Eisenstein to that of Molière and Lully6.

1. 110#2 Dialectiques de l'identité et de la différence6 Oct 2021 · 32:45
2. 2Pour une apocalypse "fraiche et joyeuse" ?24 Jun 2024 · 2:20:12
3. 3#4 Bien-et Mé-faits de l'amnésie...13 Nov 2020 · 1:30:33
4. 4Musicosophie 5. Bonheur contre pulsion de mort en musique11 Dec 2020 · 1:14:46
5. 5#8 Philosopher sous la menace27 Jan 2022 · 6:06
6. 6Proust30 Jan 2020 · 59:55

Summary produced automatically from 24 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.