#prokofiev

[scherzokinn]

Things To Never Say To Someone Who Just Came Out - Composers Edition!

[sixty-silver-wishes]

everyone shut up this is ACTUALLY what fans of different composers are like

Mahlerians are PROUD TO BE ABSOLUTELY INSUFFERABLE DRAMA QUEENS, THE LIKES OF WHICH EVEN THE WAGNER CULT COULD NEVER SO MUCH AS ASPIRE TO BE. WE ARE ONE WITH THE UNYIELDING EBB AND FLOW OF THE BOUNDLESS UNIVERSE, DAMN IT ALL!

Shostakovich fans are like Mahler fans except they actually understand what sarcasm is. We also all really like the Muppets for some reason. Most of us own cats and likely have at least one mental illness.

Liszt fans are either tweenagers who love anime or salty old pianists who know a disturbing amount about music theory. These two factions are constantly at war.

Copland fans are either very, very far right or very, very far left. Either way, neither side actually listens to all of Copland's repertoire.

Tchaikovsky fans are either Russian grandmas or LGBT orchestra kids on Tiktok. Either those or the one noob who heard there were cannons once.

Wagner fans. Yes, there are the cringey neo-Nazi Wagnerians, but anti-Nazi Wagnerians are a whole new level of chaotic good. They spend their time dreaming up the most disastrous, chaotic Ring productions possible, with the sole purpose of making Richard Wagner's entire family simultaneously spin in their graves. They take "death of the author" to a whole new level and constantly run on nothing but 100% pure spite. You want a Wagnerian who would beat up Wagner in a Denny's parking lot on your side.

Prokofiev fans will unironically say "ackshually...". That's it.

Dvorak fans are homeschool kids. They're either soul-crushingly innocent or devastatingly horny.

Sousa fans are just high school band directors who try to convince themselves they like Sousa to get through the semester.

Joplin fans constantly argue over whether Joplin's music should be played twice as quickly or twice as slowly than it's actually written. Also sick of hearing about Janis.

Chopin fans are exactly like Liszt fans, except there are 20% more "uwu softboi flowercrown" edits of Chopin than Liszt floating around on Instagram and Tumblr.

Holst fans will drag you into an alleyway and beat you up with their bare hands if you so much as mention The Planets.

Bernstein fans are either horny theatre kids or communists, but it's more likely they're both at once. They are very opinionated about recordings, and express their approval of the ones they like by gyrating excessively to them. If you put a Bernstein fan, a Mahler fan, and a Shostakovich fan in one room, they will either topple a national government or have a threesome.

Ravel fans are inherently Wes Anderson fans. You can be friends with one for years without knowing a single thing about their personality.

Schoenberg fans are like Mahlerians but with worse memes.

Brahms fans are... I have never met a Brahms fan. I'm sure they exist, but I'm pretty sure my own taste in music scares them off.

Paganini fans are almost always TwoSet kids, particularly the ones who try to convince people that "classical music isn't boring because it's basically metal." If you tell them Paganini played viola, they will spontaneously combust.

Rachmaninov fans are ultimately really chill, but are often socially awkward. If you ask a Rachmaninov fan "how are you?", they will most likely respond with "you too."

Schumann fans are Mahlerians on medication.

Stravinsky fans think they're chaotic and unhinged and listen to the most obscure underground shit, but in all actuality they just decided to enter their edgy phase after a lifetime of being sheltered and forced to listen to nothing but Handel by their parents. Possibly homeschooled.

Ysaye fans are like Paganini fans, except they're depressed graduate music students with permanent calluses on their fingers.

Debussy fans go to art school, decide they don't like art school, but have been doing art school too long to turn back, so they can't get out of art school. They may be high on weed at any given moment.

Satie fans are just possessed vessels of Erik Satie. Death cannot hinder Erik Satie. Erik Satie will return to this mortal plane. Search your feelings. You are already Erik Satie.

[bussyplease]

I made this a while ago on paint at midnight in a fever like state and needed to post it here

[aldenhan]

Natasha and Pierre throughout several adaptations of War and Peace

[BBC War and Peace (2016), War and Peace (Bondarchuk, 1965-1967), War and Peace (Prokofiev), BBC War and Peace (1972), War and Peace (1956), War and Peace (2007), Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 (Malloy)]

[symphonybracket]

YouTube links: Mahler 2, Prokofiev 5

Thoughts from submitters below!

Mahler 2 (2 submittals)

Have you ever wanted to feel like you're going to shake apart into a billion pieces if someone so much as looks at you. That's how I feel after listening to this beast. This symphony changed my life for real. It's famous for it's ending and for good reason!! It truly feels like your soul is getting blown up and steamrolled. Listening to it live was like getting peeled by god. It calls for 10 horns which is how you know it's going to fuck severely. It comes in 5 movements: good lord oh my god, hehe teehee, oh so that's why they call it the death shriek, crying on the floor for 5 minutes, and I Have Died. The part known as the "Death Shriek" is shown below! And if you're interested in learning more about the symphony, here's my favorite analysis website!

It's an everything in the universe piece and when I sang in the choir for it I think I actually ascended to a higher plane of existence for 15 minutes

Prokofiev 5 (1 submittal)

No notes

[kapukvati]

i love having too much free time on hand

[yemu1102]

Sorry for the disturbance my dearest masters, I just want to figure out how many great composers and musicians, and their family and friends have come to the afterlife.

If there are someone I accidentally missed, please let me know and I will add their names to this list. The list is arranged in no particular order, and I show my respect to everyone.

Here we go——

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart @wolfgangus-mozartus , and his mini form @bratty-prodigys and the father Johann Georg Leopold Mozart @fatherofgeniuses

Antonio Salieri @antoniosalieri-official

Ludwig van Beethoven @beethoes and @beethoven-sir

Franz Liszt @franzliszt-official , and his lover Carolyne Sayn Wittgenstein @carolyne-sayn-wittgenstein and his student Marie Louise Baskerville @marie-louise-baskerville (thanks for Monsieur Chopin’s help!)

Fryderyk Chopin @chopinski-official , and his sister Emilia Chopin @emilia-chopin ; his student (also) Marie Louise Baskerville @marie-louise-baskerville and Madame George Sand @georgesand-official your name will appear on the list of writers too if there are more writers come here…I promise…

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy @mendyson , and his sister Fanny Cäcilie Mendelssohn @fanny-mendelssohn-official and his wife Cécile Mendelssohn @cecile-mendelssohn (thanks for miss Baskerville’s help!)

Hector Louis Berlioz @berliozussy-official

Robert Schumann @robertschumann-official and Clara Schumann @claraschumann-official

Richard Wagner @richardwagnermage and @richardwagner-official (maybe?)thanks for Litz’s help!

Johannes Brahms @johannesbrahms-official

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky @tchaikovsky-pyotr

Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff @s-v-rachmaninoff

Aram Ilitch Khatchaturian @aram-khachaturian

Sergei Prokofiev @sprkfv

Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich @shosty-official

Éric Alfred Leslie Satie @eric-al-satie

TBC…

[sprkfv]

…Wait, where am I? What is this place? Don’t tell me I’ve been “resurrected”, somehow… how amusing…

[omg-horns]

Produced, filmed and featured in a silly lil "(Un)hlepful Guide to Classical Music" for all my k-pop loving besties who are open to learning more about classical music. 

Inspired by Cunk on Earth (& Between Two Ferns thanks to all the shade my friends threw at me). 

Made in partnership with Apple Music Classical! Download for free here~ https://apple.co/ReactToTheK

[classical-music-suites-bracket]

Romeo and Juliet Suite No. 2 (Sergei Prokofiev):

1 Submission

Last win – Giselle Ballet Suite (Adams)

No propaganda

The Nutcracker Suite (Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky):

1 Submission

Last win – First Suite in Eb for Military Band (Holst)

No propaganda

[scherzokinn]

[sixty-silver-wishes]

Dmitri Shostakovich at Sergei Prokofiev's funeral, 1953.

For context, Prokofiev and Stalin died on the same day- March 5, 1953. Because Stalin's funeral was such a major event in the Soviet Union, Prokofiev's was largely overlooked, despite the fact he was one of the leading Soviet composers of his day. Relatively few people attended his funeral, Shostakovich among them.

Shostakovich and Prokofiev were not particularly close, and had a thorny professional relationship- much of the correspondence between them that I've been able to find appears to be formal criticism of each other's works. As Prokofiev was from an older generation- he was born in 1891, while Shostakovich was born in 1906- they did not always see eye-to-eye musically; Shostakovich experimented with the avant-garde when possible, perhaps in part due to his musical maturation during the socially-liberal NEP era, while Prokofiev's style tended to be more conservative and neoclassical- picking up more influence from Imperial-age composers and fellow emigres to the west (he lived in France and the United States before returning to the Soviet Union in 1936). Their generational difference also partially accounted for how they responded to harsh government criticism- Shostakovich was impacted by the consequences of his 1936 denunciation all his life and, while he suffered greatly during his second denunciation in 1948, was able to develop public and private personas, in both the musical and ideological spheres, to preserve himself and his artistry. However devastating as it was for Shostakovich, the 1948 denunciations took a greater toll on many other composers, Prokofiev included. As Prokofiev did not believe he would be harshly denounced as Shostakovich had been in 1936, he was far less prepared for the censorship and attacks he faced in 1948. As a result of the denunciations, combined with his declining health, his artistic productivity decreased, and he largely regulated himself to writing basic ideological works towards the end of his life.

This is a letter Shostakovich wrote to Prokofiev on the subject of his Seventh (and last) Symphony:

There's speculation as to whether or not Shostakovich was actually impressed by Prokofiev's Seventh Symphony. As Prokofiev was in decline at the time of writing it, the symphony has been criticized for being banal and not being particularly innovative; Rostropovich even claimed that Prokofiev added in its final flourish not for artistic purposes, but to have the piece nominated for a Stalin Prize, which would have meant money and a boost to his reputation after it suffered in 1948. (The Stalin Prize has its own complicated history in its role in Soviet music, and although it was the highest award a Soviet composer could earn, it could sometimes be awarded as a sort of backhanded punishment- an encouragement for composers to write the "right" sort of music, especially after they had been criticized for "formalism." Nonetheless, winning it after suffering a denunciation could mean financial and political security.) Did Shostakovich- who had often traded criticisms with Prokofiev over music- actually like this piece, or was this an effort to encourage a fellow artist to keep composing after suffering mental and physical ailments? This was a private letter and not a public statement, and Shostakovich was typically very straightforward about critiques, so if the entirely positive sentiment for the piece wasn't genuine (the only critique here is that Shostakovich says he wishes the entire symphony was encored!), the letter may have come from a place of concern.

Perhaps the most striking thing about this letter is the line, "I wish you another hundred years to live and create. Listening to such works as your Seventh Symphony makes it much easier and more joyful to live." Maybe by telling Prokofiev that he wished him another hundred years to live and create, Shostakovich was not simply praising the symphony, but encouraging Prokofiev- a composer whom he was often on icy terms with- that he needed to keep living and creating, during a time when it was becoming more and more difficult for him to do so.

[violinconcertobracket]

The seeding is done!

I've finished seeding the brackets! The posts with the first few concerti will go up shortly. Please note that the bracket is seeded so that the most popular contestants will go up against the least popular contestants first, so please don't be upset if you feel that the matchup is "unfair" - that's intentional.

[shosty-we-understand]

While the two of them often crossed paths due to their similar careers, Sergei Prokofiev (left) and Dmitri Shostakovich (centre) did not particularly get along. In fact, they shared such distain for each other that at one point a fellow composer attempted to get them to sit down and put their animosity behind them. The well-meaning mediator's efforts were met poorly, and neither composer showed any interest in reconciling. They remained acquaintances and nothing more until Prokofiev's death in 1953.

[symphonybracket]

YouTube Links: Prokofiev 1, Rachmaninoff 1

Submitter's Comments:

Prokofiev 1 (1 submission)

if you don't like this what is wrong with you

Rachmaninoff 1 (1 submission)

i want to punch Cui and Glazunov in the face for ruining the premiere of this symphony and its reception later, subsequently giving Rachmaninoff 3 years of depression until hypnotherapy worked and he composed his 2nd piano concerto it’s a great symphony what can i say

[kapukvati]

pisskofiev and shostasskovich or whatever