To commemorate the 130^th birth anniversary of Sergei Prokofiev we have digitized vinyl record from our Musical Library with recording of the cantata “Alexander Nevsky”  performed by the Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus of Mexico City.*

The style of Sergei Prokofiev, whose work spans four and a half decades of the turbulent 20^th century, undergone a serious evolution. Prokofiev paved the way for the new music of our century together with other innovators of the beginning of the century - K. Debussy. B. Bartok, A. Scriabin, I. Stravinsky, composers of The Second Viennese School (Neue Wiener Schule). He entered musical art as a daring and courageous breaker of the established conventions of the late romantic art period. Developing the traditions of M. Mussorgsky and A. Borodin in a peculiar way, Prokofiev introduced into music unharnessed energy, onslaught, dynamism, freshness of the primordial force perceived as "barbarism". Prokofiev's music echoes the innovations of other Russian musicians, poets, painters and theater celebrities. The 1930-1940s style is marked by wise self-restraint inherent in maturity, combined with the depth and national manifestations of artistic concepts. The composer strives for universal human ideas and plots, generalizing historic reflections, light and realistically concise musical characters. This direction of creativity especially deepened in the 1940s due to the tough time that befell the Soviet people during the war. Revealing the values of the human spirit, deep artistic generalizations became the major aspiration of Prokofiev: “I adhere to the conviction that a composer, like a poet, sculptor, painter, has a mission to serve a man and people. He should sing the praises of human life and lead a person to a brighter future. This, from my point of view, is the unshakable code of art. "

Prokofiev left a huge creative legacy - 8 operas; 7 ballets; 7 symphonies; 9 piano sonatas; 5 piano concertos (of which the Fourth is for one left hand); 2 violin concertos, 2 cello concertos (Second - Symphony-Concerto); 6 cantatas, oratorio, 2 vocal and symphonic suites, many piano pieces; pieces for orchestra ( among them "Russian Overture", "Symphonic Song", "Ode to the End of the War", two "Pushkin Waltzes"), chamber compositions (Overture on Jewish themes for clarinet, piano and string quartet, Quintet for oboe, clarinet, violin, viola and double bass; 2 string quartets; 2 sonatas for violin and piano; Sonata for cello and piano; a number of vocal works to the words by A. Akhmatova, K. Balmont, A. Pushkin, N. Agnivtseva and others).

Prokofiev's creative work has received worldwide recognition. The enduring value of his music is in his spiritual generosity and kindness, in adherence to high humanistic ideas, in the richness of the artistic expression of his works.

* The record was produced in Bulgaria by the record company Balkanton, digitized on the Audio-Technica vinyl player.

Ref.: Belcanto.ru (Yu.Kholopov)