Sergey Prokofiev diaries: 3 August 1908

urn:iso:std:iso:639:ed-3:eng

57-58

text excerpt

When I was passing through Novorossiisk on 17 June and had eight hours to while away in the station, I happened to open a newspaper and read the headline: 'Funeral of Rimsky-Korsakov'. It is such a common name, and he was so far from my thoughts at that time, that I paid no attention. But when I looked more closely and saw '... the composer N. A. ...' I realized what had happened, and was really shocked and upset. Korsakov had died, and I never had the opportunity to study with him. [...] I remember his last triumph, at a Belyayev concert* where the Introduction and Wedding March from 'The Golden Cockerel' were performed. The Introduction was not particularly well played, but I loved the Wedding March, whose orchestration absolutely stunned me - never had I heard such brilliant colouring - although I was embarrassed by the banality of the Introduction's middle-section theme. When applause rang out at the end of the performance, it was more of a thunderclap than a storm, but a thunderclap that never seemed to end, neither swelling nor diminishing, the entire hall standing and applauding to a man. Korsakov sat in the third box on the left, dressed in a long grey frockcoat. For some time he sat motionless, and then came down to take a bow. The Wedding March had to be repeated.

excerpt from 'Sergey Prokofiev diaries: 3 August 1908' pp. 57-58 (227 words)

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