Sergey Prokofiev diaries: 31 May 1909

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

99

text excerpt

At present I'm in Sontsovka writing a Sinfonietta. This is how the idea of the piece came into being. Scriabin's 'Extase' was being played at a Belyayev concert, and at the rehearsal it was being dismembered section by section, each excerpt being repeated several times. When they got to the end, I assumed there would be a complete run-through from the beginning, but instead ... suddenly they launched into Rimsky-Korsakov's Sinfonietta. It was such an unexpected contrast that Myaskovsky and I could not help looking at one another and bursting out laughing. After Scriabin's elaborately majestic music with its colossal layers of complexity, its maelstrom of confusing tempi, its gripping climaxes culminating in ecstatic outbursts, Korsakov's Sinfonietta appeared so small, so self-effacing, but at the same time transparent as water, and so lovely! It was a delightful little scrap of a child side by side with a monstrous giant. It came to me with blinding clarity that both kinds of music could be good, and could be enjoyed; both compositional genres were valid. And gradually I arrived at the conclusion that what I should do during the summer was compose both a large-scale work and a little Sinfonietta.

excerpt from 'Sergey Prokofiev diaries: 31 May 1909' pp. 99 (197 words)

1425068453350:

1425068453350