Editing Sergei Prokofiev (section)

=== First visits to the Soviet Union ===
Prokofiev met [[Boris Krasin (composer)|Boris Krasin]] in the violinist [[Joseph Szigeti]]'s Paris apartment in 1924. In 1927, Prokofiev made his first concert tour in the [[Soviet Union]].<ref>{{harvnb|Prokofiev|2012|pp=407–569}}</ref> Over more than two months, he spent time in Moscow and Leningrad (as St Petersburg had been renamed), where he enjoyed a very successful staging of ''The Love for Three Oranges'' in the [[Mariinsky Theatre]].<ref>{{harvnb|Prokofiev|2012|pp=487–90}}</ref> In 1928, Prokofiev completed his [[Symphony No. 3 (Prokofiev)|Third Symphony]], which was broadly based on his unperformed opera ''The Fiery Angel''. The conductor [[Serge Koussevitzky]] characterized the Third as "the greatest symphony since [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]]'s [[Symphony No. 6 (Tchaikovsky)|Sixth]]".<ref>{{harvnb|Prokofiev|2012|p=826}}</ref>

In the meantime, under the influence of the teachings of [[Christian Science]], Prokofiev had turned against the [[expressionist]] style and the subject matter of ''The Fiery Angel''.<ref group=n>Quote: "I decided a long time ago that I must compose in a quite different style, and that I would set about it as soon as I had extricated myself from the revisions of ''Fiery Angel'' and ''The Gambler''. If God is the unique source of creation and of reason, and man is his reflection, it is abundantly clear that the works of man will be better the more closely they reflect the works of the Creator". {{harvnb|Prokofiev|2012|p=699}}</ref> He now preferred what he called a "new simplicity", which he found more sincere than the "contrivances and complexities" of so much modern music of the 1920s.<ref>{{harvnb|Prokofiev|2012|p=779}}</ref>{{#tag:ref|That is not to say that Prokofiev approved of simplistic music: when in June 1926 he arranged "a simplified version of the March from ''Oranges'' as a crowd-pleaser", Prokofiev observed in his diary, "The process of denuding for the sake of simplicity is highly disagreeable".<ref>{{harvnb|Prokofiev|2012|p=341}}</ref>|group= n}} In 1928–29, Prokofiev composed his last ballet for Diaghilev, ''[[The Prodigal Son (ballet)|The Prodigal Son]]''. When first staged in Paris on 21 May 1929, choreographed by [[George Balanchine]] with [[Serge Lifar]] in the title role, the audience and critics were particularly struck by the final scene, in which the prodigal son drags himself across the stage on his knees to be welcomed by his father.<ref>{{harvnb|Jaffé|1998|pp=110–11}}</ref> Diaghilev had recognised that in the music to the scene, Prokofiev had "never been more clear, more simple, more melodious, and more tender".<ref>{{harvnb|Nice|2003|p=259}}</ref> Only months later, Diaghilev died.<ref>{{harvnb|Nice|2003|p=267}}</ref>

That summer, Prokofiev completed the Divertimento, Op. 43 (which he had started in 1925) and revised his [[Sinfonietta (Prokofiev)|Sinfonietta]], Op. 5/48, a work started in his days at the Conservatory.<ref name="Prokofiev 1991 288">{{harvnb|Prokofiev|1991|p=288}}</ref>{{#tag:ref|Prokofiev wrote in his autobiography that he could never understand why the Sinfonietta was so rarely performed, whereas the "Classical" Symphony was played everywhere.<ref name="Prokofiev 1991 288"/>|group= n}} In October of that year, he had a car crash while driving his family back to Paris from their holiday: as the car turned over, Prokofiev pulled some muscles on his left hand.<ref>{{harvnb|Nice|2003|p=271}}</ref> Prokofiev was therefore unable to perform in Moscow during his tour shortly after the accident, but he was able to enjoy watching performances of his music from the audience.<ref>{{harvnb|Prokofiev|1991|p=289}}</ref> Prokofiev also attended the [[Bolshoi Theatre]]'s "audition" of his ballet ''Le pas d'acier'', and was interrogated by members of the [[Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians]] (RAPM) about the work: he was asked whether the factory portrayed "a capitalist factory, where the worker is a slave, or a Soviet factory, where the worker is the master? If it is a Soviet factory, when and where did Prokofiev examine it, since from 1918 to the present he has been living abroad and came here for the first time in 1927 for two weeks [sic]?" Prokofiev replied, "That concerns politics, not music, and therefore I won't answer." The RAPM condemned the ballet as a "flat and vulgar anti-Soviet anecdote, a counter-revolutionary composition bordering on Fascism". The Bolshoi had no option but to reject the ballet.<ref>{{harvnb|Jaffé|1998|p=118}}</ref>

With his left hand healed, Prokofiev toured the United States successfully at the start of 1930, propped up by his recent European success.<ref>{{harvnb|Prokofiev|1991|p=290}}</ref> That year, Prokofiev began his first non-Diaghilev ballet ''[[On the Dnieper]]'', Op. 51, a work commissioned by [[Serge Lifar]], who had been appointed ''[[maitre de ballet]]'' at the [[Paris Opéra]].<ref>{{harvnb|Nice|2003|p=279}}</ref> In 1931 and 1932, he completed his [[Piano Concerto No. 4 (Prokofiev)|fourth]] and [[Piano Concerto No. 5 (Prokofiev)|fifth]] piano concertos. The following year saw the completion of the [[Symphonic Song (Prokofiev)|Symphonic Song]], Op. 57, which Prokofiev's friend [[Nikolai Myaskovsky|Myaskovsky]]—thinking of its potential audience in the Soviet Union—told him "isn't quite for us… it lacks that which we mean by monumentalism—a familiar simplicity and broad contours, of which you are extremely capable, but temporarily are carefully avoiding."<ref>{{harvnb|Nice|2003|p=310}}</ref>

By the early 1930s, both Europe and America were suffering from the [[Great Depression]], which inhibited both new opera and ballet productions, though audiences for Prokofiev's appearances as a pianist were, in Europe at least, undiminished.<ref>{{harvnb|Nice|2003|pp=294–95}}</ref> But Prokofiev saw himself as a composer first and foremost, and increasingly resented the time lost to composition through his appearances as a pianist.<ref>{{harvnb|Nice|2003|p=284}}</ref> Having been homesick for some time, Prokofiev began to build substantial bridges with the Soviet Union.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sergei Prokofiev Was One of the Soviet Union's Great Composers |url=https://jacobin.com/2023/03/sergei-prokofiev-seventieth-anniversary-death-modernism-music-ussr-stalin |access-date=2024-06-14 |website=jacobin.com |language=en-US}}</ref>

Following the dissolution of the RAPM in 1932, he acted increasingly as a musical ambassador between his homeland and western Europe,<ref>{{harvnb|Nice|2003|p=303}}</ref> and his premieres and commissions were increasingly under the auspices of the Soviet Union. One such was ''[[Lieutenant Kijé (Prokofiev)|Lieutenant Kijé]]'', which was commissioned as the score to a [[Lieutenant Kijé (film)|Soviet film]].<ref>{{harvnb|Nice|2003|p=304}}</ref>

Another commission, from the Kirov Theatre (as the Mariinsky had now been renamed) in Leningrad, was the ballet ''[[Romeo and Juliet (Prokofiev)|Romeo and Juliet]]'', composed to a scenario created by [[Adrian Piotrovsky]] and Sergei Radlov following the precepts of "drambalet" (dramatised ballet, officially promoted at the Kirov to replace works based primarily on choreographic display and innovation).<ref>{{harvnb|Ezrahi|2012|p=43}}</ref> Following Radlov's acrimonious resignation from the Kirov in June 1934, a new agreement was signed with the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow on the understanding that Piotrovsky would remain involved.<ref>{{harvnb|Morrison|2009|pp=32–33}}</ref> But the ballet's original happy ending (contrary to [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]) provoked controversy among Soviet cultural officials,<ref>{{harvnb|Morrison|2009|pp=36–37}}</ref> and the ballet's production was postponed indefinitely when the staff of the Bolshoi was overhauled at the behest of the chairman of the Committee on Arts Affairs, [[Platon Kerzhentsev]].<ref>{{harvnb|Morrison|2009|p=37}}</ref>