The Literature Network - Culture: Glorious and most familiar legacy; Sergei Prokofiev, composer of some of the most familiar classical music of the 20th century, died 50 years ago today, the same day as his tormentor, Stalin. Christopher Morley looks at his legacy.(Features)

Culture: Glorious and most familiar legacy; Sergei Prokofiev, composer of some of the most familiar classical music of the 20th century, died 50 years ago today, the same day as his tormentor, Stalin. Christopher Morley looks at his legacy.(Features)

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From: The Birmingham Post (England)
Date: 20030305
Author:

Byline: Christopher Morley

Sergei Prokofiev was born in 1891 when Russia's greatest living composer was Tchaikovsky, then at the height of his powers.

When he died, 62 years later, Russian life was blighted by the strictures of Communism, with all artistic freedom curtailed by the dogmatic surveillance of time-serving commissars.

Stalin's death signalled a thaw in the state's dominance, but Prokofiev did not live to enjoy this comparative artistic release, dying of a brain haemorrhage on the same day as the dictator, March 5 1953.

It was left to Shostakovich to ...

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