Prokofiev and Shostakovich : A Two-Way Influence

Abstract

Although much has been written on the professional and personal trajectories of Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) and Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)—arguably the greatest Russian/Soviet composers of the twentieth century—when it comes to their relationship, a number of writers (in particular those who took Solomon Volkov’s Testimony, with its sensationalistic negative portrayal of Prokofiev, at face value) have focused on the composers’ alleged personal antagonism and professional jealousies, often by relying on the composers’ private musings or on witness accounts and anecdotes of a questionable authenticity. A recently published collection of essays from the international conferences organized by the Deutsche Schostakowitsch Gesellschaft in 2011 and 2013 serves as an appropriate departure point for the present study, albeit in a rather negative way. Among the seven essays in that collection that deal with the various aspects of Shostakovich’s and Prokofiev’s professional and personal relationships, we find articles that recycle the stereotypes from Testimony, despite the fact that this book has long been discredited.