Prokofiev's 'Scythian Suite'

Synopsis

In 1916, Imperial Russia was still using the old Julian calendar. In Russia, as Hamlet might have put it, “time was out of joint,” lagging 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar used everywhere else.

Well, Saint Petersburg’s January 16 might have Paris’s January 29, but on that date Russia’s Mariinsky Theatre premiered a wild, decidedly forward-looking orchestral work with its composer, Sergei Prokofiev, conducting.

The music had been commissioned in 1914 by another Russian, the Paris-based ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev, who had asked Prokofiev for “a ballet on a Russian fairy tale or a primitive prehistoric theme,” hoping for something along the lines of Igor Stravinsky’s colorful Firebird or scandalous Rite of Spring, both earlier Diaghilev commissions.

Thinking of those two successful ballets perhaps, Prokofiev set to work on one set in ancient Russia about a forest princess rescued from an evil ogre by a Scythian prince, with a big orgy of evil spirits tossed in as well just to spice things up. But Diaghilev nixed the ballet even before Prokofiev had finished it, so its composer reworked the music into a wild concert hall score, Scythian Suite. Even today it remains — for some — a strongly spiced cup of Russian tea!

Music Played in Today's Program

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953): Scythian Suite; Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Claudio Abbado, conductor; DG 447 419

On This Day

Births

• 1728 - Italian opera composer Niccoló Piccinni, in Bari

• 1905 - Spanish composer Ernesto Halffter, in Madrid

• 1934 - American composer Richard Wernick, in Boston, Massachusetts

• 1943 - English composer Gavin Bryars, in Goole, Yorkshire

• 1943 - English composer Brian Ferneyhough, in Coventry

Deaths

• 1886 - Italian opera composer Amilcare Ponchielli, 51, in Milan

• 1891 - French ballet composer Leo Delibes, 54, in Paris

• 1957 - Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini, 89, in New York

• 1969 - Russian-born American composer and songwriter Vernon Duke (Vladimir Dukelsky), 65, in Santa Monica, California

Premieres

• 1724 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 155 (Mein Gott, Wie Lang, ach Lange) performed on the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany as part of Bach's first annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1723/24)

• 1739 - Handel: oratorio, Saul, in London at the King’s Theater in the Haymarket (Gregorian date: Jan. 27)

• 1745 - Handel: musical drama Hercules (Julian date: Jan. 5)

• 1800 - Cherubini: opera Les Deux Journées, in Paris at the Théatre Feydeau

• 1869 - Borodin: Symphony No. 1, in St. Petersburg (Julian date: Jan. 4)

• 1876 - Tchaikovsky: Serenade Mélancolique, in Moscow (Gregorian date: Jan. 28)

• 1905 - d’Albert: opera Tiefland (The Lowlands) (second version), in Magdeburg at the Stadttheater

• 1916 - Prokofiev: Scythian Suite (Gregorian date: Jan. 29)

• 1933 - Miaskovsky: Symphony No. 11, in Moscow

• 1936 - Frank Bridge: Ovation (Concerto Elegiaco) for Cello and Orchestra, in London, by the BBC Symphony conducted by the composer, with Florence Hooton the soloist

• 1942 - Britten: Diversions on a Theme for Piano Left Hand, by pianist Paul Wittgenstein, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting

• 1969 - Babbitt: Relata II, by the New York Philharmonic, with Leonard Bernstein conducting

• 1983 - Daniel Asia: Why (?) Jacob for piano, by Sanford Margolis

• 1997 - Esa-Pekka Salonen: L.A. Variations for orchestra, by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, with the composer conducting