7 Sergey Prokofiev 7

everywhere interested in folklore, an interest that was
reflected in the String Quartet No. 2 in F Major (1941), and in
the projected comic opera Khan Buzai (never completed),
on themes of Kazakh folktales.
Overwork was fatal to the composer’s health, as was
the stress he suffered in 1948, when he was censured by the
Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party for
“formalism.” During the last years of his life, Prokofiev
seldom left his villa in a suburb of Moscow. His propensity
for innovation, however, is still evident in such works as
the Symphony No. 6 in E-flat Minor (1945–47), which is laden
with reminiscence of the tragedies of the war just past; the
Sinfonia Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in E Minor (1950–52),
composed with consultation from the conductor and cellist
Mstislav Rostropovich; and the Violin Sonata in F Minor
(1938–46), dedicated to the violinist David Oistrakh,
which is laden with Russian folk imagery. Just as in earlier
years, the composer devoted the greatest part of his energy
to musical theatre, as in the opera The Story of a Real Man
(1947–48), the ballet The Stone Flower (1948–50), and the
oratorio On Guard for Peace (1950). The lyrical Symphony No.
7 in C-sharp Minor (1951–52) was the composer’s swan song.
In 1953 Prokofiev died suddenly of cerebral hemor-
rhage. On his worktable there remained a pile of unfinished
compositions. The subsequent years saw a rapid growth of
his popularity in the Soviet Union and abroad. In 1957 he
was posthumously awarded the Soviet Union’s highest
honour, the Lenin Prize, for his Symphony No. 7.

Cole Porter

(b. June 9, 1891, Peru, Ind., U.S.—d. Oct. 15, 1964, Santa Monica, Calif.)

A

merican composer and lyricist Cole Albert Porter
brought a worldly élan to the American musical,
embodying in his life the sophistication of his songs.