Schräg zur Linie des Sozialistischen Realismus? Prokofjews spätere Sonaten sowie Orchester und Bühnenwerke: Ein internationales Symposium by Ernst s> Kuhn (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 33I Kuhn, Ernst (ed.). Schrdg zurLiniedesSozialistischen Realismus? Prokofiews spdtere Sonatensowie Orchester und Biihnenwerke: Ein intemationales Symposium. Prokofjew-Studien, 3. Studia Slavica Musicologica, 37. Ernst Kuhn, Berlin, 2005. x + 289 pp. Musical extracts. Notes. Index. E59g95 (paperback). UNLiKEDmitrii Shostakovich,whose reputationhas been bedevilledby persistent skirmishesand occasionaloutbreaksof war, Sergei Prokofev has perhaps been more fortunate in the responses his music engenders. For all that his return to the Soviet Union in the 1930S remains an enigma, and for all his readinessto put his art at the service of the state, Prokof'ev appears to be a figurewho can be viewed, as the editor of this volume, ErnstKuhn, suggests, 'vorurteilslosund ohne ideologische Polemik' (p. ix). Yet is this volume uneven in its contents and imperfect in its presentation as free of prejudice as the editor hopes? The title itself is revealing,positingProkof'ev'soblique (schrag) relationshipto SocialistRealism. This is an assumptionsharedby severalcontributors:for SigridNeef, Socialist Realism is a 'Herrschaftsinstrument'(p. 9), and the subtitle of Valentina Kholopova's essay on the sixth symphony is 'Ein Werk gegen den Sozialistischen Realismus' (or less categorically 'protiv linii sotsialisticheskogo realizma' in the original). Other aspects of the volume's title are equally ambiguous. Of the later sonatas, only the Piano Sonata No. 8 is considered, firstly in Tetiana Zolozova's account (in French) of sonata form, and then in Ruth Goedicke's attempt to develop a hermeneuticframeworkfor making sense of the work'sperplexing and insouciant middle movement. More substantial are pieces by Kholopova and Gabriele Beinhorn on the composition and receptionof the Sixth Symphonyand Sinfonia concertante respectively.Nelly Kravetz analyses the Russianoverture of I936, the fatefulyear when Prokofev finallysettledin the Soviet Union, Shostakovich'sLady Macbeth was denounced and the purges began in earnest. Kravetz suggests that the overture as an archetypalworkof SocialistRealism in its monumentalism,tonality,optimism and use of quasi-folkloricmaterial. Uniquely, Kravetz explores the ramifications of Socialist Realism in music (and particularly'pure' or 'abstract' instrumentalmusic)in some detail. Neef s disjointed'Intellektuelautonom emotional verfuhrbar'nevertheless contains occasional provocative insights, such as the idea thatJuliet is a self-portraitof the naive and childlikecomposer , or that Tybalt's death alludes to the brutality of Stalin's repressions. Dmitrii Smirnov's attempt (in English)to catalogue the composer's melodic patterns relates only to the pre-revolutionary Visions fugitives;a comparison of early and later Prokof'ev would surely have been more revealing in the context of the volume as a whole. A major problem in the volume is, then, the use of the term 'Socialist Realism'. If, in the fields of literature and the visual arts, monolithic conceptions of Soviet cultural policy have been challenged by more nuanced accountsof relationsbetween the Partyand the artisticintelligentsia,the same cannot be said of music, at least on the evidence presentedhere. All the more welcome, then, are the two pieces included in the substantialyet modestly titled 'Anhang' (althoughscholarswill naturallywish to consult these sources in the original).First,an extractfrom the memoirs of Prokof'ev'ssecond wife, 332 SEER, 84, 2, 2006 Mira Mendel'son-Prokofev, covers 1948 and 1949, years which witnessedthe composer'sseparationfrom Lina Codina (who was subsequentlyarrestedand incarcerated),a full-scaleattackby the Party, the failureof the opera Stogy of a RealMan and enforced revisionsto WarandPeace,as well as poverty and ill health. Yet even in those terribleyears, Prokof'evwas stillcapable of defending himselfagainstthe chargesof formalismthat were levelled againsthim, as his letters whethernaive or cunning,brusqueor penitent,confidentor even egotistical make clear. The transcriptsof debates about Prokof'ev's late operas are particularlyfascinatingfor the light they shed on a culturewhere works of art were 'worked over' (as in English, the Russian prorabotat' has multiple connotations) even before they were revealed to the public. That artistswere themselves responsiblefor interpretingand shaping the doctrine (notwithstandingperiodic and dramatic incursions on the part of the state) makes its implementationno less terrifying. Mira'smemoirs are followedby those of Nina Lamm, adopted daughterof the musicologist Pavel Lamm. These, like all memoirs, contain their share of partisangossip,but like those of Prokof'ev'swife, they also evoke an atmosphere of panic, terror, sadness and incomprehension, reminding modern readersjust how hard it is tojudge what was genuine help, cautiousequivocation , bitter jealousy or opportunisticparty-minded persecution on...