Everyone Hates Prokofiev

"On September 5 Prokoflev’s name once again attracted the attention of St. Petersburg’s musical circles. The occasion was the première of the Second Piano Concerto, which took place at Pavlovsk under the baton of Aslanov. The Concerto left the audience in a state of open bewilderment. Miaskovsky, who attended the concert, reported that the audience "hissed and often did not behave quite properly."

... "He seats himself at the piano and begins to strike the keyboard with a dry, sharp touch. He seems to be either dusting or testing the keys. The audience is bewildered. Some are indignant. One couple stands up and runs toward the exit. ‘Such music is enough to drive you crazy!’‘What is he doing, making fun of us?’ More listeners follow the first couple from various parts of the hail. Prokofiev plays the second movement of his Concerto. Again the rhythmical collection of sounds. The most daring members of the audience hiss. Here and there seats become empty. Finally the young artist ends his Concerto with a mercilessly discordant combination of brasses. The audience is scandalized. The majority hiss. Prokofiev bows defiantly and plays an encore. The audience rushes away. On all sides there are exclamations: ‘To the devil with all this futurist music! We came here to enjoy ourselves. The cats at home can make music like this!’"

Most of the critics could not find words to describe this violator of musical canons. Of the twelve reviews in the press, eight were sharply negative. Yu. Kurdyumov called the Concerto “a Babel of insane sounds heaped one upon another without rhyme or reason.” N. Bernstein found it “a cacophony of sounds that has nothing in common with civilized music.. . . Prokofiev’s cadenzas, for example, are unbearable. They are such a musical mess that one might think they were created by capriciously emptying an inkwell on the paper.”...

The hostile reaction to Prokofiev’s Concerto is easy to understand. To the Pavlovsk audience and the critics who reflected its tastes, this music was a tonal “slap in the face,” an unpertinent, anarchic assault. Exactly the same reaction was evoked by the daring utterances of the young futurist poets, who maliciously mocked their listeners."

--- Prokofiev / Israel V. Nestyev