Visions Fugitives: Glimpses into Prokofiev’s Compositional Development

Sergei Prokofiev’s name and music still attract historians and researchers. This book highlights an early period of the composer’s creative life by examining his impressive piano collection Visions Fugitives Op. 22. The history of the composition is described in detail. And the accompanying analysis of each miniature demonstrates the important features which formed Prokofiev’s early style and influenced his later works. This early blossoming of Prokofiev’s talent took place during a period of numerous modernistic movements in Russian arts, but it was also a period that was the prelude to two Russian revolutions. His music from this period is full of optimistic colors and innovative features that were difficult to present to the audience during that period. Prokofiev’s music was praised by early critics as new, bright, healthy and emotionally attractive, while his compositions also reflected sincere but sarcastic personality. Such optimism was largely unappreciated by the general public in whom the seeds of revolution were growing. As a result, Prokofiev and his works attracted both sympathy and disdain.