Subseries II.1: Personal and Professional Correspondence, 1911-1947

Scope and content:

The majority of this subseries consists of letters, mostly to Serge Prokofiev, as well as drafts of his letters to others. Also included here are letters addressed to others (generally members of the Prokofiev family), as well as documents pertaining to them.

Serge Prokofiev's correspondents include friends and family members, such as conductors Albert Coates, Sir Henry Wood, Sergei Koussevitsky, Hermann Scherchen, and Ernest Ansermet; composers Igor Stravinsky, Nikolai Miaskovsky; theatre directors Vsevolod Meyerhold and Alexander Tairov; the Director of the Ballets Russes, Serge Diaghilev; poets and writers such as Konstantin Balmont; and chess grandmaster José Capablanca.

Also included are financial material such as bills and accounts, legal papers and correspondence concerning concerts in the USA, France, Italy, Spain, England, the Soviet Union and Germany; and the publication and copyright of Prokofiev's work. Individuals and companies with which Prokofiev dealt in these matters included musical societies such as the Aeolian Company in the USA, Concerts Populaires de Bruxelles, and Concerts Pasdeloup in Paris; music publishers such as Breitkopf and Härtel in Leipzig, Russicher Musikverlag in Berlin and Edition Russe de Musique in Paris; and Soviet music publishing and arts authorities including the State Publishing House, the Moscow and Leningrad conservatories, and the Direction of State Theatres. There is also correspondence regarding the composition of ballets and operas, notably The Love for Three Oranges, Chout, the Fiery Angel and Le Pas d'Acier.

This subseries also contains fragments from diaries, personal notes, concert programs and press cuttings relating to Prokofiev's work.

Materials are arranged in chronological order, with Day Month Year in the item title. Dates in brackets are implied. Missing or unidentifiable day, month, or year are rendered with "x." When the entire date is missing or unidentifiable, you will see "Unidentified Date" in the item title Letters with partially or fully unknown dates are cataloged at the end of the subseries.

To request an item, please order the box in which it is contained. Please note that the SPA does not hold originals of all items. If no Box/Folder designation is given, request the Goldsmiths Binder to consult a photocopy.

For more material, please consult subseries II (Financial Records) and especially subseries III (Miscellaneous) of this series.

Contents

Access and use