The Times Literary Supplement
By Simon Morrison
The Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared 2016 to be the “Prokofiev Year” in celebration of the 125th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Let’s hope it proves better for Prokofiev’s legacy than did 2014, when the international airport named after him in Donetsk, Ukraine, was blown to smithereens in the conflict between Ukrainian government forces and the pro-Russian separatists of the Donetsk People’s Republic. Three letters of Prokofiev’s name were left visible in the rubble: “ROK”, which uncannily spells “fate” in Russian. The centennial of the composer’s birth in 1991 also had its troubles...
