Zdravitsa (Prokofiev)

Zdravitsa (literally A Toast!; also known as Hail to Stalin), Op. 85, is a cantata written by Sergei Prokofiev in 1939.

Background

Ever since Prokofiev returned to the Soviet Union, he was viewed as a suspect in the eyes of the Stalinist regime and was under scrutiny. Numerous Soviet artists had already been arrested or even executed for creating art that was deemed too 'formalistic' by Soviet officials. Indeed, when Prokofiev collaborated with theatre director Vsevolod Meyerhold for his opera Semyon Kotko, the opera's premiere was postponed due to Meyerhold being arrested on 20 June 1939. Meyerhold was executed on 2 February 1940.^[1] A few months after Meyerhold's arrest, Prokofiev was invited to write Zdravitsa to celebrate Joseph Stalin's 60th birthday.^[2]

Analysis

The cantata opens with a sighing motif on trumpets, after which the strings play an expansive, flowing melody in C major. The choir suddenly intrudes (singing loudly There never was such joy – the entire village is full of it), and the music picks up speed. The choir slips cheekily into distant keys now and then. Faster staccato sections continue to alternate with slower flowing sections.

Of special interest is the last section, where the choir races up and down a C major scale (spanning more than two octaves), rather like a child practising piano scales: the British journalist, Alexander Werth (author of Musical Uproar in Moscow), "wondered whether [Prokofiev] hadn't just the tip of his tongue in his cheek as he made the good simple kolkhozniks sing a plain C-major scale, up and down, up and down, and up and down again...".^[3] The orchestra provides alternating G and A-flat pedal notes. The cantata ends in a blazing C major, a favourite key of Prokofiev (cf. Piano Concerto No. 3, Russian Overture, and Symphony No. 4).

Instrumentation

It is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (woodblocks, snare drum, tambourine, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, xylophone, tubular bells), harp, piano, strings, and chorus.

Premiere

The cantata premiered on 21 December 1939 in Moscow, conducted by Nikolai Golovanov.

Recordings

Notes

References

• Jaffé, Daniel Sergey Prokofiev (London: Phaidon, 1998; rev. 2008)
• Werth, Alexander The Year of Stalingrad (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1946)

External links

• Recording of Zdravitsa, Valeri Polyanski (conductor) and the Russian State Symphonic Orchestra, Russian State Symphonic Capella.