Episode Details

Sergei Prokofiev died on March 5, 1953 — the same day as Joseph Stalin. The dictator’s death consumed all public attention, and one of the century’s greatest composers was buried with almost no mourners and no flowers, because every flower in Moscow had been claimed for Stalin.

This episode traces Prokofiev from his prodigy childhood through exile in America and Paris, his fateful return to the Soviet Union, and composing under a regime that punished originality.

• He died the same day as Stalin, and his death went virtually unreported
• Peter and the Wolf became one of the most performed orchestral works in history
• His first wife was sent to a labor camp after he abandoned her
• He was publicly denounced in 1948 for writing music that was too modern