Symphony No. 1 in D Major, Op. 25: “Classical”

• Prokofiev composed this, his first symphony, in 1916-17. It premiered in Petrograd in 1918.¹

“I thought that if Haydn were alive today he would compose just as he did before, but at the same time would include something new in his manner of composition. I wanted to compose such a symphony: a symphony in the classical style.”

Prokofiev, on the style of this symphony.²

• Prokofiev composed this symphony without the help of referring to a piano.

“I confess that I also work three-quarters of the time at the piano, but in the past I did compose the “Classical” Symphony and Seven, They Are Seven without going near a piano.”

Prokofiev, from a 1926 letter³

1. Dorothea Redepenning, “Prokofiev, Sergey,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed December 26, 2019,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000022402.
2. Ibid.
3. Sergei Prokofiev, ed. and trans. Harlow Robinson, Selected Letters of Sergei Prokofiev (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1998), 266.