The Queen of Spades (Prokofiev)
| The Queen of Spades | |
|---|---|
| by Sergei Prokofiev | |
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| Catalogue | Op. 70 |
| Composed | 1936 |
| Movements | 24 |
The Queen of Spades (Russian: Пиковая Дама, Pikovaya Dama), Op. 70, is the score composed by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936 for the planned but unrealized film by Mikhail Romm. The film was to be based on the short story The Queen of Spades (1833) by Alexander Pushkin, and was intended for release in 1937, the centenary of Pushkin's death. It is one of Prokofiev's least known pieces.
The Queen of Spades was originally intended to released the centenary of Pushkin's death. However, the film was never finished, due to the tightening censorship in the USSR. Having signed a contract dated 29 May 1936, Prokofiev finished the piano score by 12 July, before sending it to his assistant, Pavel Lamm. When Prokofiev first played the piano reduction for Ramm, Ramm noted that it was neither lyrical nor dramatic, but "three and then seven pitches repeated endlessly," which added to the films "aridity," as well as conveying a sense of obsession and schizophrenia.
The 14-page piano reduction manuscript is preserved at the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, in Moscow.
Prokofiev reused music from The Queen of Spades in the third movement of his fifth symphony, as well as in his Piano Sonata No. 8. Additional reworkings of the score have been composed by Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Michael Berkeley.
The typical performance duration is approximately 43 minutes.
The Queen of Spades is scored for two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, snare drum, cymbals, piano, and strings.
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