Composer of the Week - Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) - Episode 4

In Thursday's programme, Prokofiev's incidental music for a staged version of Eugene Onegin, in which the composer proves that less can be more; Alexander Nevsky, his first Eisenstein collaboration; his 'Soviet' opera Semyon Kotko, a magnificent score despite the composer's preoccupation with staying 'on message' with the authorities; at the other end of the operatic scale, the light-hearted Betrothal in a Monastery, based on Sheridan's extravagant 18th-century comedy of manners The Duenna or The Double Elopement; and music from the ballet Cinderella, in one of its incarnations for solo piano.