{"product_id":"19312-prokofiev-sergei-calvocoressi-michel-dimitri-autograph-letter-signed-to-michel-dimitri-calvocoressi","title":"Prokofiev, Sergei. (1891-1953) [Calvocoressi, Michel-Dimitri. (1877 - 1944)] Autograph Letter Signed to Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi","description":"Autograph letter signed \"S. Prokofiew\" on a Russian-language postcard from the great Russian composer to the influential \u003cspan style=\"\"\u003emusic writer and critic \u003c\/span\u003eMichel-Dimitri Calvocoressi.\u003cspan style=\"\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e Card Postmarked 1.5.37, translated from the French: \"Dear Sir, in ten days I hope to visit Paris for 8 days. I am looking forward to the pleasure of seeing you again soon and am sending you my best wishes.\" Nicely framed together with a printed portrait of the composer, unexamined out of frame but in apparently fine condition.  Letter measures 3.5 x 5.5 inches; frame 10.5 x 16 inches.\u003cdiv style=\"\"\u003e\u003cbr style=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"\"\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"\"\u003eBorn in Marseille, France of Greek parents, Calvocoressi studied music at the Conservatoire de Paris with Xavier Leroux and became friends with Maurice Ravel who later dedicated \"Alborada del gracioso\" from the piano suite \u003ci style=\"\"\u003eMiroirs\u003c\/i\u003e to him. As a talented polyglot, Calvocoressi began a career in 1902 as a music critic and correspondent for several English, American, German and Russian periodicals and also translated song texts, opera librettos and books from Russian and Hungarian into French and English. His subject of his first book was Liszt, but he was a strong proponent of Mussorgsky and other Russian musicians, writing three books on Modest Mussorgsky. He was the French advisor for Sergei Diaghilev as Diaghilev was introducing Russian arts to the French.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"\"\u003eEarly in 1937 Prokofiev undertook a long concert tour through Europe and the United States.  His creative work during that year included the completion of the cantata, Op. 74, the piano cycle \u003ci\u003eRomeo and Juliet\u003c\/i\u003e, and a series of songs for chorus and orchestra entitled \u003ci\u003eSongs of Our Days\u003c\/i\u003e. \"In the music written in this productive year,\" the composer wrote at the end of 1937 in \u003ci\u003ePravda\u003c\/i\u003e, \"I have striven for clarity and melodious idiom, but at the same time I have by no means attempted to restrict myself to the accepted methods of harmony and melody.  This is precisely what makes lucid, straight-forward music so difficult to compose - the clarity must be new, not old.\"  \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Schubertiade Music and Arts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46093711704223,"sku":"19312","price":1500.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0512\/4826\/7423\/files\/19312_Prokofiev_ALS_1.jpg?v=1722189856","url":"https:\/\/www.schubertiademusic.com\/products\/19312-prokofiev-sergei-calvocoressi-michel-dimitri-autograph-letter-signed-to-michel-dimitri-calvocoressi","provider":"Schubertiade Music and Arts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}