Sergey Prokofiev began to play the piano, under his mother’s guidance, at the age of three. By the time he entered the St. Petersburg Conservatoire in 1904, he had already written a great deal of music.

At the Conservatoire he was taught by Rimsky-Korsakov and he shocked the conservative director Glazunov.

From 1918 he lived abroad working first as a solo pianist in America and, later, in Paris.

He returned to Russia in 1934 where he found himself out of favour with the authorities. In 1948 he was, like others, the subject of particular and direct censure and condemned as a formalist.

His last opera, "War and Peace", is based on Tolstoy's great novel and was performed in its complete version only after his death.

He wrote three ballets for Dyagilev, once rejected as undanceable; these include "Romeo and Juliet" and "Cinderella".

Film scores by Prokofiev include "Alexander Nevsky" and "Ivan the Terrible" written for Eisenstein’s films.

Music for the film Lieutenant Kijč, a fictional character, created by a clerical error and maintained in existence to the end, was written in 1933.

Prokofiev wrote seven symphonies; of these the Classical Symphony, a work written in 1916-17 with the work of Haydn in mind, is the best known; the Fifth Symphony of 1944 is a work on a much larger scale.

Of Prokofiev's five piano concertos the third is best known, written in the composer's instantly recognisable musical language, from the incisive opening to the motor rhythms that follow, in a mixture of lyricism and acerbic wit.

More romantic in feeling are the two fine violin concertos.

His early Cello Concerto was followed in 1952, fourteen years later, by a Cello Concertino, completed by the cellist Rostropovich and the composer Kabalevsky after Prokofiev's death.

One of the most widely known of all Prokofiev's compositions is his tale for children "Peter and the Wolf", for narrator and orchestra, a simple pedagogical work to introduce children to the instruments of the orchestra, with instruments, or groups of instruments, representing characters in the story.

In addition to a wide variety of choral and vocal music, which includes a concert version of the film score for Alexander Nevsky, Prokofiev wrote a number of less memorable works for various occasions of political importance.

Chamber music by Prokofiev includes two sonatas for violin and piano, the second originally for flute and piano and revised by the composer, with the help of the violinist David Oistrakh.

He completed his C major Cello Sonata in 1949, but a second sonata for the instrument was left unfinished at the time of his death.

The Five Melodies for violin and piano, based on earlier songs, are also in general repertoire.

Prokofiev, himself a formidable pianist, completed nine piano sonatas out of a projected eleven.

The 8th Sonata is dedicated to Sviatoslav Richter.