Because censors in Stalin's Russia paid a bit more attention to words than to music, Prokofiev was pressured from 1935 onward to give his operas and songs a proper sociopolitical message, sometimes of an explicit propagandistic nature. These 1936 Romances, all using texts by Pushkin, were an exception to such extra-musical strictures and stand among his finest vocal efforts. Prokofiev wrote them to mark the centenary of the Russian poet's death, which would take place in 1937.

The first, "Pine Trees," has a mesmerizing beauty, especially in its lilting piano figures. The vocal line is haunting and atmospheric in its long-breathed main theme, effectively conveying the gloomy text about past hardship. "Crimson Dawn" follows, a cheerful song depicting much bucolic activity and the folkish love story of a shepherd and shepherdess. The concluding item, "In Your Chamber," is a passionate, moving song about the final visit to a dying lover. The music is appropriately sad in its lullaby-like manner, but offers hope and tenderness especially in the lovely opening theme presented by the piano and reprised by it near the end.

These Romances are important in the output of Prokofiev, not least because they are the only true art songs the composer wrote after returning to the Soviet Union in the mid-'30s.

© Robert Cummings, Rovi