After Prokofiev returned to the Soviet Union, he was viewed as a suspect in the eyes of the Stalinist regime and was under scrutiny.
[1] In October 1939, Prokofiev was invited to write Zdravitsa for the approaching celebrations of Stalin's 60th birthday on 21 December.
[2] The libretto, which according to the first edition was taken from "Russian, Ukrainian, Belorussian, Kumïk, Kurd, Mari, and Mordovian sources", is a patchwork of poems taken from a 534-page pseudo-folkloristic collection celebrating the 20th anniversary of the October Revolution.
The fabricated contents were ostensibly the work of ordinary citizens from the USSR's many regions and ethnic groups.
The anonymous government writers' attempts to imitate folk byliny are done in a clumsy and blundering manner.
The selection was made by officials of the Radio Committee, which Prokofiev then reordered and edited.
Using previously published texts obviated the need for official approval which new ones would have required and prevented a repeat of the damaging fiasco that had occurred when the Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution had to be rewritten after Prokofiev had produced his own libretto without official guidance.
[3] Simon Morrison notes that "in explicit contrast to the reality of mass incarceration, starvation, and execution, [Zdravitsa and similar propaganda works] offer benign images of resplendent harvests and harmonious labor".
[3] The cantata opens with a sighing motif on trumpets, after which the strings play an expansive, flowing melody in C major.
The choir slips cheekily into distant keys now and then, but the harmonic language contains nothing too 'unorthodox' which would have been anathema to Soviet musical strictures.
Of special interest is the penultimate section, where the choir races up and down a C major scale (spanning more than two octaves), rather like a child practising piano scales: the British journalist, Alexander Werth (author of Musical Uproar in Moscow), "wondered whether [Prokofiev] hadn't just the tip of his tongue in his cheek as he made the good simple kolkhozniks sing a plain C-major scale, up and down, up and down, and up and down again...".
The cantata ends in a blazing C major, a favourite key of Prokofiev (cf.
Sviatoslav Richter, in Bruno Monsaingeon's documentary, criticizes the "brutal" Prokofiev for working on commission "without principles" and calls Zdravitsa unplayable today due to its subject matter, but, nevertheless, an "absolute work of genius".
[5] The cantata premiered on 21 December 1939 in Moscow, conducted by Nikolai Golovanov.
[6] After de-Stalinization, the text, like many others, was rewritten to remove references to the now partially disgraced Stalin.
Никогда досель у нас, рожь так не цвела.
Но иному светит нам солнце на земле.
Я, пою, качая сына на своих руках: "Ты расти, как колосочек в синих васильках.
Ой, горит-играет солнце в светлых каплях рос.
Этот свет, тепло и солнце Сталин нам принес.
Он в Москву к себе, в Москву к себе приглашает тех Он встречает ласково, говорит со всеми Говорит со всеми, весело, ласково, ой!
Ой, не наша ли земля да раскрасавица Как работает чем нуждается?
То не русую мы косу пропивали, То не замуж мы Аксинью выдавали - В гости к Сталину Аксинью провожали.
Выходила свет - Аксинья за ворота; Хороша собой, красива, в новых ботах.
I sing, nursing my son In my arms: "You shall grow up, like a stalk of wheat, Amongst the blue cornflowers.
If my youth suddenly returned, If the Kokshaga River suddenly ran North, If my eyes glowed As they did when I was seventeen, If my cheeks became pink like a ripe apple, I would go to Moscow, the great city.
The cantata is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (woodblocks, snare drum, tambourine, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, xylophone, tubular bells), harp, piano, strings, and a choir.