Sergei Prokofiev was born in 1891. His mother was a talented pianist, who gave him his first musical training. At eight, he went to Moscow to see Borodin's Prince Igor, whose whirling Polovtsian dances made a profound impression on him, so much that he went home and wrote two full-length operas by the time he was nine. News of his gifts reached the composer Glazunov, who urged Prokofiev's mother to send him to the St Petersburg Conservatoire, which he entered at thirteen.

His ten years at the Conservatoire were marked by constant rebellion. He graduated in 1914, though his poor marks for composition made him determined to win the Rubinstein prize for piano, playing his own piano concerto to ensure that the judges would have no preconceptions. The work made Prokofiev's reputation, dividing opinion but there was general agreement that it couldn't be ignored. Prokofiev was already toppling the musical giants of his day, and his former mentor Glazunov walked out during the premiere of his Scythian Suite in 1916.

While Prokofiev was causing a musical revolution, the Russian Revolution was under way. His violin concerto was written when Lenin was preparing to strike. While the revolution was raging, Prokofiev retired to the country to write his 'Classical' Symphony, writing the last movement as the Winter Palace was being stormed. He considered himself useless to the revolution and decided to go to America, despite a friend warning him that he was running away from history and history would never forgive him.

In 1918 Prokofiev left for America, composing The Love of Three Oranges for the Chicago Opera House at the age of 26. He conducted his Buffoon ballet in London, then went to Paris to work for the impresario Diaghilev. But Stravinsky blocked Prokofiev's progress, and ousted his younger compatriot, with the support of the fickle Parisian public. Prokofiev's music became more and more arid and incomprehensible. He decided to return to Russia.

But the Russia he returned to was a new country, and he had little conception of Soviet life - so he welcomed the chance to write music for Soviet films, as it would automatically give him mass audiences. His music became more melodic, notably the great ballet Romeo and Juliet. His score for Alexander Nevsky lifted film music to the point where it was as important as any other element. In 1939, he reworked the music as a cantata, which became a vital musical symbol of Russian defiance through World War II. He was writing music to order, but it came from the heart - he was as patriotic a Russian as anyone else, and was decorated accordingly.

After the war, he turned his attention away from glory and conflict. But his Sixth Symphony was considered badly out of step with the mood of the country. It was banned, and in January 1948 cultural spokesman Zhdanov denounced leading composers, especially Prokofiev, whose atonal, dissonant music was too influenced by the West. Despite his defiance of Zhdanov's allegations, Prokofiev wrote an opera called The Story of a Real Man, based on the story of a fighter pilot. It was performed at the Bolshoi, and was dismissed as anti-melodious and modernist.

Prokofiev was told he lacked understanding of Soviet heroism and Soviet humanity. He wrote many huge works commemorating events like the rebuilding of Moscow or the opening of the Volga-Don canal. They failed to satisfy the powers that be, or anyone else.

By this time, Prokofiev was a very sick man, living in the countryside outside Moscow. He decided to stop writing "official" music and return to writing from the heart, a final act of creative defiance that only enhanced his reputation after his death, when his music was played everywhere, including formerly banned works. Composing, he said, is like shooting at a moving target: only by aiming for tomorrow will you avoid being left behind at the level of yesterday's needs.

He died in March 1953, on the same day as Stalin - so his death at first passed unnoticed.