Sergej Prokofjev -- 13 maart 1914

• Sergej Prokofjev (1891-1953) was een Russische musicus en componist. Hij hield een groot deel van zijn leven een dagboek bij. De dagboeken uit zijn jonge jaren zijn gepubliceerd als Diaries 1907-1914 (vertaling Antony Phillips). Onderstaand fragment schreef hij nadat hij met succes het eerste deel van zijn eindexamen had afgelegd.

13 March
Oof! How good it is to feel the weight of this exam lifted from my shoulders! But the second leg is yet to come. Will my Concerto be my salvation or my doom? Will the judges be repelled by its dissonant harmonies or will they, on the contrary, be stunned by its brilliance and ardour? Perhaps it would be better, while there is still time, to choose another work? No, I still think that I will succeed in giving it the kind of performance that will stun the jury, and that is the route to victory. In any case it will be a first: no one in the history of the St Petersburg Conservatoire has ever graduated performing his own concerto. So, it's settled - I shall play my Concerto. I went into the Conservatoire, where a Figaro rehearsal was in progress. According to new rules the examination marks had not been announced, but Gabel smiled his sly smile and said, 'You'll be very pleased!'
Tcherepnin found out from Glazunov that my mark was 5+ [5 was het hoogst haalbare cijfer] and that he, Glazunov, had been especially pleased with the Bach: 'The fugue was played with great insight.'
Tcherepnin repeated his congratulations and is already making plans to include my Concerto in the Graduation Concert. I went into the Kuskova students' exam, where all the girls greeted me as the hero of yesterday's performances. But unfortunately I did not get to hear Galperin, who I was told had given an exceptionally powerful account of Islamey, had received 5+ and was clearly a rival for the piano prize. Damskaya says that all the talk is about whether I shall be the winner of the grand piano. I had to listen to many congratulations on yesterday's performance. In the evening, vint [Russisch kaartspelletje] with Saradzhev, visiting again from Moscow, and Kolechka Myaskovsky. We played no more and no less than ten rubbers and had a very lively time of it. I telephoned Oleg asking him to join us but he said that he was too hard at work preparing for his exam.