Composer Sergei Prokofiev was virtually broke the year before his death in 1953. His Sixth symphony had been condemned by Soviet authorities and he was stripped of his pension. He wrote a letter of apology to the Soviet censors and embarked on a Seventh symphony in a lighter fashion that he hoped would win him a 100,000 ruble Stalin Prize. He did not win. He died the next year but did win the Lenin Prize posthumously in 1957.

Prokofiev’s Seventh Symphony is a nostalgic look back at his life: sweet memories imbued with end-of-life melancholy. From his youth growing up in Ukraine, a particular March is heard. An allusion to his ballet “Cinderella” appears in the second movement. Adding another biographical element - knowing his time was limited (he had been ill) - Prokofiev ends the symphony on a sad note. But the conductor of the premiere convinced him to tack on a happier ending. He did, but told his friend Mstislav Rostropovich, “you will live much longer than I, and you must take care that this new ending never exists after me.” Many recordings end on the happier note, but in 1989 the Berlin Symphony Orchestra conducted by Seiji Ozawa recorded the symphony with the original ending that Prokofiev intended. That recording is today’s Midday Masterpiece at 2:00 pm.