Authors:
  • It seemed to me that had Haydn lived to our day he would have retained his own style while accepting something of the new at the same time. That was the kind of symphony I wanted to write: a symphony in the classical style. And when I saw that my idea was beginning to work, I called it the Classical Symphony.

    "Sergei Prokofiev: Autobiography, Articles, Reminiscences". Book edited by S. Shlifstein and translated by Rose Prokofieva, p. 46; from the "Autobiography", 1960.