Prokofiev: Piano Sonata PROKOFIEV: Piano Sonatas

Richard Whitehouse Sergey Prokofiev (1891-1953) Sonatas Vol. 2Nos. l, 3 and 4 His sonatas are an important contribution to the repertoire, in addition to his songs and chamber music, film-scores and much else, some works overtly serving the purposes of the Soviet state. In style his music is often astringent in harmony, but with a characteristically Russian turn of melody and, in spite of the expssed opinion of Shostakovich, an idiosyncratic gift for orchestration. Prokofiev completed his Sonata in F minor, Opus 1, in 1909. This was not the first sonata he had written, pceded, as it was, by six earlier works. He used for it material from the second of these, written two years earlier in summer holidays at Sontsovka, a work that he had sent to Myaskovsky as a one-movement sonata that he then described as 'efficient, amusing and ptty'. The Opus 1 sonata was published, after revision, in 1911. It opens with a strongly rhythmic chordal pattern, set against the triple-metre quavers that accompany it. A steadier gait marks the second subject and the material is developed and allowed a modified recapitulation in an essentially tonal sonata-form structure in a style that suggests Rachmaninov rather than the characteristic idiom of Prokofiev himselfThe third of Prokofiev's maturer sonatas, the Sonata in A minor, Opus 28, was also based on an earlier work, the Sonata No. 3 of 1907, and completed in its revised form in 1917. It seems to have been generally well received and Prokofiev was advised during a visit to Russia in 1927 to begin his recital programmes with it. It forms a pair with the fourth sonata, the Sonata in C minor, Opus 29, both of them carrying the subtitle From Old Notebook. The fourth sonata, also completed in 1917, is based on a similar early work and an unpublished second symphony of 1908.The third sonata carries the direction Allegro tempestoso and offers a straightforward and exciting first theme and a more relaxed second subject. The music is tonal and the structure that of a single sonata movement. The fourth brings more of the language that is recognisably that of Prokofiev. The first movement is in the three customary sections of sonata-allegro form, with two contrasted subjects making their due appearance. There is a certain harmonic astringency, not least in the final chords of the first movement. The A minor slow movement introduces its principal theme in the lower register of the keyboard. The theme is to return in a much more elaborate guise before the movement comes to an end. The final Allegro con brio includes subsidiary thematic material of gentle clarity and calls for an element of virtuosity in performance. The third sonata was dedicated to Prokofiev's friend, the poet Boris Verin (Boris Bashkirov) and the fourth to the memory of Prokofiev's closest friend and fellow-student, Maximilian Schmittgof, who committed suicide in 1913 at the age of 22.



Sonatas Vol. 1 Sonata No.2 in D Minor, Op. 14 Sonata No.7 in B Flat Major, Op. 83 Sonata No.8 in B Flat Major, Op. 84
In 1936 Prokofiev decided to settle once more in his native country, taking up residence in Moscow in time for the first official onslaught on music that did not sort well with the political and social aims of the government, aimed in particular at the hitherto successful opera A Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Shostakovich. Twelve years later the name of Prokofiev was to be openly joined with that of Shostakovich in an even more explicit condemnation of formalism, with particular reference now to Prokofiev's opera War and Peace. He died in 1953 on the same day as Joseph Stalin, and thus never benefited from the subsequent relaxation in official policy to the arts.
After the death of his father in July 1910 Prokofiev began to turn his attention to the commercial possibilities in the publication of his music, but without immediate success. During the summer he also began to sketch a concerto, which he completed early in 1912. This was performed in Moscow and at Pavlovsk, outside St. Petersburg, with Prokofiev making his first appearance as a soloist with an orchestra. The concerto had a mixed reception, wild enthusiasm from some and marked disapproval from others, to the composer's equal gratification. The concerto, after all, marked a significant change in Russian music, from the romanticism of Rachmaninov and Scriabin to a new world of clear and sometimes harsh contours. His Sonata No.2 in D minor, Opus 14, was completed at the end of August 1912 and first performed in Moscow at the Conservatory on 23rd January 1914. It was dedicated to a fellow-student, Maksimilian Shmitgoff, a close friend, who had committed suicide, informing Prokofiev of his intention by letter when pvention was impossible. The first movement of the sonata, relatively spare in texture, opens with a duple rhythm theme against a lower register triplet accompaniment, capped by a syncopated section that makes practical use of dissonance. A sustained chord in the lower register leads to a secondary theme in waltz rhythm, marked più mosso and impelled onward by motor rhythms that are very characteristic of the composer, leading to a lyrical passage, followed by a development of this material. In a recapitulation the first theme returns in the lower register, followed by the other thematic material, now duly transposed and varied, the movement ending in a coda that relies largely on the principal subject. The second movement, an A minor Scherzo, calls for some intricacy of hand-crossing against the continuing quaver (eighth note) pattern, framing a central trio section. The slow movement shifts to the tonality of G sharp minor in a tripartite structure that allows the material of the first section a final development, marked con tristezza. The rapid last movement, impelled forward by its opening rhythm, includes a brief reference to the first movement.
Bernd Glemser A prize-winner on no less than seventeen occasions in international competitions, the young German pianist Bernd Glemser was born in Dürbheim and was still a pupil of Vitalij Margulis when he was appointed professor at the Saarbrücken Musikhochschule, in succession to Andor Foldes, himself the successor of Walter Gieseking. In 1992 he won the Andor Foldes Prize and in 1993 the first European Pianists' Prize. With a wide repertoire ranging from the Baroque to the contemporary, Bernd Glemser has a particular affection for the virtuoso music of the later nineteenth and earlier twentieth centuries, the work of Liszt, Tausig, Godowski, Busoni, and especially that of Rachmaninov. His career has brought appearances at major music festivals and leading concert halls throughout Europe and further afield. Sergey Prokofiev (1891-1953) < br />

In the summer of 1939, spent at Kislovodsk, Prokofiev met Maria-Cecilia Abramovna Mendelson, Mira, who replaced his foreign wife Lina in his affections, with a liaison that might have seemed more acceptable to the Soviet authorities. It is from her that we learn that Prokofiev had been reading at this time Romain Rolland's book on Beethoven and that this strongly influenced his sixth, seventh and eighth sonatas, works that he wrote simultaneously during the following years. He completed Sonata No.7 only in 1942 and it was first performed at the Hall of Columns in Moscow on 18th January of the following year by Sviatoslav Richter. The latter later wrote of the disorder and uncertainty and raging of death-dealing forces in the sonata with the continuation of what man lives for, love and the affirmation of life. The sonata was awarded a Stalin Prize, Second Class, the first of five such official awards that Prokofiev would receive. The first movement, marked Allegro inquieto, starts with an opening phrase, unharmonized and suggesting in its conclusion the tonality of B flat. Before long the two strands of melody diverge, leading to syncopations of greater stridency. A secondary theme appears in an Andantino section, part of a modified sonata-allegro structure. The second movement Andante caloroso is in E major, now with a key signature, a feature absent in the first movement. The singing melody in an inner part, followed closely in the bass, leads to a central section of varied tonalities and textures, before the final return of the material of the opening, much abridged. The sonata ends with a final movement in 7 / 8 metre, perceived as 2 +3 +2. Marked Precipitato, the material is dominated by this asymmetrical rhythmic pattern, to end in a final affirmative and unambiguous B flat major.
The aftermath of the Second World War saw the completion of two of Prokofiev's greatest works, the First Violin Sonata (Naxos 8.555904) and the Sixth Symphony (Naxos 8.553069). Compared to their heroically-imbued tragedy, the Ninth Sonata, completed in the autumn of 1947, seems unambitious, even simplistic. Sviatoslav Richter thought so at first, and did not publicly perform the work until a sixtieth birthday concert in Moscow on 21st April 1951. By then, however, Richter had changed his mind, describing it as " radiant, simple and even intimate ". Yet the sonata has had few subsequent champions, and even today stands as the most neglected of Prokofiev's major instrumental works.
A brusque coda, largely a product of the revision, wraps up the work in an unexpectedly defiant manner.

Sonata No.8 is in marked contrast to the pceding work. Dedicated to Mira, his companion from the break up of his marriage until his death, it was completed in 1944 and first performed on 30th December that year in the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory by the young pianist Emil Gilels. Richter considered this the richest of the sonatas in its material, but difficult to understand because of this very abundance. Prokofiev made use of themes sketched in 1939, associated, psumably, with his first meeting with the woman to whom the work is dedicated. A gentle melody is offered first, repeated in a varied and further developed before an Allegro moderato. The movement ends with a return to the opening Andante dolce and the modified material of the Allegro. The second movement, Andante sognando , is in D flat major, with the shifts of tonality that now might be expected. Gently lyrical in its general mood, it is followed by a final Vivace of rhythmic contrast. The key of D flat re-appears for an Allegro ben marcato section in a movement of considerable rhythmic, tonal and thematic variety, that returns to a final B flat.

2,7,8 http://edu.kuke.com/kuke/library/content/8.553021/ 1,3,4 http://edu.kuke.com/kuke/library/content/8.554270/ 5,6, 9 http://edu.kuke.com/kuke/library/content/8.555030/ Sergei Prokofiev (1891 - 1953)
The Allegro moderato begins with a strident theme, the opening of which acts as a motto over the course of the sonata. There follows a dissonant transition, and the musingly introspective second idea appears in complete contrast. An athletic motion in the bass now gathers momentum , fragments of both themes being recalled as the movement reaches its apex, dissolving in a welter of glissandi. The opening theme returns aggressively, and the second theme, now more demonstrative, sees the movement through to an equivocal close, made more provisional by a final recall of the motto fragment. The following Allegretto opens with a lightly tripping idea, which opens out into playful repartee between left and right hands. A more rhapsodic theme provides contrast, before a return to the guile of the opening. The Tempo di walzer lentissimo is based around a lyrically undulating melody, redolent of the love music from the ballet Romeo and Juliet. An oddly Ravelian central section leads to an intense restatement of the main theme, which pursues its heightened emotional course through to a hushed, fulfilled coda. The Vivace opens in febrile mood, scarcely pausing for breath as a number of motifs flash vividly past. A pause, and the motto idea sounds uncertainly, provoking a stealthy interlude which binds the sonata together with uncanny skill. A hectic reprise of the finale's own ideas ensues, the motto returning to dominate a propulsive coda, where it is shouted out with manic insistence.
The Allegro tranquillo opens with a calmly flowing theme, melody and accompaniment closely intertwined, with a harmonically more speculative idea as contrast. The development proceeds in surprisingly agitated terms, the first theme returning at its height and continuing as before. The second theme, now more restive, leads to a brief, laconic coda. The Andantino is an insouciant intermezzo, the harmonic dissonance of which is checked by the regular, walking bass-line. A thoughtful central section scarcely alters the pvailing mood, as the movement wends its way to an ironic half close. Marked Un poco allegretto the following movement initially recalls the first in more animated terms, though with an even more heated development and a mechanistic feel to the main theme on its return.

Sergei Prokofiev was born in 1891 at Sontsovka in the Ukraine, the son of a prosperous estate manager. An only child, his musical talents were fostered by his mother, a cultured amateur pianist, and he tried his hand at composition at the age of five , later being tutored at home by the composer Glière. In 1904, on the advice of Glazunov, his parents allowed him to enter the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he continued his studies as a pianist and as a composer until 1914, owing more to the influence of senior fellow-students Asafyev and Miaskovsky than to the older generation of teachers, repsented by Liadov and Rimsky-Korsakov.


Composed during 1923, the Fifth Sonata reflects Prokofiev's fascination with the cultural maelstrom that was Paris at the time. Avoiding the rhetoric and virtuosity of his earlier sonatas, the influence of Stravinsky and Les Six is evident in its outwardly classical outlines and formal clarity, though the harmonic thinking is far from the neo-Baroque aesthetic then being advocated. Perhaps because of its quirky but undemonstrative combination of old and new, the work was coolly received at its Paris pmière in March 1924, though the composer thought well enough of it to undertake a revision, principally centred on the final movement, during 1952-3, when it became the only one of a number of planned compositions and revisions to reach fruition before his death.




Even as a student Prokofiev had begun to make his mark as a composer, arousing enthusiasm and hostility in equal measure, and inducing Glazunov, now director of the Conservatory, to walk out of a performance of The Scythian Suite, fearing for his sense of hearing . During the war he gained exemption from military service by enrolling as an organ student and after the Revolution was given permission to travel abroad, at first to America, taking with him the scores of The Scythian Suite, arranged from a ballet originally commissioned by Dyagilev , the Classical Symphony and his first Violin Concerto.
The first movement, marked Allegretto, opens in absolute calm, its themes treading a fine line between intimacy and poignancy. The development draws them into an elaborate contrapuntal passage which yet sustains the initial mood, before a recapitulation of the themes and a coda which surges momentarily before the half-regretful close. The following Allegro strepitoso is a sparkling scherzo without the malevolence found in Prokofiev's earlier music, a musing central section of artless simplicity rounding off the movement. The Andante tranquillo has a radiant simplicity given depth by being heard in the lower registers, though an animated idea briefly ruffles the placid atmosphere. The main theme returns in varied figuration, then the secondary idea, with rushing semiquavers in the bass, provokes a brief climax. A new rhythmic idea appears in the subdued coda, anticipating the rumbustious main theme of the final Allegro con brio, ma non troppo psto. A steadier but equally robust second theme follows, as does a central section more in keeping with the pvailingly restrained mood. The two themes are recapitulated, before a quiet coda recalls the work's opening, bringing the sonata touchingly full circle.

Sixteen years were to pass before Prokofiev again embarked upon a designated sonata, but the outcome was three such works, constituting a trilogy of 'war sonatas', completed in 1940, 1942 and 1944 respectively. Perhaps reflecting the ambivalent circumstances in which it was written , the Sixth Sonata is the most harmonically abrasive and formally disjunct of the three, receiving only cautious approval when the composer first performed it on Moscow Radio on 8th April 1940.
Although the was Sergey Prokofiev's main instrument and music covers the whole of his creative life, the cycle of nine sonatas emerged sporadically and unevenly over its course. Three of the first five sonatas were drawn, in whole or in part, from works composed during his student years, the following three appeared at regular intervals before and during the so-called Great Patriotic War, while the final sonata is one of the finest examples of the simpler musical trajectory that, owing to increasing ill health, Prokofiev was able to pursue only fitfully in his last years.



As a composer Prokofiev was prolific. His operas include the remarkable Fiery Angel, first performed in its entirety in Paris the year after his death, with ballet-scores in Russia for Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella. The last of his seven symphonies was completed in 1952, the year of his unfinished sixth concerto. His sonatas form an important addition to the repertoire, in addition to his songs and chamber music, film-scores and much else, some works overtly serving the purposes of the state. In style his music is often astringent in harmony, but with a characteristically Russian turn of melody and, whatever Shostakovich may have thought of it, a certain idiosyncratic gift for orchestration that gives his instrumental music a particular piquancy.

Unlike Stravinsky and Rachmaninov, Prokofiev had left Russia with official permission and with the idea of returning home sooner or later. His stay in the United States of America was at first successful. He appeared as a solo pianist and wrote the opera The Love for Three Oranges for the Chicago Opera. By 1920, however, he had begun to find life more difficult and moved to Paris, where he re-established contact with Dyagilev, for whom he revised The Tale of the Buffoon, a ballet successfully mounted in 1921. He spent much of the next sixteen years in France, returning from time to time to Russia, where his music was still acceptable.

Sonatas Nos. 5, 6 and 9