3 Piano Sonatas Nos. 1, 3 & 5; Visions Fugitives

Alexander Melnikov plays 3 of the 9 piano sonatas composed by Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953), of which No. 1 in F minor and No. 3 in A minor as pre-Revolution works from Russia; No. 5 in C major remains his only such genre work composed in the West, in the Bavarian Alps.

Sonata No. 1 (1907) is in one mvmt, subdivided into five connected sections. Set in competing meters of 2 and 3, the music begins passionately and borrows from the styles of Schumann and Rachmaninoff. The harmonies and abrupt shifts of meter and dynamics are Prokofiev’s The brilliant runs and leaps demand virtuoso technique.

Sonata No. 3 (1917) is subtitled “From Old Notebooks,” Op. 28. Aggressive from the outset, the one-mvmt piece opens with E major chords percussive and chromatic. The entire piece is an étude for the virtuoso performer. Runs in contrary motion compete with legato melodic fragments, especially one tune that modulates into C major. The development begins Allegro tempestoso in double octaves, 4/4 and 12/8. Then huge alterations in dynamics, fff and pp, poco a poco accelerando. Staccato thirds announce the coda’s beginning ascending to a military sounding climax in voluptuous, potent, and precise figures.

Sonata No. 5 (1923) feels the most neo-Classical in form and structure, resembling works by Ravel and Stravinsky. The 3-mvmt piece could be a sonatina, delicate and transparent in texture. Rapid, scalar chords announce an increase in tension, a kind of semi-galloping motif. More complexity ensues, percussive and syncopated. The 2nd mvmt, Andantino, plays mechanically, metronomically. The patented Prokofiev irony is present, in accacciaturas (accents) and passing dissonances. The last movement, set as a rondo, also serves as a touch-piece (toccata). The large spans of a 10th in the left hand can dissuade a non-virtuoso. The motion becomes quite militant mid-way, then playfully frivolous, then aggressively insistent. The last pages imitate low bass instruments that sparkle in their rush to a firm conclusion.

The 22 Visions fugitives (1915-1917) take their brief, suggestive cue from the poet Balmont, a Symbolist poet. These musical haikus last but moments, and their delicate and dazzling figurations could be tied to equivalent pieces by Alexander Scriabin and Alban Berg. They are often color études, preludes, character pieces, or intermezzos. No. 7 marked Arpa projects a Romantic luster. Others display aspects of the grotesque, the lyrical, the violent, the sarcastic, the dance, and the imaginary, all facets of the composer’s variegated, creative personality.