Classical Music | Piano Music

Sergei Prokofiev

Sonata No. 7 in B-flat Major, Op. 83  Play

Edisher Savitski Piano

Recorded on 01/22/2008, uploaded on 01/26/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Sergei Prokofiev composed three piano sonatas during the brutal and unforgiving years of World War II that have become known simply as the War Sonatas. When Nazi Germany unleashed its brutal hammer stroke against the Soviet Union in 1941, Stalin and his government was forced to turn its attention outward. Restrictions on composers and other artists were temporary relaxed, and Prokofiev found a momentary freedom to express his own artistic voice. Many compositions flowed from Prokofiev’s pen during this time, most tinged with biting ironies and tragedy. On the surface, one may view these works, of which the War Sonatas are certainly a part, as the composer’s reflections on a world engulfed in war. Yet, beneath the surface, it is more likely there were a personal criticism, in the only outlet available, of Stalin’s ruthless and oppressive rule. Of these works, the War Sonatas lie in proximity to a particularly tragic story.

In June of 1939, Prokofiev’s close friend and colleague. Vsevolod Meyerhold, was arrested by Stalin’s Secret Police just before he was to begin rehearsing the composer’s latest opera Semyon Kotko. The following year, on February 2, Meyerhold was shot. His death was never publicly acknowledged, let alone even known about until after Stalin’s oppressive rule had ended. However, only a month after Meyerhold’s arrest, his wife was brutally murdered, and was not so neatly swept under the rug. In the wake of losing a close friend and the news of his widow’s murder, Prokofiev received an official request to compose a celebratory piece for Stalin’s sixtieth birthday. After feigning such joy and admiration for Stalin, Prokofiev set about later that year to compose his bitterly tragic War Sonatas.

Subtitled “Stalingrad,” the Seventh Piano Sonata is the shortest of the War Sonatas. Composed between 1939 and 1942, it was premiered by Sviatoslav Richter in Moscow on January 18, 1943. Ironically, the sonata later won a Stalin Prize. Cast in three movements, two rhythmic and energetic movements frame the lyrical and sentimental central Andante. Of the three, the toccata-like finale is the most famous, which through its virtuosity manages to bring the sonata to a triumphant conclusion.     Joseph DuBose

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Sonata No. 7, Op. 83                  Sergei Prokofiev

Allegro inquieto;    Andante caloroso;    Precipitato

The Seventh Sonata is the middle one of three wartime sonatas Prokofiev wrote for piano. Begun in 1939, it was completed in 1942 following the composer's evacuation from Moscow. The premier was performed by Sviatoslav Richter on January 18, 1943, and the work was subsequently awarded the Stalin Prize.

The piece is as turbulent as it is compelling. The first movement begins with material that is both driving and disturbing. Partial relief comes in the form of a contrasting section, which is slower-paced and serene yet questioning.

The second movement takes us into a different world. It progresses gently, but there is an underlying sense of angst. Dreamlike, it builds gradually to a climax that ultimately gives way to a soft ending, suggesting optimism.

Fiery and poignantly rhythmic, the final movement is a dramatic toccata, one of the finest in the piano literature. Requiring considerable virtuosity, the obvious struggle that this work embodies concludes in triumph.           Notes by George F. Litterst