Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 04/13/2011, uploaded on 10/07/2011

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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 Piano Sonata no. 7 in B-flat Major    Sergey Prokofiev

In 1939, Prokofiev started composing his Piano Sonatas Nos. 6, 7, and 8, Opp. 82–84, widely known today as the "War Sonatas." These sonatas contain some of Prokofiev's most dissonant music for the piano. Biographer Daniel Jaffé has argued that Prokofiev, "having forced himself to compose a cheerful evocation of the nirvana Stalin wanted everyone to believe he had created" (i.e. in Zdravitsa), then subsequently, in these three sonatas, "expressed his true feelings". It was therefore ironic that Sonata No. 7 received a Stalin Prize.

The Seventh Sonata opens with an Allegro Inquieto. An agitated opening subject leads to a quieter Andantino section. After a fierce development section, the two principal themes are reversed in the recapitulation. The central Andante Caloroso is hypnotic, almost Impressionistic but with a sense of unease. This movement contains some of Prokofiev's most beautiful writing for the keyboard. The Precipitato finale is often fierce, and speaks clearly of the sounds of war and danger. The movement concludes with the ultimate rapid fire virtuosic display in a clear and affirmative B-flat major –  a ray of hope to the Russian people at one of their darkest hours and a daunting technical challenge to any pianist who essays this monumental score!     Dror Biran

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.