Prokofiev - Piano Sonata nr. 8

I'm continuing the Prokofiev excursion with the wonderful Eighth Sonata. It's the most impressive of the War Sonata trilogy and hence of Prokofiev's piano output as a whole. Now that I hear it in conjunction with the Fifth Symphony, I discern a formal and spiritual connection between the two works. As in the Fifth, op. 84 opens with a massive sonata form and closes with an elaborate, kaleidoscopic rondo (which, in both cases, has a toccata-like character and re-integrates material from the respective first movements). Both works have the remarkable characteristic of being lyrical and songful from start to end but that doesn't keep them from coming across as magnificently epic and granitic. Partly responsible for that are those passages, evident in both works, where a kind of wilful primitivism takes over by means of violent, ostinato-like material (as in the Allegro ben marcato middle section of the finale).

The recording I'm intimitaly familiar with is the 1989 Bronfman debut recording on CBS. I've always felt that Bronfman is a very persuasive advocate of this very subtle and ambiguous work. Masterfully he exposes the darker harmonic shadings in the opening, almost Schubertian material and lets it unfold most convincingly. The development kicks in ominously with relentless, etudelike running passages. Soon this gives way to an impressive climax with the pianist pounding the lower octaves, not unlike a similar passage in the Fifth Symphony's first movement. And then, when the music dies down, again those mysterious, mournful pealing bells as we heard them also in the Seventh Sonata's middle movement. The opening themes return only to be pushed aside once more by the fast, dissonant music from the development. The movement ends most quizzically with a set of disjointed, dissonant notes, transporting us momentarily to the bleak landscapes of Listz's very last works.

The Andante sognando is very well played. Once more Bronfman brings the uneasy, almost surreal character of this deceptively simple music to expression. Nothing is what is seems in this short, quirky movement that breathes nostalgia and menace at the same time. The delicate bell-like figurations that appear towards the middle of the movement are beautifully evoked.

The finale is an exquisite rondo that starts with a fast tarantella-like theme. Bronfman is careful not to take it too quick so that it doesn't sound breathlessly (as it does, slightly, with Ashkenazy, for example; Richter is also a tad on the fast side to my taste but it's arguably splendid playing). The Allegro ben marcato section is just grand, splendidly weighty! Reminds me of Mussorgsky's Great Gate of Kiev in a way. There's a reprise of some material from the first movement. The remainder is a partly menacing, partly festive rush to the end, not dissimilar in spirit to some of Shostakovich's ambiguous finales.

Another recording I have in my collection is a live recital with Grigory Sokolov, taped in St Petersburg in 1984. I have heard some superb Sokolov recordings but this is not one of them. The piano sounds badly tuned, Sokolov continuously hisses and sputters and the playing is erratic. After the first movement I had enough. Bronfman's noble and monumental heroism hails from a altogether different world.