Phone
Tablet - Portrait
Tablet - Landscape
Desktop
Toggle navigation
Performers
Steinway Performers
Anderson, Greg
Bailey, Zuill
Biegel, Jeffrey
Braid, David
Caine, Uri
Chen, Sean
Conti, Mirian
Deveau, David
Downes, Lara
Feinberg, Alan
Golan, Jeanne
Goodyear, Stewart
Gugnin, Andrey
Han, Yoonie
Khristenko, Stanislav
Lemper, Ute
Lin, Jenny
Lo Bianco, Moira
Lu, Shen
Min, Klara
O'Conor, John
O'Riley, Christopher
Paremski, Natasha
Perez, Vanessa
Polk, Joanne
Pompa-Baldi, Antonio
Rangell, Andrew
Roe, Elizabeth Joy
Schepkin, Sergey
Ziegler, Pablo
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Back 1 step
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev
Sonata for Piano no 7 in B flat major, Op. 83
Interpretations
About This Work
Performers
Refine by: Performers
All
Paremski, Natasha
Labels
Labels
All
Steinway & Sons
Controls
Cover
Artists
Label
Movements
Natasha Paremski
1.
I. Allegro inquieto - Poco meno - Andantino
2.
II. Andante caloroso - Poco pił animato - pił largamente - Un poco agitato
3.
III. Precipitato
Steinway & Sons / 30063
×
Add To Playlist
Success
This selection has been added.
Playlist
Create
Cancel
Confirm
Cancel
About This Work
This is the middle panel in Prokofiev's grand trilogy of works called War Sonatas. It is the most popular of the three and, at about 16 or 17 minutes, the shortest as well. The first movement, marked Allegro inquieto, opens with a dark, menacing theme whose militaristic vehemence seizes the expressive reins at times with insistent bass chords that hammer out a crushing rhythm. The listener immediately senses a connection to war and struggle in this lively but conflicted opening. A lyrical second theme introduces gentler music, but does not break the dark mood. In the development section, a tense buildup constructed mainly on the first theme leads to a powerful climax, after which the music gradually becomes more tranquil, the second theme being reprised in a gloomy ethereality. A brief, rhythmic coda follows, its lively springiness seeming to sputter and stagger as it reaches the finish line.
The second movement is marked Andante caloroso and features a consoling main theme whose gently rocking lilt and overripe textures convey an almost decadent sense, as if its beauty is beginning to decay. Some listeners hear it as a kind of dark salon-like creation in its perfume-drenched melancholy and quasi-pop catchiness. The middle section turns intense and climaxes in a tolling-bell passage that eventually gives way to a reprise of the main theme.
The Precipitato finale is the most famous and dramatic movement of the three. Cast in an ABCBA structure, it opens with a driving main theme whose rhythmic jazzy elements convey a frenetic, fight-for-dear-life sense. The second theme maintains the perpetual-motion drive, but now the feeling of desperation takes on an insistent, if less harried manner, before yielding to the ensuing idea, which rises from the bass regions to turn almost subdued in the upper ranges. After the second theme reappears the main theme returns for a crashing, dissonant but ultimately triumphant conclusion in a blaze of dazzling virtuosic writing.
-- Robert Cummings
×
Add To Playlist
Success
This selection has been added.
Playlist
Create
Cancel
Confirm
Cancel
E63A506D9E4DAECD341096281EE58C8D