– Composer: Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (23 April 1891 — 5 March 1953)
– Performers: David Oistrakh (violin), Lev Oborin (piano)
– Year of recording: 1946
Sonata for Violin & Piano No. 1 in F minor, Op. 80, written between 1938-1946.
00:00 – I. Andante assai
07:27 – II. Allegro brusco
13:48 – III. Andante
21:15 – IV. Allegrissimo
Cast in four movements of approximately equal length, this tormented Sonata for violin and piano must rank with Prokofiev’s finest works in any genre. It is dedicated to David Oistrakh, who also is the performer in this recording. For patient listeners, this exceedingly profound work will yield immeasurable rewards.
– The Andante opening panel begins with an ominous theme in the bass on the piano, the death-rattle sounds of the violin soon entering overtop it. The mood remains tense as the violin struggles to steal center stage from the piano, finally doing so with a theme that cries out painfully. Eventually the music turns ethereal when the piano gently plays the opening theme in the upper register, while the violin delivers eerie, gossamer runs that slither about hauntingly. The movement ends softly but chillingly.
– A hard-driving Allegro brusco follows, its main theme slashing and harsh as the piano and violin exchange angry dissonances and crushing chords. An alternate theme imparts a sense of nobility and hope for a time, but cannot here or later dispel the sense of fear and frenzy brought on by the dominant main material.
– The third movement (Andante) opens with an ethereal, dreamy theme floating amid a sense of fantasy, and may be one of the most beautiful things Prokofiev ever wrote. An alternate theme, largely built on three notes that repeat obsessively, imparts a feeling of desolation, and the whole movement gradually turns darker, sounding bleak and fearful at the end.
– The finale, marked Allegrissimo — Andante assai, opens with a bustling theme that seems cheerful and almost playful, but its brightness soon appears threatened by dark undercurrents and, as tension accrues from stomping bass chords from the piano, it collapses. The ending of the first movement is recalled, and the music then turns bleaker and, finally, despairing.
Trivia:
– Prokofiev had described the slithering violin scales at the end of the 1st and 4th movements as ‘wind passing through a graveyard’.
– The work was premiered by David Oistrakh and Lev Oborin, under the personal coaching of the composer. During rehearsals, Oborin played a certain passage, marked forte, too gently for Prokofiev’s liking, who insisted it should be more aggressive. Oborin replied that he was afraid of drowning out the violin, but Prokofiev said “It should sound in such a way that people should jump in their seat, and people will say ‘Is he out of his mind?'”.
– The first and third movements of the sonata were played at Prokofiev’s funeral by David Oistrakh and Samuil Feinberg.