PROKOFIEV: Piano Sonatas Nos. 5, 6 and 9

Album review

German pianist Bernd Glemser has plenty of technique and is a fairly straightforward interpreter, generally not overusing rubato or choosing extreme tempos or otherwise injecting eccentricity into his readings. This is the final volume of his cycle of Prokofiev's piano sonatas, a project that goes into competition with more than a dozen such efforts since the late '80s. In such heavily trafficked repertory, Glemser more than holds his own.
He deftly hones in on the sweet-and-sour lyricism of the Fifth Sonata (heard in its original version here), conveying its humor, its playfulness, and its somewhat arid spirit in just the right doses. The serene and valedictory Ninth, a work championed by Sviatoslav Richter, is treated to slightly livelier than usual tempos in the first movement, Glemser capturing its gentle lyricism with more than a hint of angst and without imparting sentimentality or sugar, qualities lesser pianists might descend to. He's just as effective in the other movements, especially in handling the changing moods of the finale, with its mixture of joy, clownish pranks, and sense of resignation.
The powerful Sixth boldly leaps out at the listener, with the conflicted opening motto rendered with great agitation and the development section played with a convincing sense of terror. The third-movement waltz is lovingly played without shortchanging the dark moments of the middle section, and the finale conveys the necessary mixture of hope and menace, with the final victory motto hammered out with crushing power. Among worthwhile Prokofiev players, a crop that includes Raekallio (Ondine), Sandor (Vox), Boris Berman (Chandos), and icons like Richter (who never recorded all the sonatas), Glemser can be ranked with, if not even a tad, above them. Naxos provides clear sound.

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