PROKOFIEV: Piano Sonatas Nos. 1, 3 and 4

Album review

The Rachmaninov-inspired Prokofiev First Sonata, a seven-minute, single-movement work that features no actual slow music, but plenty of lyricism -- albeit stormy lyricism -- is given an appropriately fiery performance here. Bernd Glemser is unabashed in pointing up the somewhat naïve character of the piece, which is, however, appearing more frequently on recital programs. The popular and more sophisticated Third Sonata also features a single movement of about the same length, but comes across as imaginative, even bold early Prokofiev. Subtitled "From Old Notebooks," almost as if the composer is giving a preemptive apology for a work that needs no apology, it is spirited and mischievous in its bouncy Allegro tempestoso main theme and lyrical in its catchy more relaxed second theme. Glemser brilliantly captures the character of the work with an all-encompassing technique that features all manner of dynamic shadings, a critical factor in delivering the breathless, invigorating final pages.
The quirky lyricism and dark cast of the Prokofiev Fourth (also subtitled "From Old Notebooks") come across quite convincingly in Glemser's hands here, too: only Prokofiev himself, in a 1930s recording, played the spooky Andante assai middle movement more eerily. Glemser effectively conveys the many moods of The Ten Pieces from Romeo and Juliet, deftly catching the bright festivity of the opening "Danse," the playfulness of "Juliet as a Young Girl," and the passion and darkness of the closing "Romeo and Juliet before Parting." In the sonatas, Raekallio (Ondine), Yefim Bronfman (Sony), and Sandor (Vox) offer worthy alternatives, but Glemser is easily in their company, and perhaps a bit more consistent. The Naxos sound is vivid and powerful.

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