Piano Sonata No.2 in D minor, Op.14 (1912)

The Second in D minor, though written when he was still a student at the St Petersburg Conservatoire, is one of the most inspired of all Prokofiev’s Piano Sonatas. Completed when he was on holiday with his mother at Kislovodsk in the Caucasus in August 1912 and based to some extent on even earlier material, it is a remarkable anticipation of the three great “War” Sonatas (Nos. 6, 7 and 8) that would be written by a very much more mature and experienced composer between 1939 and 1944.

The upward-striving opening theme of the first movement might have something of Scriabin in it but it is displaced immediately by a prophetically aggressive passage featuring a percussive ostinato with a tolling theme thrust by both hands underneath it. The next two episodes are more sweetly harmonised and more romantic in character. But they or their motivic representatives have such a close encounter in the development section with the ostinato and the tolling theme that it seems scarcely likely that they will emerge unscathed. In fact, they do and, paradoxically, the only item that is left out of the recapitulation is the aggressive material itself.

The muscular A minor Scherzo, with the left hand jumping over the staccato figuration in the right to stab the two-note phrases of the main theme, is characteristic Prokofiev, and no less so for the gavotte-like middle section. If there is nothing in the later sonatas quite like the consciously Russian, even Mussorgskyan flavour of the Andante there is no more serious or more melodious slow movement before the Andante caloroso of the Seventh. The contrasting material - poised to lighten the atmosphere in a high position on the keyboard round a caressing chromatic counterpoint - is most aptly chosen. It seems even more radiant on its second appearance, after the quavers of the opening section have been converted to obsessive semiquavers and its thematic profile thrown into dramatic prominence.

The waltz-time melody so prominent in the first movement survived the development section not only to take its place in the recapitulation but also, it turns out, to live again in the finale. It makes its serene reappearance at a point where, after the entry of the two main themes, a frantic 6/8 jig and a quick 2/4 march, activity gradually slows down - but only to make way for a revitalised return of the earlier material.

The Second in D minor, though written when he was still a student at the St Petersburg Conservatoire, is one of the most inspired of all Prokofiev’s Piano Sonatas. Completed when he was on holiday with his mother at Kislovodsk in the Caucasus in August 1912 and based to some extent on even earlier material, it is a remarkable anticipation of the three great “War” Sonatas (Nos. 6, 7 and 8) that would be written by a very much more mature and experienced composer between 1939 and 1944.

The upward-striving opening theme of the first movement might have something of Scriabin in it but it is displaced immediately by a prophetically aggressive passage featuring a percussive ostinato with a tolling theme thrust by both hands underneath it. The next two episodes, a quicker one with a regular quaver rhythm and a lovely waltz-time melody, are more sweetly harmonised and more romantic in character. But they or their motivic representatives have such a close encounter in the development section with the ostinato and the tolling theme that it seems scarcely likely that they will emerge unscathed. In fact, they do and, paradoxically, the only item that is left out of the recapitulation is the aggressive material itself.

The muscular A minor Scherzo, with the left hand jumping over the staccato figuration in the right to stab the two-note phrases of the main theme, is characteristic Prokofiev, and no less so for the gavotte-like middle section. If there is nothing in the later sonatas quite like the consciously Russian, even Mussorgskyan flavour of the Andante there is no more serious or more melodious slow movement before the Andante caloroso of the Seventh. The contrasting material - in 7/8 to relieve the even quaver movement of the 4/4 sustained so far, in C major to escape the lugubrious G sharp minor of the opening section, and poised in a high position on the keyboard round a caressing chromatic counterpoint to lighten the atmosphere - is most aptly chosen. It seems even more radiant on its second appearance, after the quavers of the opening section have been converted to obsessive semiquavers and its thematic profile thrown into dramatic prominence.

The waltz-time melody so prominent in the first movement survived the development section not only to take its place in the recapitulation but also, it turns out, to live again in the finale. It makes its serene reappearance at a point where, after the entry the two main themes, a frantic 6/8 jig and a quick 2/4 march, activity gradually slows down. There is a similar moment in the finale of the Sixth Sonata - at a later stage but with a similar effect in revitalising the propulsive energy of the movement.