Piano Sonata No.6 in A major, Op.82

Tempo di valzer lentissimo

Vivace - andante - vivace

An ill wind blows through Prokofiev’s Sixth Piano Sonata, bringing with it the atmosphere of violence which similarly animates the other so-called “wartime” sonatas, the Seventh and Eighth. While it might not have been the approaching War that inspired them, the fact is that the three works were conceived as a group in the summer of 1939 when, in spite of Stalin’s non-aggression pact with Hitler, no intelligent Soviet citizen could fail to be apprehensive about what was happening in Europe. The Sixth Sonata was first performed in April 1940 and a little over a year later, the pact not withstanding, Germany invaded Russia. “The news astonished us,” said Prokofiev. But it is surely an anticipation of some such event that is so vividly expressed in the opening bars of the work, in the fiercely chromatic gusts of minor and major thirds in the right hand over a falling tritone in the left.

That hallucinatory theme dominates the Allegro moderato as its first subject and it confirms its message later in the work. Even so, there are passages, and even whole movements, of peaceful contrast. The second subject begins with a simple lyrical melody introduced in octaves but the mood is unsettled and, bearing in mind what happens in the development section, not without reason. For here all the main themes are thrown together over a rhythmic ostinato and in a long crescendo mounting towards a climax of violence, including a blow of the fist at a chord cluster in the bass of the piano.

The two middle movements - an E major Allegretto kind of scherzo and a C major Tempo di valzer equivalent to a slow movement - afford more lasting relief from pre-war tensions. So the last movement could resolve the emotional conflict either way. It begins in A minor and, in its vivace momentum, it is more persecuted than playful. Contrastingly reassuring material arises but the ill wind from the first movement blows up in a central Andante episode and again in the persecuted coda, where it monopolises the last few bars before the final chord - which is not in A minor but, surprisingly, A major.

Tempo di valzer lentissimo

Vivace - andante - vivace

An ill wind blows through Prokofiev’s Sixth Piano Sonata, bringing with it the atmosphere of violence which similarly animates the other so-called “wartime” sonatas, the Seventh and Eighth. While it might not have been the approaching War that inspired them, the fact is that the three works were conceived as a group in the summer of 1939 when, in spite of Stalin’s non-aggression pact with Hitler, no intelligent Soviet citizen could fail to be apprehensive about what was happening in Europe. The Sixth Sonata was first performed in April 1940 and a little over a year later, the pact not withstanding, Germany invaded Russia. “The news astonished us,” said Prokofiev. But it is surely an anticipation of some such event that is so vividly expressed in the opening bars of the work, in the fiercely chromatic gusts of minor and major thirds in the right hand over a falling tritone in the left.

That hallucinatory theme dominates the Allegro moderato as its first subject and it confirms its message later in the work. Even so, there are passages, and even whole movements, of peaceful contrast. The second subject begins with a simple lyrical melody introduced in octaves but the mood is unsettled and, bearing in mind what happens in the development section, not without reason. For here all the main themes are thrown together over a rhythmic ostinato and in a long crescendo mounting towards a climax of violence, including a blow of the fist at a chord cluster in the bass of the piano.

The two middle movements afford more lasting relief from pre-war tensions. The E major Allegretto is equivalent to a scherzo, a parody of a march, which might seem to have sinister implications in this context but which is so delightfully scored that reality impinges only in one central passage of obsessive dotted rhythms. The C major Tempo di valzer lentissimo is a slow-movement equivalent - not so much a waltz parody as a vaguely waltz-like rhapsody, again without sinister implications until the percussive development of the new melody in the middle section.

So the last movement could resolve the emotional conflict either way. It begins in A minor and, in its vivace momentum, it is more persecuted than playful. Contrastingly reassuring material arises but the ill wind from the first movement blows up in a central Andante episode and again in the persecuted coda, where it monopolises the last few bars before the final chord - which is not in A minor but, surprisingly, A major.

Tempo di valzer lentissimo

Vivace - andante - vivace

An ill wind blows through Prokofiev’s Sixth Piano Sonata, bringing with it the atmosphere of violence which similarly animates the other so-called “wartime” sonatas, the Seventh and Eighth. It might not have been the approaching War that inspired them. There were other factors, like the stimulus of reading Romain Rolland’s biography of Beethoven and the turbulently mixed feeling arising from the beginning of the composer’s relationship with Myra Mendelssohn. But the fact is that the three works were conceived as a group in the summer of 1939 - at about the same time as Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler - when no intelligent Soviet citizen can have been unaware of what was happening in Europe. The Sixth Sonata was first performed in April 1940 and a little over a year later, the pact not withstanding, Germany invaded Russia. “The news astonished us,” said Prokofiev. But it is surely an anticipation of some such event that is so vividly expressed in the opening bars of the work, in the fiercely chromatic gusts of major minor thirds in the right hand over a falling tritone in the left.

That hallucinatory theme dominates the Allegro moderato as its first subject and it confirms its message later in the work. Even so, there are passages, and even whole movements, of peaceful contrast. The second subject begins with a simple lyrical melody introduced in octaves but then rhythmically displaced, off the beat, over a new theme in even quavers in the left hand. So the mood is unsettled and, bearing in mind what happens in the development section, not without reason. For here all the main themes - the even quavers, the apparently lyrical melody, the violent gust of wind from the beginning - are thrown together over a rhythmic ostinato and in a long crescendo mounting towards a climax of violence (including a blow of the fist at a chord cluster in the bass of the piano). The recapitulation begins only after the violence has very gradually spent itself. The second subject reappears in broad augmentation but no longer peacefully and, although there is a last-minute reinstatement of the A major key signature, the movement ends after a last gust of wind on a minor ninth.

The two middle movements afford more lasting relief from pre-war tensions. The E major Allegretto is equivalent to a scherzo, a parody of a march, which might seem to have sinister implications in this context but which is so delightfully scored that reality impinges only in one central passage of obsessive dotted rhythms. The C major Tempo di valzer lentissimo is a slow-movement equivalent - not so much a waltz parody as a vaguely waltz-like rhapsody, again without sinister implications until the percussive development of the new melody in the middle section.

So the last movement could resolve the emotional conflict either way, confirming the fears of the first movement or escaping into the fantasy world of the other two. It begins in A minor and, in its vivace momentum, it is more persecuted than playful. First among the secondary themes of this opening section, however, there is a happier one in C major. A central Andante episode, in which the ill wind from the first movement blows up again, is less hopeful, not least in that it leaves its violent little theme behind to be integrated with the vivace material when it reappears with mounting ferocity and without its happier counterpart. That consolatory theme does, on the other hand, have the next episode to itself, più tranquillo and in A major, which restores the emotional balance. The ending is ambiguous: the coda is mainly in the minor, still more persecuted than playful, still with the ill wind blowing through the vivace material and monopolising the last few bars before the final chord - which is not in A minor but A major.