Sonata (1968)

Otar Taktakishivili (1924–1989)

Sonata (1968)

Allegro

Aria: moderato con moto

Allegro scherzando

Otar Taktakishivili’s Flute Sonata – the work by which he is best known outside Georgia – is fairly typical of the sort of thing Soviet composers produced after Prokofiev had showed them the way in his Flute Sonata in D in 1943. It is, on the other hand, much better than most of its kind. Basically neo-classical in style, highly congenial in personality, abundant in melody, it defies resistance. The first movement opens a little wistfully but – thanks to the felicitous transformations the main theme goes through along with its cheeerful, sometimes even slightly grotesque companions – it drops the sentiment and remembers to be wistful again only just before the jokey ending. The second movement, aptly titled Aria, begins as though to recall the flute’s baroque past but goes on to admit not only a Rachmaninov-like nostalgia but also a dissonant expression of anguish before the opening is recalled. If the work has seemed to lack a little in virtuosity up to this point, there is no shortage of that quality in the breathlessly exuberant outer section of the Allegro scherzando – which is not to say that the not quite so hectic, Georgian folk-coloured and delightfully witty middle section is any less entertaining.