Description
The Piano Sonata no. 8 op. 84 by Sergei Prokofiev is the last and longest of his three so-called “war sonatas”. These are frequently associated with the siege of Leningrad by the German armed forces. This context certainly plays a major role in the reception of these austere-sounding piano sonatas. The world premiere of Sonata no. 8 was given by Emil Gilels on 30 December 1944 in Moscow. The great pianist Sviatoslav Richter also held the work in high regard: “Of Prokofiev’s sonatas, this is the richest. It has a complex inner life with profound conflicts. Sometimes, it seems to listen, as if in a haze, to the inexorable passage of time.”
In addition to the first edition of 1946 and the contemporary editions published in the West, it was possible to examine the autograph manuscript preserved in Saint Petersburg for the present Urtext edition. The preface is by Prokofiev expert Simon Morrison. Alexander Melnikov, who has also recorded this sonata on CD, explores in his fingerings the challenging terrain with an expert’s eye.
