Prokofiev - Piano Sonata 6 [Pogorelich] This is the second work on this disc i'm reporting on, a couple of months ago i spoke about Pogorelich's wonderful Gaspard [18th February 2011], his Prokofiev might not be quite as good, but it's still quite stunning, and this is a great rare disc that it's good to own, i saw it on Ebay, and just had to snap it up.
Ivo Pogorelich was born in Yugoslavia in 1958, now Croatia, he made this recording in 1982, and is considered one of the very best things he has ever done, Pogorelich is extremely controversial, pianistically he seems to have gone to pieces, there's a genius in him, but it now seems to be stuck in him and can't get out, the booklet cover [photo by Malcolm Crowthers] is excellent, elbows on knees, chin on hands, a nice pose.
I don't consider Pogorelich perfect, this is the first time i've listened to this disc, and i find him a little quirky [but there again Prokofiev is a quirky Composer], maybe a little tad too much staccato, when something smoother might have worked, but he's certainly compelling here, Prokofiev has a propensity to create movements that have both virtuoso bravura, with moments of lyrical repose within them [or vice versa], i must admit that i have not extensively listened to Prokofiev's solo piano music, so i'm still finding my way and familiarizing myself to his fantastical soundworld.
I liked the first two movements the best, especially the second movement Allegretto, it's the shortest movement of the whole work, at just under 5 minutes, it's of course a quirky little tune, with a stuttering staccato [0:00-0:39], and then the real drama begins, as the piece takes off, the quirky stutterings become more manic [0:39+], and there's an almost comical staccato high in the treble [0:50 & 1:10], the right hand gets agitated and frantic high in the treble [1:28-1:39], and with lots of 'duets' between bass left hand and treble right hand, a nice little dialogue occurs, and in the middle comes that moment of repose [2:13-3:49], and a minute before the end we return to the opening stuttering tune [3:52+], lovely quirky slapdash trills of sorts [4:02-4:06], and then to finish the right hand high in the treble taps out a nice ticking figure, while the left, also high-ish in the treble, hits every fourth note [4:26-4:33], a nice little effect to finish on, you have to listen to Prokofiev carefully to find his musical genius, like little notes stuffed inbetween pages in odd books in the library, you are forced to become well read to find them all!.
Here's on Yuja Wang playing this Sonata on YouTube, the second movement is [8:50-13:22].
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