Piano Sonatas Nos. 1–9 — Barbara Nissman
Newport NCD 60092, 60093 and 60094
Barbara Nissman’s complete cycle remains one of the strongest introductions to Prokofiev’s piano sonatas. She possesses the necessary power and technique, but her real strength is her command of the music’s intricate construction. Rhythms are sharply defined, contrasts register immediately, and even the most violent passages retain their musical shape.
Nissman also recognizes the tenderness beneath Prokofiev’s hard surface. Her wide tonal range prevents the early sonatas from sounding merely sarcastic and gives the later works genuine emotional weight. The set includes both versions of the Fifth Sonata and the tantalizing fragment of the unfinished Tenth. Energy, intelligence and a palpable sense of occasion make this my preferred complete cycle. The cover shown above belongs to a later reissue of the original Newport recordings. Nissman’s Prokofiev recordings
Piano Sonata No. 6 — Ivo Pogorelich
Deutsche Grammophon 413 363-2; with Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit
Pogorelich plays the Sixth Sonata like a man possessed. The explosive passages have frightening force, and the finale threatens to tear itself apart. Yet this is not merely an exhibition of speed and volume. His extraordinary variety of touch gives the slower music an unusual degree of mystery, subtlety and nervous tension.
Few pianists have made the sonata’s mixture of brutality and fantasy sound so convincing. The accompanying Gaspard de la nuit is equally remarkable, making this one of Pogorelich’s finest early recordings. DG release information
Piano Sonata No. 7 — Maurizio Pollini
Deutsche Grammophon 447 431-2; with Stravinsky, Webern and Boulez
Pollini’s Seventh has deservedly acquired legendary status. His playing combines enormous power with absolute concentration, and the first two movements unfold with an almost merciless logic. In the concluding Precipitato, Pollini builds the repeated rhythmic figure into something genuinely diabolical. The effect is overwhelming without ever becoming uncontrolled.
The rest of the disc is just as formidable. Stravinsky’s Three Movements from Petrushka has dazzling clarity, while the Webern Variations and Boulez’s Second Sonata demonstrate Pollini’s unmatched authority in postwar modernism. This is not simply a great Prokofiev recording. It is one of the essential piano discs of its period. DG release information
