Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No.7, (Raekallio, Uehara, Chiu)

Prokofiev! His 7th Piano Sonata, the middle of the trio of War Sonatas, is one of the most stupidly magnificent things written for piano. It’s got a really interesting large-scale schema: it’s unified not only by a prominent “fate” motif and the interval of a minor 9th, but also by a large-scale narrative structure where the progression of the movements presents a movement from instability (rhythmic, tonal, structural) to stability. So Mvt 1 is only just about tonal and has a thoroughly ambiguous structure (nobody agrees on where the development begins and ends) in which the recapitulation (most people think) leaves out the first theme group, saving it instead for the coda. Mvt 2, in a key a tritone away, has a more standard extended ternary (A-B-A) structure, and is considerably more tonal than Mvt 1, though it modulates freely. Mvt 3, however, is a toccata with a perfect, straightforward archlike structure (ABCBA), a motoric, addictive rhythm, and the whole thing clings ferociously to its Bb resolutions