The most epic and varied of all the War Sonatas. Prokofiev’s typical inventiveness is present here, along with his favourite textures (bells! toccatas!), but here they are allied with a Beethovenian ambition and mastery of structure. The first movement is stuffed full of ingenious ideas, from the grinding march that opens it, to a displaced chromatic line and a faux-naïve white-key melody. But it’s not the wealth of ideas that astonishes as much as the way in which these ideas are manipulated. Themes will shed one character for another, a tiny idea will grow into a motif of staggering force (see (D) in the structural analysis below, for instance), and in a very Prokofiev-ian way the structure *itself* has expressive function – the return of material invariably serves a narrative or dramatic purpose (4:17 and 6:31 are perfect examples of this). The second movement is a jaunty scherzo, richly spiced with playful harmonies. The third movement is a lush waltz whose theme keeps appearing in different keys, refusing to fully settle. It’s here that evidence of this sonata’s cyclic form creeps in in the form of allusions to themes from the first movement. It’s in the turbulent, coiled-spring fourth movement, however, that the sonata’s cyclic structure becomes fully evident: references to the first movement abound. The structure here is beautifully put together: it’s a kind of sonata-rondo (opening with an ABACADAE!) with a highly truncated recapitulation that, short as it is, contains all the intensity of the entire opening exposition.

Chiu’s performance is clipped and bone-dry, but is deliciously textured and biting. As you’d come to expect from him, there are some nice innovative touches: the slower tempo in the first movement’s recapitulation to emphasises the more gnarly, full-throated timbre of the lower register, the harried and harebrained tempo of the second movement, and the uber-dramatic clipped final note of the sonata. The general lack of pedal also greatly augments the impact of those moments when Chiu finally lets it loose: the bell passages in the first movement or the coda of the last, for instance. Lugansky’s is probably the model “typical” performance. Compared to Chiu, this is a more sonorous and sweeping rendition, although it certainly has its hard edges. In particular, the final movement is taken at a blistering tempo, without an iota of sacrificed precision, clarity, or expressiveness. While Chiu speeds up the second movement and slows the third for contast, Lugansky opts for more balanced tempi that lend the third movement more warmth/shapeliness (cf Chiu’s icy coldness, especially in the B section) and give the sonata a sense of overall unity – something really difficult to do in a work this diverse.

Chiu:
00:00 – Mvt 1
07:16 – Mvt 2
11:24 – Mvt 3
19:30 – Mvt 4

Lugansky:
26:09 – Mvt 1
34:31 – Mvt 2
39:00 – Mvt 3
46:15 – Mvt 4

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