Customer Reviews

Prokofiev: Piano Sonatas Nos. 2, 7, & 8 ~ Pletnev

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Pletnev's renditions of these sonatas has a melodic, sometimes dream-like quality that works best on the slower movements and works against him somewhat in the fiery, mechanistic parts. The complex layering in the 3rd movement seems to get a bit muddled and lost but overall it's not a bad version. A wonderful gem on this CD is the Scherzo from the 2nd sonata. It is very entertaining and I'd say the 2nd sonata is the best thing on the disc. By the way, my favorite rendition of the 7th is by Anthony di Bonaventura, but it's apparently no longer available.

Scriabin and Prokofiev are staples of the Russian piano literature on native soil, but in the U.S. one rarely hears them in recital. It's good to have this thoughtful CD from Pletnev, because his relaxed, lyrical, inward manner is rarely heard in Prokofiev. Most pianists approach his keyborad idiom as percussive and disjointed. Pletnev keeps those features to a minimum. As a result, it's not exhausting to listen to him performing three sonatas in a row. The opening movement of Sonata #2 is almost debussian in his hands, Sonata #7 for once isn't a brittle assault, and Sonata #8 is as balletic as an out take from Romeo and Juliet.

Collectors of this music are already wedded to great performances from Richter (above all), Gilels, Graffman, Bronfman, and ohters, but Pletnev is the most original interpreter I've heard--as always, he goes his own way.

Having recently posted a jubilant review of Pletnev's epoch-making reworkings and executions of Mussorgsky's Pictures and Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty--'A Pianistic Feast of Orchestral Colours Served in Demonstration Sound'--I am sad to report that this Prokofiev Sonatas disc is extraordinarily mundane and tame in comparison.

There is no doubt that Pletnev possesses some of the most formidable pianistic powers; the same certainly holds true for Prokofiev's Seventh and Eighth Sonatas. Alas, the present recording at its very best gives a few subtle hints to confirm this. The most telling evidence to prove my point is to be found in the Seventh's third movement Precipitato--one of the most swinging and rocking pieces in the piano literature--where Pletnev's playing is so much held back that you barely manage to notice the ingenious 7/8 measure; or perhaps even more so in the Eighth's massive first movement--perhaps the greatest of its kind since Beethoven's Hammerklavier--where the extreme contrasts in character, pace and dynamics (in short, power!) are so severely suppressed as to almost verge on indifference.

Even the youthful Second Sonata fares along in a similar manner, though the exquisite third movement gladly gets a sufficiently haunting rendition out of Pletnev--one of the few highpoints of this disc. To experience the full scale of this music's (to put it mildly) considerable powers, try the grossly underrated Glemser in the Second, Pollini in the Seventh and, best of all, Gavrilov in the Eighth (recorded a few years before his untimely and lingering break-down).

Do you think I am asking too much of Mr Pletnev? No, I actually do not. I am perfectly confident he holds far more inspiring versions inside himself; for some reason, he just for now has decided not to share them with us. Let's hope he will change his mind in the future...

Almost forgot it: The recorded sound is good, if not excellent being too close. Lastly, do not let this CD put you off in any respect--neither as to Pletnev nor the Prokofiev Sonatas which both, under the right preconditions, will present you with unparalleled musical powers.

Granted, a bit atonal. But, very interesting and it will grow on you. Well played. Prokofiev will grow on you.