Sviatoslav Richter plays Prokofiev - Piano Sonata No. 9 in C major Op.103

[@philmcnichol5151]

I'm with Sviatoslav on this one, and eggplant1994. This sonata, Prokoviev's last, is simply my favourite piece of music ever since I was a teenager and it took me into outer space and beyond. At the same time it took me deep into the mystery of myself as a human being. It contains a minute or so of the most sublime, enigmatic music ever written, beginning at 9 mins. in this performance. It returns later, a poignant expression of mystery. Richter gets it. OMG does he get it! You either do, or you don't. But you have to listen, leave everything else behind, and listen.

[@meredith218461]

This has to be the definitive account of this enigmatic work.

[@zinam5795]

Thanks very MUCH...

[@tarikeld11]

0:50 - 1:08 you will probably disagree, but it feels like late Beethoven to me. The Diabelli and Bagatelles - late Beethoven

[@AlessioAndres]

prokofiev: why lose time with preparing recitals while i can write a new sonata in those two weeks and give it to richter?!✍️😂

[@Bampaloudu64]

Comme toutes les Sonates de Prokofiev, celle-ci s'affirme... J'avoue avoir du mal à la saisir pour le moment. Finalement elles m'ont presque toutes fait cette effet. À la première écoute de la 8ème, je n'avais pas compris. Désormais elle m'obsède presque. Donc, on en reparlera !

[@annandmartintravers5281]

No, I am falling asleep. The music is going nowhere. Time to put The Clash on.

[@annandmartintravers5281]

Prokofiev has lot the plot entirely. Even I can produce music like this after a bottle of red wine. What a shame for a composer such as this to end his days with a sonata that is less interesting than than the one he wrote forty years earlier. The moral is: we do not getter with time, alas.

[@grahamdenham6276]

I think it's the kind of sonata that seems better each time you hear it. Or try to play it. Give that Andante another spin?

[@eggplant1994]

If you don’t love this sonata, maybe you don’t feel this emotion, and that’s ok. Maybe it’s even a good thing. For me, in my darkest moments, this piece and literally no other expresses the existential loneliness, ambivalent despair, and transience of satisfaction that looms over me. It is comforting for me to know that someone else has felt something like this. Yes, nothing in this piece is accessible or particularly “satisfying”, but to me, that in itself is the art of it - from the rest of his works we know that Prokofiev is well capable of producing the awe-inspiring moments he’s famous for, but to me this piece is a celebration of the undertone of existential anguish that’s omnipresent in the rest of his works.

[@AndreasGaarder]

You can certainly produce a piece of mildly entertaining prose after a bottle of red wine. I can even detect a hint of acerbity. How about spending £ 2 more on the next bottle and see what inspiration that more complex draught may bring? By the way, your fourth last word "getter" means "goats" in Swedish. Try something that goes with that cheese. A toast to you both and please say hello to the wine store clerk from me, eh?

[@bcarr1122]

@Ann and Martin Travers - You'll recall that Prokofiev was in poor health following the concussion he'd suffered in 1945---so severe was the injury that he nearly stopped composing. It was only through monumental effort that that he was able to complete his Sixth Symphony (1947), which does indeed seem to me his last great work: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mIWTaJttrq-EhJY. I wasn't familiar with Prokofiev's Ninth Sonata; it strikes me here as a transitional introduction to the Glazunov-like character of his final pieces. Remember, too, that in early 1948 Prokofiev and his contemporaries would be fully, formally condemned. Perhaps his change in style was as much necessity as inclination.

[@annandmartintravers5281]

@@bcarr1122 These are incidentals. What do you want me to do with such knowledge? Beethoven drank too much wine, Mozart had other hobbies Music is an absolute and we judge it in absolute terms. How else do you wish to judge it?