Sergei PROKOFIEV (1891-1953)
Piano Sonata No. 3 in A minor, Op. 28 (1918) [7:39]
Piano Sonata No. 8 in B flat major, Op. 84 (1944) [26:10]
Piano Sonata No. 9 in C major, Op. 103 (1947) [21:13]
Freddy Kempf (piano)
rec. 2018, Sendesaal, Bremen, Germany.
BIS RECORDS BIS-2390 SACD [56:06]
Freddy Kempf has established a fine reputation through recordings, including very fine discs of Prokofiev concertos (review) and other piano works (review). Anyone collecting these on the BIS label will want to add these sonatas to their collection, and I doubt anyone will be disappointed in this excellent recording.
Prokofiev’s piano sonatas can have a bit of a barnstorming reputation, and opening of the Third Sonata is a reminder of the younger composer’s spiky energy. Even where the dynamic drops there is an unstoppable momentum in which Kempf clearly revels, bringing out some of the circus in the music, which works well as a single-movement ‘overture’ to the later sonatas.
Kempf doesn’t linger in the expressive melodies and harmonies in the first movement of the Eighth Sonata, allowing space with ritenuti but pursuing an urgent narrative rather than creating ‘moments.’ There is arguably less atmosphere in some passages as a result of this refusal to be expansive, but the subsumed sense of explosive power is compelling, and all the more powerful when it erupts. That beautifully melodic Andante sognando second movement is played with disarming simplicity here, its sophistication hidden in plain sight as Kempf carefully weighs each harmony and creates elegant legato lines. The final Vivace is a virtuoso display piece, but technique is secondary in our thoughts as the musical arguments unfold in kaleidoscopic colours and shades of dark and light.
That darkness in the Eighth Sonata is a foil for the lighter pallet of the Ninth in its ‘whiter’ C major tonal starting point. Prokofiev himself said to Sviatoslav Richter that, referring to the Moscow Conservatoire’s main concert venue, “it’s not the sort of work to raise the roof of the Grand Hall.” There is less if the intensity of the other sonatas here, but still no shortage of event and with plenty of technical demands on the player. Kempf is excellent at balancing rhythmic verticality against horizontal melodic flow, the second movement’s Allegro strepitoso packed with contrasts in which his changes of touch create multi-layered colour and texture. By way of comparison I had a listen to Yefim Bronfman on Sony Classics (review), whose complete set is one of the finer modern recordings around. Bronfman is a touch more austere and enigmatic than Kempf, who somehow manages to feel more confiding and intimate even in the more bruising movements, but particularly in something like the Andante tranquillo of the Eighth Sonata. Both views are valid, and qualitatively I would put these recordings at a similar level, but where Bronfman speaks to the world Kempf talks to you more personally.
Sviatoslav Richter is always going to be a significant reference in these works, but Kempf is very much his own man in these performances. His flow is swifter and more urgent in the Ninth Sonata, not missing subtleties, but undercutting Richter’s timings considerably. The same is true of that magnificent first movement to the Eighth Sonata, with Richter far more sustained, Kempf finding the dolce in the music’s lyricism but pushing forwards while exploring its wide contrasts to the full.
As suggested at the beginning, this is a fine disc for fans of both Freddy Kempf and of Prokofiev, and with its deep and rich SACD sound is a release that will provide no shortage of enjoyment.
Dominy Clements
Previous review: Robert Cummings
