The one unsung piano sonata everyone should hear!

[LateRomantic75]

I'll limit myself to one contribution, as to prevent indulging in that oh-so dreaded list-making! I'm no expert in the field of solo piano music as my main focus is orchestral music, but I must say that one unsung piano sonata that has struck me like no other is Glazunov's First. It's a simply stunning work, filled with a passion that defies any notions that Glazunov was a pedestrian composer. Its melodies have that rare ability to stick in one's head. Of particular note is the raptly beautiful slow movement. This work is probably in my top five piano sonatas, or at least my top ten. Steven Coombs' magisterial recording on Hyperion handles the work's virtuosic demands with aplomb and makes the work out to be a masterpiece.

Does anyone else know this work? What are some other remarkable piano sonatas from the realm of the unsungs?

[kolaboy]

The Niels Gade Op.28 - though the Blyme performance (Marco Polo) does not do justice to the piece. As for the sonata itself, beautiful themes abound.

[mbhaub]

I enjoy all three of Korngold's sonatas, but the 2nd is my favorite, and Martin Jones on Nimbus is just fine with me. Like most of Korngold, it deserves much more attention, but alas, many pianists are unaware it even exists. I'm no pianist, but comparing the score to say a sonata by Beethoven or Liszt it seems that Korngold makes extraordinary demands on the player. Too bad he didn't orchestrate it.

[Dave]

Yes, I know Glazunov's First Sonata and I agree that it is a stunning work. I also think quite highly his Second Sonata, the Three Etudes, as well as the Theme and Variations (on a Finnish Theme), which shares with the First Sonata ambition, incredible display of invention, atmosphere, and color. Glazunov was far from being a pedestrian composer; he had much more than enough profundity, lyrical and melodic inventiveness, craftsmanship, and flashes of genius for that (and yet why his music has yet to really "lift off" yields all sorts of answers). Coombs has these works nailed to perfection and with absolute grip and fluency.

Other remarkable sonatas:

*Paderewski: Piano Sonata, Op. 21. The slow movement is otherworldly. Plowright's rendition is superb.
*Bax: First (a born composer esp. for the piano).
*Myaskovsky: Fourth Sonata.
*Anton Rubinstein: Third (highly noble and with dignity).
*Melartin: Sonata I, Op. 111 "Fantasia Apocaliptica"
*Blumenfeld: Sonata-Fantaisie, op. 46 (1913).
*Lyapunov: Sonata in F (a dreamlike development in the first movement).
*Cyril Scott: Sonata in D and Sonata no. I.
*Kabalevsky: Sonata no. II (a very gripping response to the Great Patriotic War).
*Alkan: Grande Sonata "Les Quatre Ages"

[Gauk]

Does anyone else know this work?

I have an old LP of it somewhere from the 70s - don't remember the pianist.

[Alan Howe]

Right, gentlemen: some ground rules for this thread:
1. The title is "the ONE unsung piano sonata..." So, ONE suggestion per person only. Otherwise we're into lazy list-making again.
2. Please supply a reason for your choice. Otherwise the thread has little point...

[alberto]

My choice would be the big, monumental Piano Sonata by Paul Dukas.
It is the work of a masterful "builder", able also to tease melodically the ear.
BTW the Sonata is fairly recorded (Ogdon and Duchable among others), almost never performed.
Once I had the luck to attend a performance.
Its length militates against actual performances, as it needs half a concert (but once I attended a concert programming Alkan Four Ages Sonata and the Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique transcribed by Liszt - the pianist was Pierre Reach, once an Alkan advocate, also on record).

[LateRomantic75]

Completely agree with your words, Dave. I most certainly do not believe Glazunov was a pedestrian composer (apologies if I made it sound that way in my OP), but was just saying that some have expressed that opinion, which I cannot understand. Great list BTW. Another piano sonata I love that hasn't been mentioned yet is Godowsky's, an epic work rather similar to the Paderewski. Hamelin plays the heck out of it!

[Rob H]

I seem to remember a story about a Russian student whose teacher insisted he play the Glazunov 1st Sonata in his final recital which he grudgingly did only to play the first few minutes then stop, stand up and announce "and so on for the next half an hour".
I can't bring to mind where I read it and I was so bemused as I loved both of the Glazunov sonatas. Does anyone have any better recollection of the story than I? Names even??
Rob

[izdawiz]

well I have one I came across on youtube and thought was Good   by Bernard van den Sigtenhorst Meyer (1888-1953)  Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 23  .... I personally never heard from him  until I came across this recording the link is  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgHeiTA0jQI  ... I'm bad at describing the music    sorry folks .. that's why I just included the link .  Ok it might not  be a Classic or a super Must hear, but it's ok, I might be going on a limb by posting this since it was published in 1926 I only heard it twice. Just some food for thought.
1. Tema: Largement e Maestoso - Var. 1 - 5
2. Allegretto (8:16)
3. Allegro moderato (12:21)

[eschiss1]

the Meyer score is oddly not among his scores yet available on IMSLP, btw (though two violin sonatas, a string quartet and a cello sonata are.)

BTW the autograph of his op.23 piano sonata (described briefly at entry 116/1 of the (first of nine pages of the) list linked to from the page here), at the Netherlands Music Institute, also has the date 1926, so it was also composed, as well as published (presumably?), in that year.  (B kl. t. - B-flat minor. Nice key, that...)

[Dave]

Completely agree with your words, Dave. I most certainly do not believe Glazunov was a pedestrian composer (apologies if I made it sound that way in my OP), but was just saying that some have expressed that opinion, which I cannot understand. Great list BTW. Another piano sonata I love that hasn't been mentioned yet is Godowsky's, an epic work rather similar to the Paderewski. Hamelin plays the heck out of it!

Hi,

Thanks for the compliment (on my list). I was actually agreeing with you on the qualities of Glazunov's music. In a sense, I can see why people would express that opinion (of him being pedestrian). Sometimes the great Russian could be pretty facile; there are instances where he could have done more with his ideas than confining them within the bounds of academic (or traditional) decorum. But when his music reaches exalted heights, it truly does (and in numerous occasions).

Godowski's Sonata is truly worthy of mention (I have not listened to it for a while). Alberto mentioned Dukas and I wonder how I managed to overlook that stirring work. 

[Dave]

Does anyone else know this work?

I have an old LP of it somewhere from the 70s - don't remember the pianist.

Leslie Howard maybe (Pearl)?

[thalbergmad]

I rather hope that someone will eventually record the Dreyschock Sonata Op.30.

Broadly along the same lines as the recently recorded Op.27, but to me, more difficult. Standard Dreyschock fare of repeated notes, left hand thirds (yuck), huge jumps, crashing chords, with some melodic cantabile moments to give the pianist a rest. Leaves the octave fireworks until the end.

Whoever records this will feel like their forearms have been through 5 sets with Federer.

Thal

[eschiss1]

In my opinion that'd be Medtner's "Night Wind" sonata (1910/11), especially in the right hands.  (Having heard - and re-heard, and re-heard, and been compelled by - what Ogdon made of it in what seems to be a cut version, though that comes in at much under the usual 30-35 minutes...)

One or two (or three) movements (depending on who you ask; the formal structure also depends on whose description you're reading- this is not the only piece of which this is true- they're probably several of them accurate descriptions, too), and possibly, too, somewhat inspired by Rachmaninoff works like the latter's first piano sonata of two/three years earlier (or maybe not). And to my ears anyway very powerful stuff and an exemplar of the Romantic piano sonata, with a poetic motif (after Tyutchev), several basic motifs which one can hear practically everywhere in the work but no feeling (in the best performances) of restraint (certainly not restraint caused by formal problems or the musical material, or any other kinds; or emotional restraint- it can be an exhausting half-hour-odd.)