which prok son?

[I Love Xenakis]

to learn: 2 or 4, and why?

[thalbergmad]

Exactly, why??

[I Love Xenakis]

Which Prokofiev Sonata should I learn?  No. 2 or No. 4?

[etudes]

i prefer no.2

[arensky]

Learn #4,  it is less played. #2 is almost hackneyed.

[pita bread]

The 4th never struck me as anything special though. Why are you limiting yourself to those two?

[da jake]

The 3rd!

[I Love Xenakis]

The 4th never struck me as anything special though. Why are you limiting yourself to those two?

I have been told to learn a large-scale work by Prokofiev.  I don't like Nos. 5/9, 3 is too short and I don't really want to do No. 7 as i'm not as well-suited for it as 2 or 4.  I guess 8 is a possibility but I haven't listened to that one much.  If someone could give me a really good recording of it I'd listen.

[pita bread]

The 8th is great. AIM me for the recording and the Sciarrino sheets.

[arensky]

The 4th never struck me as anything special though. 

I never liked it much either until I heard it at a competition I was adjudicating a couple of years ago, the pianist playing it did a superb job, she really seemed to dig it and get inside of it. It's a strange piece,  it doesn't leap out and grab you the way some of the other Sonatas do. I would say that sonatas 4, 5, 8 and 9 are the "subtle" or "cryptic" Prokofiev Sonatas. It's an interesting side of his personality, we usually see the "War Sonata" or agressive side of his music. The subtle lyrical qualities in his music are frequently overlooked IMO.