Feinberg- Sonata No. 4

[fftransform]

I am wondering what your impression of this piece is:

[synthifou]

My first impression is that I found it nice, but then I looked into the work and found out it was written in 1918.  That changes everything for me. 

I have to cheat because I don't know anything about Feinberg.  So, I listened to sonatas 1, 3, 4 - 6, and 12 for a little perspective.  It’s clearly light-years from the 3rd in complexity and statement, and it’s apparently a precursor to the following two sonatas.  I avoid ‘predecessor’ lest implications of inferior quality to the massive 6th to any degree, but upon listening to the 1923 composition it gave me a high I haven’t experienced for a 20th century piano work in a very long time (thank you for that).  I can see why Stravinsky and Schoenberg liked it.

The 4th, however, is an inventive and meritorious work in its own right.  It’s very dark, in fact, IMO black and battleship gray only, perhaps intentionally nasty in colour; I appreciated and enjoyed the piece more after a few listens.  Scriabin, Schoenberg and Debussy come to mind.  I’ll have to look into more Feinberg in the near future as I am moderately surprised I missed this. 

I apologize in advance if this isn’t what you’re looking for, but those are my [first] impressions.

[fftransform]

Thanks, glad you've discovered him.  A very underappreciated composer, IMO.

Primarily, I am trying to determine whether it is advisably competition-programmable.

[ahinton]

Thanks, glad you've discovered him.  A very underappreciated composer, IMO.

Primarily, I am trying to determine whether it is advisably competition-programmable.

We've discussed this elsewhere. Yes, a very under-appreciated composer indeed - and one whose sense of pianism is as inherent and essential as is that of Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Godowsky, Busoni, Medtner et al - music written by a real pianist for real pianists and which explores no end of subtleties of pianistic thinking. As I've already written, the extent to which he and his work have been largely ignored until recently and are still paid scant attention to even now remains a complete mystery to me. You could be forgiven for thinking that pianists would be banging down the door to his work (if there were indeed such a door) - except for the all too obvious fact that, even today, they're not...

Best,

Alistair