Prokofiev "War" Sonata #7 tips

[mariotoroofficial]

Hey guys:))) my names mario, and im 15. im learning to play this... do you have any tips? thanks 

[mariotoroofficial]

hey sorry iforgot to mention im only learning the precipitato. i dont fancy the first and second (in my opinion) ill learn them later:))))))))))))

[andreslr6]

what kind of tips?

all I can say to you without hearing you previously or knowing what problems you have is just some general ideas and a few specific ones that you might want to try.

First of all, learn it with a guide of course . Sure, you can find tips here online, but it won't serve if you don't have a teacher with you, unless you really have a complete technical control of your body and you know how to do things without getting injured, etc. But anyways:

Ok, the first and the one I consider to be the most important for this movement is to ALWAYS stay as close to the keyboard as possible, as if you were wanting to play every chord and octave legato, all though the intention is not to play it legato but rather to create enough security with the leaps and allowing you to play it at a good tempo without any trouble of inaccuracies and with enough power, etc. Also, linked with that first tip is to make the movements between each chord, be it just a chord right next to it or one 3 octaves higher, as fast as possible again to remove doubts and to help you on speed, power, accuracy etc. Those 2 obviously without any tension or you won't be able to make any of that. So, tip no.1 as close to the keyboard as possible and as fast as possible (the movement between chords and leaps)

1 idea is to always keep the same intention and emphasize the lower C sharp octave, specially the thumb, make the Bb-C# movement quickly and energetic always, and as close as possible to the keyboard. Accent it every time it appears, and don't use pedal anywhere except on that C sharp octave and on other accented notes/chords. Also really make a good contrast between pianos and fortes.

for section B, (repeated chords on the right hand) I put pedal on the left hand only and on the accents. It really needs to sound percussive, specially on the marcato line.

Then on the middle section C (the one that starts with the accented E octave on the left hand and then marked legato) use this section to contrast it with all the percussion before this. Make a good use of regulators and again pedal on accented notes, but remember to keep an euphoric character, it's still Prokofiev's "War Sonata" no.7, don't turn it into Chopin suddenly .

Then for Bprima, (repeated chords on right hand again) to make a contrast with B I play it with pedal starting on the detache mark until the return of Aprima.

My teacher's teacher suggested to start Aprima a little bit faster than A, and then accelerate even more on the big chords and leaps, try it yourself and see if you like it , it does add a precipitated character to the movement after all.

Now for the final section (main theme with big chords and leaps), I like to use more pedal, soberly but present. Now I play the C# octave with extra power , I play the upper C# with the right hand thumb to achieve that, and even though there's a lot of other things happening the C# sounds above everything else. For the Eb arppeggio, you can try playing the C-D on the left hand with just the thumb to save speed and for a more confortable fingering, but be careful, I destroyed my thumb's fingernail because it got stuck between the keys and left all the keyboard bloody haha, but it really needs to 'shine', for me it's like the-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel-chord . You have to plan this part very well, dynamically, you don't want everything to sound at the same dynamic level or to reach your highest Fortissisisisimo at the very beginning, I save my highest for the Bb maj7 chord 6 bars before the end, after a super crescendo on the chords before it; and for the last ascending Bb major sequence. A good idea for this is to make a subito piano before making a big crescendo on lets say the first D7 chord or on the first F/Adim chord near the end, and to hold your crescendos to the last moments.

Those are some tips that I think are very useful and some of them important for the music to have it's character. I like to think that this movement is like the euphoria of victory of a surviving victim, a victim all traumatized from a violent event (this violent event being the 1st movement), with traces of dementia (B and C sections) but joy and hope as well (the Eb maj7 chord I mentioned) etc.

It's a very fun piece to learn and to play, but it's very very very important you have a complete technical control and domain so that every idea that you have and want to express really comes to life, and so that you can let loose this beast with out making a mess .

Enjoy and please share a video of you performing it.

 

[symphonicdance]

Thanks for writing up & sharing your tips.

[andreslr6]

Thanks for writing up & sharing your tips.

  you're welcome.

[symphonicdance]

By chance, I found a book "Prokofiev's Piano Sonatas" written by Boris Berman at a public library in my city.  Not sure how people like Berman's interpretations of Prokofiev's PS, but I view this book to be quite a good reference as I just start learning his 9th sonata.

[andreslr6]

By chance, I found a book "Prokofiev's Piano Sonatas" written by Boris Berman at a public library in my city.  Not sure how people like Berman's interpretations of Prokofiev's PS, but I view this book to be quite a good reference as I just start learning his 9th sonata.

I don't know why I didn't mentioned it too, although I have on other threads, but like you've said it's a good reference, although I wish it would have more content.