BARTOK. Piano Sonata (1926). PROKOF1EV. Piano Sonata No. 3 in A minor, Op. 28. ROZSA. Piano Sonata. Leonard Pennario (piano). Capitol P8376 (12 in., 30s. plus 1 ls. 81d. P.T.).

Bartok Piano Sonata :

Zadel Skolovsky (3/56) N131-5025

Andor Foldes (11/57) DGM18272

Prokofiev Piano Sonata

Robert C,ornman (12/53) LXT2836

Gary Graffman (7/67) RB16015

Three things common to these contemporary piano sonatas, as they are called on the label (though 1917 is scarcely contemporary), are their dependence on brittle nervous energy (a sign of our times), their sparseness of texture, and their view of the piano largely as a percussive, rather than a lyrical or colouristic, instrument. Debussy's ideal sound of a "piano without hammers" is already a whole world away. The novelty here is the full-length sonata of Miklos Rozsa, a composer known to the English gramophone lists (except for his film music) only by his Second Violin Concerto, which Heifetz recorded. Here, as T.H. said in his review of the former work, there is no need to invoke Rozsa's

Hollywood successes as a convenient excuse : he is clearly a serious composer in his own right, and his many awards by various American artistic bodies and his appointment as Professor of Composition in the University of Southern California are immediately explicable. The piano sonata, which was written in 1948, reveals the influence of Bart6k in its tonal idiom and its clear linear layout : it is lean, sinewy music of strikingly eloquent cast, and containing an unforced vein of lyricism. Its quality is apparent at first hearing, and repetition increases one's respect for its freshness of thought and effectiveness of resource. Pennario presents it with admirable pungency.

He also gives a good, hard-driving performance of BartOk's aggressive sonata of 1926; but if this is the work anyone is particularly wanting, the recommendation of Foldes's D.G.G. recording as the best available cannot but stand. That was superlative playing, brilliantly incisive, rhythmically vital, and meticulous over every nuance of Bart6k's text. Pennario cannot quite compete in this class, but he acquits himself honourably. It is Prokofiev's short, violent Third Sonata (1917) that is, in some ways, the least convincing performance on this disc. The recorded quality is rounder than that which Graffman received ; but the Allegro tempestoso is less hair-raising, its tempo makes less contrast with the Moderato, Pennario does not quite capture the semp/ice atmosphere of the second subject, and on occasion he is not quite as careful over the composer's markings as he might be. The playing is always very clean, but the sonata does not quite grip the listener with the daemonic excitement it engenders in Graffman's hands. L.S.