Sergei Prokofjew

Sonata for Violonceelo Solo

Sergei Prokofiev was certainly not one of those composers who quickly cast aside what they had begun and left behind a multitude of fragments alongside the great established works. In the case of the Sonata for solo cello, however, this is the case: even the first movement of the work, a warmly glowing Andante full of wonderful melodic lines, was not completed. Prokofiev had completed this movement, which is in a classical sonata form, up to the the middle of the development and then left only sketches for the rest of the work. Vladimir Blok took up these sketches and finally completed the first movement presented here. The cellist Natalia Gutman premiered the work in Moscow on February 29, 1972.