Broekmans en van Poppel Amsterdam
Sonata No. 2
By Avi Schönfeld
Avi Schönfeld displays an individual style in this
ambitious, large-scale three-movement Sonata. The
Harmonic language seems to be a compromise between
The rigorously discipline dissonance of the 2nd Viennese
School and the simpler chromatic tonality of Barber. The
pianism is extremely fluent. In fact, while reading through
it at the piano, it seemed to me so immaculately “playable”
despite the high level of energy and virtuosity that once
in a while I almost wished for the odd “thorny” bit to come
along. There' s plenty to grapple with musically, through
with the great variety of gesture and expression.
Schönfeld' s music is very much concerned with the
subtleties of declamation. Phrase lengths are generally
short, and clearly punctuated by breathing marks or
rests, rather like human speech. The music tends to
present a series of statements to build a compelling
argument, rather than to transport the listener with al long
sweeping line. This technique works very well to create
a convincing sonata, form in the first movement. Sonata-
writing in our century carries with it the danger of over-
compensating for the lack of tonic/dominant ballast in
traditional tonal harmony by differentiating and
sectionalising the material into all-too-obvious sections.
Schönfeld's subtle understanding of declamation and
gesture helps to overcome this obstacle, so that the form
is clear and logical without being rigid or contrived.
The middle movement provides lighter relief between
the powerful outer movements. The first section contains
striking contrasts between short, gentle “parlando” phrases
and violent outbursts, almost in a kind of puppet-like or
“Commedia del Arte” style. The music changes from duple
to triple time, leading to a brilliantly virtuosic waltz section
before ending somewhat in the opening mood again,
through without any traditional recapitulation. The last
movement is filled with forceful drive and refined
fireworks. The ending of this movement, as well as the
first, strike me as a bit too stable and final, and seem to
be so more by will than by design. But that is a quibbling
point to make about a work otherwise so full of
imagination and authoritative craftsmanship.
D.F.
source: Piano Journal London
