Semi-Partisan Politics

Continuing the theme from yesterday’s example of fiendishly difficult music to play on the piano, here is the third movement (marked ‘precipitato’) of Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata no. 7, performed by the ever-popular (and indisputably gifted) Chinese pianist Lang Lang:

If yesterday’s Alkan “Allegro Barbaro” doesn’t finish a pianist off, this piece is quite likely to do the job. Here is a version with the score playing along in the YouTube video (performance this time by Maurizio Pollini), to really give a sense of the technical demands on the pianist:

I can also highly recommend Glenn Gould’s recording of the same work, if you are able to find it; Gou;d’s unique style lends itself quite well to Prokofiev.