Prokofiev at War, by Barry Snyder

Portrait of Sergei Prokofiev, 1934

This weekend, Eastman professor Barry Snyder will be giving a once-in-a-lifetime performance of three incredibly powerful sonatas by Sergei Prokofiev. These sonatas contain some of Prokofiev’s most dissonant music for the piano. The composer’s biographer Daniel Jaffe has argued that Prokofiev, “having forced himself to compose a cheerful evocation of the nirvana Stalin wanted everyone to believe he had created…these sonatas expressed Prokofiev’s true feelings”.

You can hear Professor Snyder’s performance on Sunday, March 29 at 3 p.m. in Eastman School of Music’s Kilbourn Hall. Here is his own description of this program and Prokofiev’s “true feelings”:

Generally, I am reticent about inviting people to my performances, but this case, I feel, is an exception. The chance to hear Sergei Prokofiev’s so-called “War” Sonatas, Nos. 6, 7, and 8, in one concert is rather rare. These three sonatas are the only pieces that Prokofiev published during World War II. They are full of images of angst, nostalgia, and hope during a world war, which also reflect the world of wars we now live in.
The impetus for this specific program came about because of my personal search to understand the “real” feelings of people who have been suppressed and annihilated. As Americans, we can only empathize, because we are lucky and, except for 9/11, have not experienced these traumas on our soil. I hope you will come on this journey with me, in hopes that we might better understand our tumultuous, present-day world.
–Barry Snyder

–Andrew Psarris, ‘15

Barry Snyder Piano Faculty Artist Recital March 29, 2019