Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953), identified five essential elements which make up his musical personality as a composer, and they certainly make a fairly comprehensive summary of why his music is special to me: Melody, Classical Form, Sense of the grotesque, Harmonic Innovation, Motoric rhythm. To that should be added his percussive, radical approach to pianism

As far as melody goes, perhaps this is the quality which immediately attracts the listener. I remember being swept off my feet as a child by Peter and The Wolf and Romeo and Juliet because of the wonderful tunes. Prokofiev was a great opera composer, and his lyrical, cantabile genius should not be under-estimated, nor should his ability to immediately grab one's attention by melodic means. As for form, the great strength and granite like inevitability of structures like the first movements of Sonatas 6, 7 and 8 are wonderfully impressive, as is his total confidence in the first movement of the third concerto. One senses energy from inner belief. Prokofiev's sense of classical taste prevents many a work from becoming over-sweet, vulgar or insensitive.

As for the sense of the ridiculous, the grotesque, the unbelievable, fantastic, sarcastic, witty, the urbane... Prokofiev is a worthy successor of ETA Hoffmann! His audacity never tires, and it is not only 'teenager with attitude' acid-drop miniatures such as the radical Sarcasms which show-off his humour: Perhaps this aspect has been over-examined. There is a more gentle humour too, such as the trio in the second movement of the ninth Sonata, or the warm serenity in the middle movements of the Grandmothers tales. Buster Keaton, the great silent movie comic would have loved the second movement of the fifth Sonata! The joyful happy gait in the ballet pieces, or the sheer get-up -and go sparkling optimism of the themes in the finale of the fourth Sonata indicate someone much more valuable than the cynical back-biting intellectual cad some would have us believe this guy to be!

Harmonically the tight rope game Prokofiev plays throughout his output with tonality is especially bewitching. This is a risky, flirtatious business, and though he does often appear to irreparably flirt in no key, he never quite brings himself to go for a full-scale divorce from pitch-centres. Basically, that sentiment sums up what is an enormous subject: the manifold ways in which Prokofiev extends and distorts triads, scales, textures, conventional figurations and colours. It is often incredibly beautiful, especially when there are multi-layered textures (eg slow movement of the fourth Sonata) and the combination of two or more essentially 'normal' triads or figures often leads to something fantastically searching, seeringly visionary etc, etc.

Prokofiev lived and worked in the machine age, and so it is quite natural that motoric rhythms should feature strongly in his style. The strength and exhilaration which comes from his remarkable usage of pounding rhythms is perhaps the factor which, above all else, makes many a Prokofiev score so unbelievably exciting to listen to. The finale of the seventh Sonata has to be up there as a leading example of this quality, but it is there from opus one, the much-maligned first Sonata, and the already unmistakably stylistically valid opus two etudes. Likewise, in terms of colour the bite and attack of articulation which comes with a sense of the percussive is an especially endearing trait, though it should be stressed that this is only one dimension in Prokofiev, and that it is the enormous potential for colouristic exploration which makes one warm to the music more than anything else. Nothing enrages me more from interpreters of this music than monochrome readings: Lack of rhythm is also a real problem, but lack of colour takes away the genius, the poetry, the vision, the wonder, making everything seem grey, even boringly ugly.

But we've hardly began to discuss Prokofiev! His universe seems all-encompassing, with his genius for ballet as well as opera (and the effects both had on his piano music) his symphonic mind, his populism, yet also his intensely private works (eg the 4th, 5th and 9th Sonatas as well as the Sonatinas and many of the shorter pieces). His private style takes time to love, and one is so often reminded of Ferruccio Busoni's late music, (compare Busoni's third Sonatina with the 2nd, 3rd and 4th movements of the Prokofiev ninth sonata) but the riches are most certainly there, and ultimately they are just as wonderful as some of the more immediate virtuoso slogs, such as the infamous Toccata or 'Suggestion Diabolique' from opus 4. Prokofiev is both classicist and romantic. He loathed the tradition he came from as much as he loved it. He was both made and destroyed by his country. He was both spoilt only child and grand public idealist.

It is wonderful to see the apparent contradiction of both the Faustian and the harlequinesque existing side by side in the same composer (try the cadenza to the second concerto for size and conception against the first movement of the fourth, left hand, concerto). Likewise it is fascinating to place Prokofiev in the Lisztian tradition of composer-pianists yet also to see him as a towering radical next to Stravinsky. Above all, it is appropriate to view Prokofiev as a symbol for the contradictory era that he lived in.

A few words from a technical perspective: Different works by Prokofiev require different pianistic strengths. The first Sonata is a bit of a hybrid, with motoric/scherzando volante passage work juxtaposed with the old Anton Rubinstein chordal/octave writing. Nonetheless it is rewarding, fulfilling and exciting to make a great deal of the differences. The scherzando/volante style is crucial to many a mature Prokofiev score and requires, dexterity, the ability to effortlessly jump, leap, pounce, jeer, sneer and flirt! The pianist also most certainly needs a strong sense of rhythm, the ability not to get weighed down by the sheer quantity of notes, a phenomenal memory, stamina, the ability to change colour at an impossibly mercurial pace. The 'Block Buster' Sonatas require great massive textures and so move away from the largely finger strength challenges of the earlier Sonatas. The private Sonatas and pieces need a great deal of intellectual thought and also an artist who has 'evangelical selling power'. Conviction for these private pieces is absolutely essential.

Prokofiev remains misunderstood because he has been type-cast as the composer of show-stopping competition fodder (Toccatas and Seventh Sonatas) as well as of Kiddies pieces (Peter and the Wolf) and Ballet Music. There was a tendency to pigeon-hole artists as specialists in the last century, and it is our loss that wonderful cycles such as Prokofiev's opus 45, 62,32 and 52 and hardly ever performed. Let's celebrate a universal, great composer in all of his guises!

Prokofiev's own recordings of his piano music are fascinating not only for their obvious limitations and flaws (rushing, poor recording quality, errors, etc) but also and more importantly for their conviction, the energy and authority brought to the scores, and also for the deviations from what one might reasonably expect!

As a humorist , a wit and as an artist working with forms from the 18th century in many ways, Prokofiev has affinities with Haydn, and not only just because of the wonderful 'Classical' Symphony. Also interesting is the 'Commedia dell'arte' influence at work in his music: the 'Love of Three Oranges' and the ways in which his music seems harlequinesque, as though influenced by the Puppet Theatre. Note for instance the ways in which themes and sections flash by in the outer movements of the second Sonata, as though Pierrot, Pantaloon, Columbine and co. were appearing on a proverbial 'Punch and Judy' set before exiting as abruptly as they entered. This of course links Prokofiev with many of his contemporaries. 1910-1930 could be considered as the 'Pierrot, or puppet- obsessed era', with many of the leading lights of the period following a similar line to Prokofiev, including Schoenberg, (Pierrot Lunaire) Stravinsky, (Pulcinella), Busoni, (Arlecchino), even Charlie Chaplin. Is it stretching the point too far to say that there is even something endearingly 'puppet-like' about the make-up and expression in publicity shots of famous film stars of the time such as Greta Garbo?

Prokofiev is also a real romantic, not only in terms of being a transcendental virtuoso who wrote for transcendental virtuoso instrumentalists, bit also because of the searching spirit of his music, the wonderful melody and the often wonderful indulgence of his demands (not only in terms of instrumentation). As far as rubato goes, it needs to be handled with as much sensitivity as with the other great composers. There is definitely tremendous strength from the relentless build-up of sonority in the great sequential edifices in the development sections of the War Sonatas, and rubato either to ease the technical strain or to pin-point musical delights could be completely appalling. Burt surely it is possible to 'bend' a line, to make sure that key voicing, climactic notes and such like are shown and explored without sacrificing the structural momentum. Rubato is not something that the true Prokofiev interpreter need worry about: By immersing oneself in the musical argument and following the line, authority and spontaneous re-creativity can exist hand in hand, just as they do in great performances of the Viennese classics, to give the obvious comparison.

As in all great music, the tempi and directions on the printed text should guide and be regarded as the vital starting point.

Prokofiev's innovations for the piano are manifold, and not solely concerned with extraordinary leaps and radical voicing Perhaps the most newsworthy examples (the multi-stave layout at the climax of the cadenza in the first movement of the second concert, the outsize 'bugle calls' at the end of the 8th Sonata, the jumps on the final two pages of the seventh Sonata) speak for themselves, but in a general sense the interpreter will often have to find radical solution sot pedal problems (eg the slow movement of second Sonata) and above all, develop a huge range of colour variety.

Humour in Prokofiev should not just be pigeon-holed into Sarcasm and irony. If one brings warmth, charm, cantabile, neo-Haydnesque 'bonhomie' and camaraderie into the equation, then humour is a vital characteristic throughout.

Lucidity is one of the most striking qualities of Prokofiev. It is complicated stuff to learn, and many of the more unknown works take time to learn, but the reason the Third Concerto remains so famous is because even a child can immediately start tapping along to the motoric flow and get a buzz out of it on the very first hearing.

To play Prokofiev's slow movements in particular, you need to be a master polyphonist. This is multi-layered music in the extreme, and in that sense exposes lack of finger independence and vision viciously. Likewise, woolly pedalling and lack of awareness of the music's logic and principle voices in densely textured passages can lead to great confusion. Mind you, if there is a lack of intellectual clarity in a performer's mind when playing 'stark' pieces like the second sonatina, then it is equally disastrous for the music!

Those new to Prokofiev could do worse than start off as thousands of other kids do: with Peter and the Wolf. The great Ball;ets, the Classical Symphony and the Third Concerto are all warmly welcoming on first acquaintance . 'Choses en soi' op.45 will take just a little longer to love.!

My favourite Prokofiev Piano Works are the 6th and the 9th Sonatas. These show the private and the public sides in equally fantastic ways. But I love every note that he wrote and I wouldn't want to be without any of it. It is our great loss that he died at a time when all number of piano projects (including a two piano concerto and new solo piano sonatas) were being conceived. In this series of concerts we shall even here the thirty odd bars which exist as a sketch for Sonata 10. But we have so much to be thankful for. There is little doubt that the cycle of Prokofiev Sonatas is the greatest in the repertoire since the Schubert Sonatas.

Murray McLachlan (January 2003, revised March 2003)