Samuel Feinberg. Sonata op.3 n.3 (1916)

00:00 1. Prelude
04:23 2. Marche funèbre
10:05 3. Sonate

Performed by Anastasiya Evsina
Salle Paderewski, Lausanne, Switzerland
January 22, 2022

Samuel Feinberg (1890-1962) was a great Russian pianist and composer, a young contemporary of S.Rachmaninov and A.Scriabin. For his graduation exam at the Moscow Conservatory he performed the 48 Preludes and Fugues of "Well-Tempered Clavier" by J.S.Bach. Feinberg had an affinity with Scriabin and became a great interpreter of his music. Feinberg’s own works have a slight influence of Scriabin's style but they are still very distinctive and have a very original harmonic language.

All that was happening in the world and in Russia found their expression in Feinberg’s music. When the Sonata was written, in 1916, WWI was raging, Russia and Europe were facing a deep crisis. Feinberg was 26 at the time and probably influenced by the spirit of Russian “silver age poetry” (M.Tsvetaeva, A.Akhmatova, M.Voloshin and others). The Sonata is permeated with suffering, hardship and longing in a world that is unraveling but finishes with hope and faith.