Piano Sonata No. 5 (Ustvolskaya)

Piano Sonata No. 5, composed 1986, is one of the most extreme piano works of the 20th century. After a compositional silence of nearly three decades, Ustvolskaya returned with an even more reduced and intense language. The Fifth Sonata is in one movement of sustained ferocity, its textures almost entirely confined to dense, hammered chords at the highest dynamic levels. It represents the outer limit of what might conventionally be described as piano writing, treating the instrument as a percussion ensemble of one.

The Fifth Sonata is physically extremely demanding: the sustained fff textures require both arms and full body weight. Practise for stamina, not just accuracy. The work should feel inevitable and relentless — any sense of the performer 'getting through it' is fatal. Ustvolskaya said of her music: it is not to be listened to, it is to be experienced.