Piano Sonata No. 2

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• Piano Sonata No. 2 (Schnittke) en
  Piano Sonata No. 2 (1990), composed as a birthday gift for the composer's wife Irina. Three movements: sonata-allegro, intermezzo, and invention with chorale sections. Among Schnittke's most approachable piano works, though no less rigorous than the First Sonata. The work was composed after his first severe strokes (1985), and the emotional directness of the music — less fragmented and ironic than his earlier polystylistic works — reflects a more personal, unguarded voice.
  The lyrical passages in the Second Sonata benefit from a warm, sustained tone unusual in Schnittke's piano writing. The chorale sections of the finale should project clearly without becoming heavy; they are moments of stillness rather than grandeur. Throughout, maintain the clarity of voice-leading that gives the work its quasi-classical sense of formal coherence.