Sonata No. 2
(for piano)

Lev Abeliovich – Piano Sonata No. 2 (1974)
(Edited by Rostislav Krimer)

Lev Abeliovich’s Second Piano Sonata is one of the composer’s most profound and personal works. Composed in 1974, it marks a point of mature reflection and serves as a musical summation of his life and artistic journey. The main theme is based on material from his First Piano Sonata, written during the Second World War. This connection alone underscores the relationship between two pivotal moments in the composer’s life – the wartime experience and his contemplation of it three decades later.

This work is not merely a musical form, but a philosophical and tragic confession. It addresses not only the catastrophes of the 20th century and the Holocaust, but also the human condition in general. Man – with his pain, fears, memory, and courage – stands at the center of this sonata.

First Movement
The sonata opens with a powerful chord, like an explosion – plunging immediately into a world of turmoil and tragedy, charged with dramatic tension. This intensity and expression evoke a comparison with Prokofiev’s Sixth Sonata – not in style, but in the magnitude of inner conflict and expressive depth.

The secondary theme offers a stark contrast: contemplative, almost detached, colored with philosophical overtones. This sets up an inner dialogue between suffering and reflection, outcry and silence.

Second Movement
The second movement is slow, inward, philosophical. It offers a moment of stillness, of introspection. There is no overt drama here – only deep, intimate silence, broken by occasional questioning, meditative gestures. The music becomes chamber-like, confessional in character.

Third Movement
The final movement is a vibrant, expressive fugato built on a restless, insistent theme. Remarkably, Abeliovich introduces unexpected jazz elements: syncopations, displaced accents, and an improvisatory freedom of voices. These elements do not disrupt the form, but give it a modern breath and rhythmic agility.

This synthesis of strict contrapuntal form and jazz-inspired rhythmic thinking is bold yet organic – revealing the composer’s openness to new artistic currents and his desire to speak in a vivid, contemporary voice.
The finale unfolds as a metaphor for life – rapid, contradictory, polyphonic – and leads to a closing section that does not bring resolution in a traditional sense, but rather offers a deep and honest inner reconciliation.

Conclusion
Abeliovich’s Second Piano Sonata is a musical monologue of the soul – a confessional and uncompromising artistic statement, born at the crossroads of personal memory and historical trauma.
It merges tradition and innovation, structural rigor and emotional depth, tragedy and philosophy. It is a powerful document of its time – and, at the same time, a timeless reflection on the human being who preserves dignity and voice in the face of great suffering.