CHICAGO — With their abrupt tempo changes, angry outbursts, rat-a-tat passages and mood swings, Prokofiev’s nine piano sonatas offer enormous technical challenges, and Adam Neiman met them with unflappable facility in the first of three recitals traversing the Prokofiev cycle in the intimacy of downtown Guarneri Hall.
These works are suffused with what can be described as ugly beauty and organized disorder, and in his first offering, Neiman leaned into these qualities and in no way tried to smooth the rough edges or prettify the music.
Neiman’s cycle, within a framework of performance and talks collectively titled Prokofiev and the Russian Avant Garde, commenced Sept. 15 and continues Sept. 22 and 29. Each of the themed concerts begins with a presentation by a local college professor discussing Prokofiev and his music in the larger context of the revolutionary Russian cultural milieu at the beginning of the 20th century. But the centerpieces of this festival are Prokofiev’s nine piano sonatas that span most of his adult life — all performed by Adam Neiman.
Along with Prokofiev’s first two sonatas, the opening program under the general heading “Love and War” spotlighted Piano Sonata No. 6, Op. 82, composed in 1940 as part of the composer’s “War Sonatas.”
But according to Nina Gurianova, an expert on this period, Prokofiev was thinking not of World War II but the slightly earlier Spanish Civil War, which served as a kind of preview to the subsequent, much larger conflagration, especially the devastation at Guernica in 1937. That horrific event inspired Pablo Picasso’s large-scale masterpiece bearing the town’s name. Prokofiev’s then-wife, Lina, was Spanish and staunchly pro-Republican. The sounds of war can be plainly heard, especially in the angry, relentless first movement with all manner of bursts, blast, and explosions.
The one-movement Sonata No. 1, Op. 1, a very early work in the composer’s oeuvre that runs a little more than five minutes, served as an introduction for the rest of the concert.
Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 14, written in 1914 during the heart of the pre-revolutionary avant-garde, has all the marks of this rebellious time in the arts. Examples abound: racing passages in the first movement interrupted with odd, syncopated blips, an almost maniacal scherzo in the second movement, and crazy-fast passages with their spraying notes in the fourth movement.
Neiman comes with a bounteous resume. As a young pianist, he won many of the honors signaling an artist of considerable promise, including an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and he has gone on to perform with many major orchestras across the country. He currently serves as professor of piano at Roosevelt University in Chicago and chair of the school’s music conservatory. He is in the midst of The Nine, a two-year performance and recording project involving the nine Prokofiev sonatas, of which these Guarneri Hall concerts are a part.
Before Neiman took the stage, Gurianova, professor of Slavic languages and literatures and comparative literary studies at Northwestern University, talked about avant-garde Russian poetry, art, and music in the 10 years before the Russian Revolution in 1917. She spoke of the Futurist movement, the role of dissonance in the broadest sense of the word, and the importance of the synthesis and extension of the arts, as summed up in Wassily Kandinsky’s motto: “Art for life, and life for art.”
Perhaps most interesting was her discussion of Prokofiev’s Wooden Book (1916-21), a kind of artist’s book with plain wooden boards as the front and back covers. The composer asked 48 friends and acquaintances in the arts, such as Igor Stravinsky and Henri Matisse, to respond to the question: What do you think about the sun? The answers, a series of autographs, drawings, and notes, are recorded on the pages inside. The unusual book is now housed at the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art in Moscow.
Guarneri Hall opened in 2018, adding an odd yet valuable space to Chicago’s constellation of musical venues. Odd because it is situated on the third floor of an office building, and attendees pass by at least one corporate meeting room while following a circuitous path to the hall. Valuable in that it is always a welcoming, intimate space with just 60 seats and an ambitious sound design overseen by Chicago-based Threshold Acoustics.
While the venue is sometimes rented by outside groups, most offerings are part of Guarneri Hall’s own annual series, which emphasizes classical music but includes other genres, such as ragtime and jazz. Rather than just conventional concerts, the hall’s leaders often opt for themed events or festivals and put an emphasis on audience interaction via its receptions after every presentation.
Guarneri Hall’s acoustics are a big talking point for the space. To these ears, the sound was too rich, too reverberant, especially the higher notes, which had an almost ringing intensity. It took me a long time to adjust to what I was hearing, and I never completely did. I kept wanting to move back 10 rows (or more) so I would get a more seasoned, less in-your-face kind of sound. I’m sure that’s not everyone’s experience, but it was mine.
