For this solo album for Artalinna, Cuban pianist Marcos Madrigal plunges into the protean universe of Sergei Prokofiev. Two Sonatas, the well-known Seventh and the more discreet Fifth, frame the sumptuous collection of Visions fugitives. Throughout this recital, Marcos Madrigal demonstrates his scrupulous respect for the score.

Prokofiev’s keyboard works span his entire career, from his initial studies at the St Petersburg Conservatory until his death in 1953. It includes eleven piano sonatas (two of which have remained unfinished, and several were destroyed during the years of training), sixty small pieces, either isolated or grouped together in a cycle such as the Visions fugitives, as well as transcriptions of his ballets.

Visions fugitives is made up of a collection of twenty miniature pieces gathered together in 1917 and inspired by the verses of Constantin Balmont: “In every fugitive vision, I see whole worlds. They change endlessly”. Conceived in a succession of different moods, in the manner of Beethoven’s Bagatelles, they refer to particular genres, such as the tarantella (no.6), the harp piece (no.7) and the slow waltz (no.12), or explore continually changing affects, ranging from mystery (no.1) to exaltation (no.3), anguish (no.15), melancholy (no.16) or sarcasm (no.10).

The Fifth Sonata was the only one composed outside Russia. Written in Paris in the 1920s, it partly reflects the French atmosphere of the interwar period through its conciseness, clarity, delicate melodies with capricious curves, refined harmonies and three-movement plan, none of which is really fast. It has two versions – the original is the one presented here. Completed in 1942, the Seventh Sonata is one of the best known.