Ustvolskaya: Piano Sonata No.6

Introduction

Sonata No. 6 of 1988 is a physically violent work which utilizes thick chord clusters throughout. Because of its ffff clusters, musicologist Maria Cizmic explains, "It opens up a performance space in which a pianist feels pain, foregrounding the concrete bodily acts and sensations of suffering at a time when the violence of the USSR's past continued to be contested." Its first tempo indication, Expressivissimo, is one indication of its hyper expressionality. Even through such dissonance, a number of melodies can be heard, usually the top note of each cluster. Before the final restatement of the first theme, a series of six chords, played as softly and chorale-like as possible, provides a moment of stillness.