"It was Prokofiev’s birthday [probably 1947], and he invited me to visit him for the first time at his dacha at Nikolina Gora. “I’ve something interesting to show you,” he announced as soon as I arrived, whereupon he produced the sketches of his Ninth Sonata. “This will be your sonata. But do not think it’s intended to create an effect. It’s not the sort of work to raise the roof of the Grand Hall.” And at first glance it did indeed look a little simplistic. I was even a tiny bit disappointed. ... In 1951 he turned sixty. On his birthday Prokofiev was once again ill. On the eve of his birthday a concert was held at the Composers’ Union and he listened to it over the phone. It was on this occasion that I played the Ninth Sonata for the first time, a radiant, simple and even intimate work. In some ways it is a Sonata domestica. The more one hears it, the more one comes to love it and feels its magnetism. And the more perfect it seems. I love it very much."
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Original Language: English
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Sviatoslav Richter, In: Bruno Monsaingeon, Sviatoslav Richter: Notebooks and Conversations,trans. Stewart Spencer
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Piano_Sonata_No._9_(Prokofiev)
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Piano Sonata No. 9 (Prokofiev)
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