Piano Sonata No. 2 (Sessions)
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Roger Sessions' Piano Sonata No. 2 was composed in 1946.[1] It has three movements:
- Allegro con fuoco (tempo quarter note = 120)
- Lento (quarter note = 50)
- Misurato e pesante (quarter note = 66–72)
The first two movements each end in a slight pause, followed by a briefer pause.[2]
The opening motive of the first movement, an upward-leaping fourth followed by a minor second and a major second, is related to the major second-minor second alternation of the main theme of the Lento.
The first two movements are tripartite in form[3] while the third has been compared by Richard Dyer to a toccata.[3]
Sessions worked on the sonata in conjunction with his second symphony, completed the same year, and his opera Montezuma, but the latter did not achieve final form until much later.[4]
The sonata is one of Sessions' relatively often-recorded works.[5] Of his others the First String Quartet (1936), Pages from a Diary (1939) and his First (1930) and Third Piano Sonatas (1965) have been recorded as often or about as often.
