Prokofiev gave the première of this in Saint Petersburg on 15 April 1918, during a week-long festival of his music sponsored by the Conservatory.
[1] Early in his creative life, Prokofiev developed a highly individual way of writing for the piano.
This sonata reveals most of the traditional sections in a sonata-form, within which Prokofiev employs his own blend of nineteenth- century Russian and twentieth-century characteristics.
[4] Allegro tempestoso – Moderato – Allegro tempestoso – Moderato – Più lento – Più animato – Allegro I – Poco più mosso The sonata is the shortest of his piano sonatas, being in a single movement in sonata form and lasting approximately 7–8 minutes, but it is one of the most technically demanding pieces Prokofiev has ever written for the piano.
The first theme, consists of a fairly recognizable harmony with a leaping melody in the right hand.
[5] The third theme, which is like a development, opens in a blasting, fortissimo chromatic harmony with a march-like melody in D minor with the same rhythmic motives alternating between hands.
In the climax, marked fff, it starts with a rapid arpeggio in the supertonic 7th chord relative to C major, following pedal tones on C in the right hand and subsequent transpositions by seconds.