Then the Toccata slows down and halts temporarily; when it resumes, the repeated notes transition into a rising chromatic scale, which leads to octave exhortations.
[1] According to the biography of the composer by David Gutman,[2] Prokofiev himself had trouble playing it because his technique, while good, was not quite enough to master the piece.
This fact is not universally accepted, however, and his performance as reproduced in 1997 for the Nimbus Records series The Composer Plays is certainly virtuosic.
Additionally, none of the leading biographies of Prokofiev—those written by Harlow Robinson, Victor Seroff, and even Israel Nestyev—mention him having any technical problems beyond poor performance techniques in childhood, which were later rectified through years of study after his graduation from the Saint Petersburg Conservatory.
Among the notable recordings of the piece, interpretations by Idil Biret, Vladimir Horowitz and Emil Gilels can be heard.