Sonatina for Piano

Khachaturian wrote his brilliant C major Sonatina in 1959 and dedicated it to pupils of the Elementary Music School in Prokopyevsk. Its modest structures and aspirations should not hide from us the fact that it is extraordinarily effective as a concert display piece and contains more than its fair share of humour and lyricism too. The opening movement contrasts two subject groups, restates each one, and leaves it at that. The slow movement is a lad pastoral lullaby that is rhythmically gentle and harmonically simple. The finale is most extensive, most virtuosic and highly exciting, with a coda that quotes the opening of the first movement and a final flourish that Sounds strangely close to Poulenc. In sum, the Sonatina is a work not to miss!