Avi Schönfeld displays an individual style in this ambitious, large-scale three-movement Sonata. The Harmonic language seems to be a compromise between The rigorously discipline dissonance of the 2nd Viennese School and the simpler chromatic tonality of Barber. The pianism is extremely fluent. In fact, while reading through it at the piano, it seemed to me so immaculately “playable” despite the high level of energy and virtuosity that once in a while I almost wished for the odd “thorny” bit to come along. There' s plenty to grapple with musically, through with the great variety of gesture and expression. Schönfeld' s music is very much concerned with the subtleties of declamation. Phrase lengths are generally short, and clearly punctuated by breathing marks or rests, rather like human speech. The music tends to present a series of statements to build a compelling argument, rather than to transport the listener with al long sweeping line. This technique works very well to create a convincing sonata, form in the first movement. Sonata- writing in our century carries with it the danger of over- compensating for the lack of tonic/dominant ballast in traditional tonal harmony by differentiating and sectionalising the material into all-too-obvious sections. Schönfeld's subtle understanding of declamation and gesture helps to overcome this obstacle, so that the form is clear and logical without being rigid or contrived. The middle movement provides lighter relief between the powerful outer movements. The first section contains striking contrasts between short, gentle “parlando” phrases and violent outbursts, almost in a kind of puppet-like or “Commedia del Arte” style. The music changes from duple to triple time, leading to a brilliantly virtuosic waltz section before ending somewhat in the opening mood again, through without any traditional recapitulation. The last movement is filled with forceful drive and refined fireworks. The ending of this movement, as well as the first, strike me as a bit too stable and final, and seem to be so more by will than by design. But that is a quibbling point to make about a work otherwise so full of imagination and authoritative craftsmanship.